Hi, this is Wayne again with a topic “AMD A520 Motherboard Launch — A320 vs A520 vs B550 Comparison — Should You Buy One?”.
Hello and welcome to a really quick tech deals update on the new amd a5 chipset. Yes, they skipped the 400 series, but we had an a320 way back in 2017 and now we have a refreshed a520. This is a short and sweet video to talk about what the differences are, what it offers versus the b550 chips that recently launched, and should you buy one. This is a quick, side-by-side comparison chart between the three 500 series chipsets and then the original a320 that was released three years ago. Those of you playing the home game will notice, there’s very little difference between a 320 and a 520 chipset starting right at the top.
They both have 16 cpu graphics lanes, which is pretty standard across most chipsets. The cpu storage support is also pci express gen 3. That’S been standard since the launch of verizon cpu usb ports is one usb 3.2 gen 2 port. However, as noted here, the new a520 supports the third generation, ryzen chips and future cpus as well.
So it’ll support the upcoming launch cpus coming here in a couple of weeks. The a320 does not neither motherboard supports dual graphics, which should make sense. That’S an entry level board, however. That brings us to the real change and the real difference between these chipsets.
The general purpose lanes the general purpose lanes on 300 and 400 series. Motherboards are actually gen 2.0, a common misconception and something, i think, got overlooked in a lot of motherboard reviews, probably some of mine back in 2017, but the main lanes are 2.0. So we have a doubling of speed to 3.0 on the general purpose lanes, which includes any second m.2 slots that might be on the board.
The chipset link between the cpu and the chipset is 3.0 on both boards and just like the a320, the a520 has no overclocking support. However, it is important to note that this is less of a problem this time around. In my opinion, a ryzen 5 3600 runs at 4 gigahertz on all the cores in gaming. The ryzen 5 1600 really needed a mild overclock back at launch to be competitive with the x chips, but that’s not the case this time around. So if you’re building an ultra budget system, maybe it’s worth considering to be completely honest, the real differences are between the a520 and the b550 gen 4 support more usb ports etc.
And i’m going to show you a price comparison here between the a520 and the b550. In a second, but i want you to keep in mind that the graphics and storage on the cpu lanes is 4.0 on a b550. It has an extra usb port on the cpu. It does support dual graphics and it supports overclocking for how much we’ll get to that in just a second.
I want to come back to the first chart for just a second, because this is sort of the topography of the motherboard and the layout. You have cpu lanes and you have chipset lanes, and this is not a topic which is talked about enough. In my opinion, on the left hand, side in orange, you have everything directly connected to the cpu. Now this does depend on what cpu you install different chips.
Have different levels of support, but in general, if you put a ryzen 5 3600 on this board, which is really what belongs here, then you have four super speed: usb 10 gigabit per second ports coming directly off of the cpu. You have 20 pci express gen, 3 lanes, 16 of which go to the first x16 graphics card and four of which are dedicated to the chipset downlink. You actually can’t use them. That’S what connects the chipset to the cpu. You then get a choice. That’S the bottom! One that says pick one: you can have four nvme lanes, gen three. You can have two sata and two nvme lanes or you can have two by two. This is basically if you wanted to have two two lane nvme slots or one two lane nvme slot, plus a bonus two set of ports or almost every single board, is going to go with the first option, which is to have a single m.2 slot with four Lanes so you basically have gen 3 times 4 or 32 gigabits per second on the right hand, side in the lighter blue, connected to the a red chipset.
Of course, you have a variety of usb ports on the top, which has far more combined total bandwidth than you can use if you’re also using the other pci express lanes on the chipset. But how often are you using all the ports in all the lanes at the same time, take a look over on the right hand side. Do you see the four pci express 3.0 lanes? That’S for a second m.2 slot. Then you have two sata ports dedicated down on the bottom, and then you have the option: two more sata ports or two more pci express lanes.
Here’S! What often happens you have one or two one x, pci express slots on the bottom of the board. But if you use them, then you lose sata ports or, conversely, the m.2 slot shares lanes with the side of ports, which is why on some boards, if you install an m.2 slot on the bottom slot, you actually lose a pair of sata ports, and that is Why i promised you a price comparison here? We are on the top of the screen. We have the new gigabyte, a520 ds3, h, micro, atx motherboard, and on the bottom of the screen, we have the gigabyte b550m ds3h micro, atx motherboard. These are almost identical, motherboards in all respects.
The b550 actually is a little bit nicer. It’S a little heat sink up there, but otherwise these are effectively the same boards. They are twenty 20 apart. If you want to save 20 – and you don’t plan to overclock, you can certainly go with the a520, but if you are in the united states or the prices where you live are comparable to this, i personally think that in the long run spending the extra twenty Dollars to get the better features of the b550 makes more sense.
You just get a nicer board overall, with a few extra features for what is honestly, not a huge price difference once you consider the cost of building the entire computer. Now, if where you live, the price difference is larger if the a520 was 55 dollars instead of 75 dollars. Honestly i’d be much more excited. Finally, that brings us to amd’s website which has an excellent motherboard chipset solutions comparison chart, because, if you’re trying to figure out which cpu you can install on each motherboard, they’ve got xs and check marks here.
That will help you, i’m not going to read every one of them to you, but you cannot install a first or second gen ryzen chip on the new a520 and key. You cannot install a ryzen, 5, 3400 g or ryzen 3 3200g, because those are actually second gen chips with a three in front of them. Yes, it’s confusing so be sure to consult this chart i’ll, put a link to it down in the video description below to make sure that you buy the right board for the right cpu like this video, if you like it, share it with your friends. If you love it remember to subscribe to my channel with the big huge red button directly below questions, comments, thoughts, feedback suggestions, let me know what you think in the comments section below there will be links in the video description, links to newegg links to amazon links To amd, if you want to see this information, this is just a short sweet, quick overview guide, designed to give you an idea of what is this new a520? Should i consider buying it, probably not unless it’s really cheap, and hopefully it answers some questions for you.
I don’t plan to review these boards. I don’t think these are going to be sort of the typical enthusiast board that most people want, but if you disagree or you’d like to see it, well, that’s what the comment section is there for. Thank you so much for watching i’ll see all of you next time. You .