OEMs have started to sell motherboards based on AMD’s new budget AM4+ chipset, the A520. The successor to the A320, the A520 doesn’t add much new: PCIe 4.0, notably is missing here. However some much-needed compatibility and functionality improvements, notably the addition of general-purpose PCIe 3. (rockstarjackets) 0 lanes and support for Ryzen 3000 series (and future Zen 3 processors) makes A520 a viable proposition for gamers on a tight budget.
One thing that’s always put budget builders off the x20 chipsets has been the lack of overclocking. With B450 and B550 boards often selling for just US$10 or US$20 more, there was no real reason to give up on those performance improvements.
However, recent tests indicate that the A520 might support limited overclocking, at least for the time being. While the multiplier’s locked, Buildzoid was able to tune the BCLK on an A520 board to boost Ryzen 5 3600 clocks by 200 MHz. It remains to be seen whether or not BCLK overclocks will be locked down by OEMs in the future but for now, it appears to be a viable avenue for budget gamers looking to make the OTT out of the A520 platform.
