BIOSTAR Debuts Barebones A620MS mATX Motherboard For Ryzen 7000 Processors
by Matthew Connatser on March 15, 2024 4:30 PM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
- Biostar
- mATX
- AM5
- Ryzen 7000
- A620
BIOSTAR has launched its AM5-based A620MS motherboard today, bringing a new low-end option for PC users on a budget. Though BIOSTAR has not disclosed what MSRP it the A620MS motherboard will carry, the specifications of the board make it clear that it targets the lowest-end segment of the market, though it makes use of the regular A620 chipset instead of the even less expensive A620A chipset.
The A620MS sports some features typical for mATX A620 boards (which make up the vast majority of current models): two DDR5 DIMM slots that support up to two 48GB sticks, an M.2 PCIe 4.0 slot for SSDs, four SATA III ports, and a PCIe Gen4 x16 slot. The motherboard also has four debug LEDs for diagnosing CPU, RAM, GPU, and booting errors.
Meanwhile the rear I/O features a one gigabit Ethernet port, four USB 3.2 ports, analog audio jacks, two USB 2.0 ports, an HDMI 1.4 port, and DisplayPort 1.2. Though there are some more fully-featured A620 motherboards available with more ports operating at a higher specification, but the rear I/O is more or less par for the course when it comes to A620.
However, there are other things about BIOSTAR’s A620MS that implies it will be quite low-end for an A620 motherboard. It has just eight total voltage regulator modules (VRMs), which appear to be in a 6+2 or 6+1+1 phase configuration. This isn’t as low-end as BIOSTAR could have gone (ASRock offers a 4+1+1 stage board), but it is still very sparing in VRM stages compared to most other A620 motherboards. These VRMs are also not covered by a heatsink, which is also typical for boards in this segment, as they're normally paired with equally chip 65W(ish) chips.
BIOSTAR doesn’t list any official CPU restrictions in either its press release or its specification sheet; instead, the company simply lists the motherboard as compatible with Ryzen 7000 and future Ryzen 8000 processors.
While the market for AM5 motherboards includes plenty of B650(E) and X670(E) models, there’s only a handful of A620 boards in total. On Newegg, there are 14 different motherboards available, and many only differ slightly in respect to things like form factor. The cheapest of these cost $75 to $100, and while BIOSTAR didn’t reveal what price we should expect of its A620MS board, given its specifications, we expect it will land in that same $75 to $100 region.
Source: Biostar
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Threska - Friday, March 15, 2024 - link
Not bad. I remember when AM5 first came out. Took awhile for things to get down to this size without an arm and leg involved.PeachNCream - Saturday, March 16, 2024 - link
Biostar have been a good option for a long while now to get a decently priced motherboard. Also its VERY nice to see no stupid, 100% pointless attempt to dress up said board with dinky and useless VRM heatsinks or a stupid chipset fan. Thanks for that. If I wanted to build a desktop in 2024, I would seriously consider one of these, but I haven't taken leave of my sanity so my most recent PC purchase was for a used Dell Latitude running an Kaby Lake-U for less than what appears to convert to $50 USD off ebay. Works great and Linux Mint is 100% compatible with it.Oxford Guy - Friday, March 22, 2024 - link
Small VRM heatsinks aren't useless. They're more than nothing, unless they're made of plastic and therefore aren't actually heatsinks.StevoLincolnite - Saturday, March 16, 2024 - link
When is Anandtech going to finally close up shop and just redirect to Toms Hardware?Miss the comprehensive reviews and breakdowns that used to be done.
PeachNCream - Sunday, March 17, 2024 - link
A word of caution, last time people talked about the elephant in the room, the comments were rightfully deleted. They bring up a point about the site that discourages other readers from sticking around so not only does a lack of content steer people away, but mentioning the decline also hurts. Ryan had to delete that conversation to hide it from the readers and it's probably a good idea not to keep bringing up that AT is probably going be a THG redirect at some point.Threska - Sunday, March 17, 2024 - link
Maybe when people start paying for things.Samus - Tuesday, March 19, 2024 - link
This month so far they have reviewed two PSU's, some cooling solutions, a portable SSD, and reported dozens of news articles.Exactly how many people do you think work here?
PeachNCream - Tuesday, March 19, 2024 - link
Exactly! And they are already publishing articles on THG as well since the company owns both in the post-Pabst and post-Anand leftovers when the owners no longer operated the sites. Those employees are busy and most of their content goes where the traffic lands - at THG.Sure it's a bit comical that AT still operates, but last I checked, it was landing 4ish million monthly views. That's still enough to, when collectively combined with THG's 35 million, to generate ad revenue to support what is likely a per-article set of part timers and pull in some extra money when the "best of X" articles use sponsored buy links to someplace like Amazon.
Samus - Tuesday, March 19, 2024 - link
I personally like the format of AT and it's been either my homepage or on the autolaunch tabs for 25+ years.AndrewJacksonZA - Sunday, March 17, 2024 - link
On their website they "officially" support up to 7950X, with the disclaimer of "CPU performance may be limited due to power phase design" at the bottom of the page. www biostar com tw/app/en/mb/introduction.php?S_ID=1153#cpusupport