Budget DIY consumers can finally rejoice as AMD's A620 motherboards have arrived. Asus has announced that the TUF Gaming A620M-Plus WiFi and Prime A620M-A motherboards will come next month to house AMD's Ryzen 7000 processors.
The TUF Gaming A620M-Plus WiFi (also available without WiFi) and Prime A620M-A are microATX motherboards with the latest entry-level A620 chipset. Their power delivery subsystems share a standard 6+2+1 design and only have a single EPS power connector onboard. In addition, Asus equipped both motherboards with four DDR5 memory slots; therefore, they can accommodate up to 128GB of memory with speeds over 6,400 MT/s. However, memory support still depends on your processor. Support for AMD EXPO-certified memory kits is a given since their AMD motherboards. However, Asus added some improvements to the memory slot topology to improve signal integrity, which the company brands as "OptiMem II."
AMD's A620 chipset doesn't have PCIe 5.0 support, so PCIe 4.0 is standard on A620 motherboards. The TUF Gaming A620M-Plus WiFi and Prime A620M-A feature a single PCIe 4.0 x16 expansion slot connected directly to the Ryzen 7000 chip. The remaining two PCIe 3.0 x1 expansion slots are from the A620 chipset.
The TUF Gaming A620M-Plus WiFi supplies two DisplayPort 1.4 outputs and a single HDMI 2.1 port for consumers who won't be using a discrete graphics card. The Prime A620M-A, on the other hand, has one less DisplayPort in exchange for a regular VGA port.
Despite being entry-level motherboards, the storage options aren't half bad on the TUF Gaming A620M-Plus WiFi and Prime A620M-A. Two PCIe 4.0 x4 M.2 2280 slots and four SATA III ports exist on the motherboards. The Ryzen 7000 processor provides the PCIe 4.0 lanes for the M.2 slots, whereas the A620 is responsible for the SATA III ports. In addition, AMD RAIDXpert2 Technology is present, so RAID 0, 1, and 10 array support is available in PCIe and SATA format.
The TUF Gaming A620M-Plus is superior in terms of Internet connectivity. The motherboard has a 2.5 Gigabit Ethernet port, while the Prime A620M-A has a conventional Gigabit Ethernet connection. Both motherboards use a Realtek Ethernet controller, but Asus didn't specify the model. In the case of the TUF Gaming A620M-Plus WiFi, consumers can enjoy Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.3 connectivity for a small premium.
The USB layout is identical on the TUF Gaming A620M-Plus WiFi and Prime A620M-A. The duo offers two USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A ports and four USB 2.0 Type-A ports on the rear panel. The vendor also equipped the motherboards with one USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-C header, one USB 3.2 Gen 1 header, and two USB 2.0 headers. Other ports on the rear panel include three 3.5mm audio jacks, a BIOS Flashback button, and the old-school PS/2 keyboard and mouse combo port.
Asus didn't provide the pricing information for the motherboards. However, the suggested retail pricing for the TUF Gaming A620M-Plus WiFi and Prime A620M-A from the European press release are €169 ($183) and €139 ($151), respectively. Meanwhile, the TUF Gaming A620M-Plus retails for €149 ($161). We've contacted Asus for the U.S. MSRP and will update the story if the vendor gets back to us.
