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.
