AMD A620 Motherboard Review Ft. ASRock PRO RS WIFI & Gigabyte A620M Gaming X

Gigabyte A620M Gaming X - Unboxing & Close Up Inspection

The Gigabyte A620M Gaming X motherboard comes in the standard cardboard package. The front is themed in black and orange which has been part of the Gigabyte lineup for a while now. You can also note the AORUS Eagle logo on the front which looks great. The front side also lists down support for AMD's Ryzen 7000 CPUs, DDR5 memory, and NVMe SSDs.

The backside of the package lists the specifications and special features of the motherboard such as the 8+2+1 Phase Digital VRM Solution, PCIe EZ-Latch mechanism, GbE LAN, and NVMe Gen 4x4 connector.

The motherboard is housed above the accessories and has anti-static wrapping to protect it from any built-up electrical resistance that can affect the board.

Following is the full list of accessories in the package.

• Quick Installation Guide, User's Manual
• 2 x SATA Cables
• 1 x I/O Shield

The Gigabyte A620M Gaming X is a budget offering priced at $120 US so expect the design to reflect its pricing.

The Gigabyte A620M Gaming X is styled in black and grey. The vast majority of A620 boards come in mATX design with a few featuring ITX form factors. The Gaming X is on the costlier side even in the A620 category with added features such as better heatsinks & I/O compared to the baseline offerings which start at $85 US.

The board uses the LGA 1718 socket to support AMD Ryzen 7000 processors. The socket is compatible only with Ryzen 7000 CPUs for now but will also support future iterations on the AM5 platform.

Next to the socket are four DDR5 DIMM slots that can support up to 128 GB of dual-channel memory. These slots are rated to support EXPO profiles up to 6400 MHz (OC Plus).

The DIMM slots feature metallic shielding around them for extra durability. Each slot is labeled, making it easier to install DIMMs in the proper orientation. DDR5 memory comes with a different latch position so forcing a DDR4 module into a DDR5 slot will cause permanent damage.

The Gigabyte A620M Gaming X  features an 8+2+1 (VCore/ VccGT/VccAUX)  phase digital power delivery that makes utilizes 50A Dr.MOS MOSFETs.

As you can see, the VRMs are getting ample cooling from the VRM heatsink which is definitely huge for a VRM of this caliber. Do note that the A620 series isn't particularly designed with overclocking in mind and only EXPO is officially supported. You can tinker around but the limited VRM isn't going to give you a whole lot of extra performance as some of the high-end motherboards.

A better option would be to undervolt the chip or use motherboard-specific tuning profiles to gain extra juice out of the chip while running cooler and sipping in lower power.

The CPU is supplied power through a single 8-pin power connector configuration. This will feed the CPU with up to 300 Watts of power. The AMD Ryzen 7000 CPUs are very power-hungry with the maximum package power rating of 230W but once again, you have to keep in mind that these A620 boards aren't designed for overclocking.

Getting a closer look at the VRM heatsinks reveals an aluminum fin design on both heatsinks. Each heatsink has thermal pads located underneath for efficient transfer of heat. The VRMs on the top-side of the PCB don't get any cooling so have to rely on chassis airflow to keep themselves cooled.

Expansion slots include a single PCI Express x16 (1 x Gen 4.0 x16) plus a single PCIe 3.0 x1 slot and a single M.2 slot.

The single M.2 slot is cooled off by the thermal pad and aluminum baseplate cooling. This will ensure stable operation for M.2 storage devices. The thermal adhesive has a plastic cover over them which needs to be removed before being used with the storage devices.

The topmost M.2 slot that will house the primary M.2 is based on the new M.2 Thermal Guard heatsink design that offers even more cooling performance through a larger heat sink. Following is the M.2 config on the motherboard:

CPU:

1. 1 x M.2 connector (Socket 3, M key, type 2580 PCIe 4.0 x4/x2 SSD support)

The A620 PCH is housed beneath a heatsink with a black color coat and the Gigabyte Label. This is a very basic-looking design.

Once again, this budget-tier A620 motherboard from Gigabyte doesn't feature any RGB LEDs on the front.

Storage options include four SATA III ports rated to operate at 6 GB/s. These can support four different storage devices at once. There are also two USB 3.2 front panel connectors (Gen 1). and two USB 2.0 connectors for front-panel connections.

Gigabyte is using its Realtek AUDIO codec for audio which is a combination of hardware, and software audio solutions. 7.1 CH HD audio.

The full list of connectors on the motherboard is listed as follows.

• 1 x 24-pin ATX main power connector
• 1 x 8-pin ATX 12V power connector
• 1 x CPU fan header
• 2 x system fan headers
• 1 x addressable LED strip header
• 1 x RGB LED strip header
• 1 x M.2 Socket 3 connector
• 4 x SATA 6Gb/s connectors
• 1 x front panel header
• 1 x front panel audio header
• 1 x USB Type-C header, with USB 3.2 Gen 1 support
• 1 x USB 3.2 Gen 1 header
• 1 x USB 2.0/1.1 header
• 1 x Trusted Platform Module header (For the GC-TPM2.0 SPI/GC-TPM2.0 SPI 2.0 module only)
• 1 x Clear CMOS jumper

Gigabyte is using Realtek 1.0 GbE LAN. The motherboard comes with the following I/O connectors:

• 1 x PS/2 keyboard/mouse port
• 1 x USB Type-C port, with USB 3.2 Gen 1 support
• 1 x USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A port (red)
• 2 x USB 3.2 Gen 1 ports
• 2 x USB 2.0/1.1 ports
• 1 x HDMI port
• 1 x DisplayPort
• 1 x Q-Flash Plus button
• 1 x RJ-45 port
• 3 x audio jacks

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