BIOSTAR has unveiled the A620MH Aurora, a Micro-ATX motherboard designed for Socket AM5 and based on the AMD A620A chipset. The A620A is a variant of the A620 chipset, utilizing the same physical chip as the ASMedia Promontory found in the AMD B550 chipset, as noted by a user on the AnandTech forums. Official documentation from AMD is limited. The A620 (without the "A" suffix) is built on the newer Promontory 21 silicon and is essentially a B650 with certain features disabled. In contrast, the A620A is essentially a B550 for the Socket AM5 platform. The key difference lies in the chipset bus, with the A620A (or B550) supporting PCI-Express 3.0 x4, while the A620 uses PCI-Express 4.0 x4. Despite this, the downstream connectivity for both the A620 and A620A appears to be similar, with PCIe Gen 3 for the chipset-attached M.2 NVMe slot(s), resulting in negligible performance differences unless there are other high-bandwidth devices connected to the chipset. Both versions allow motherboard designers to wire out one CPU-attached M.2 NVMe slot capped at PCI-Express 4.0 x4.
The A620MH Aurora from BIOSTAR prominently features the A620A chipset on the packaging, ensuring consumers are well-informed before making a purchase. The motherboard is designed in the Micro-ATX form factor and requires power from a combination of 24-pin ATX and 8-pin EPS connectors. It is compatible only with Ryzen 7000 and 8000G series processors with a TDP of 65 W. The processor is connected to two DDR5 DIMM slots supporting up to 96 GB of memory, one M.2 NVMe slot with PCI-Express 4.0 x4 wiring, and a PCI-Express 4.0 x16 slot. Additionally, there are two PCI-Express 3.0 x1 slots from the A620A FCH. Storage options include four SATA 6 Gbps ports in addition to the M.2 Gen 4 slot. USB connectivity comprises six USB 3.2 Gen 1 ports (including two from a header) and several USB 2.0 ports. Display options on the BIOSTAR A620M Aurora include an HDMI 1.4 and D-Sub (VGA). The only networking choice is a 1 GbE wired LAN powered by a Realtek 8111-series controller. The onboard audio solution features a basic 6-channel HD audio driven by a Realtek ALC887. The board also includes a 3-pin addressable RGB LED header compatible with BIOSTAR VividLED DJ software, as well as USB BIOS Flashback and diagnostic SMD LEDs. Pricing details have not been disclosed by the company.
