AMD's A520 motherboard chipset may not be the sexiest of PC components. You wouldn't buy it to be the centerpiece of a water-cooled build or an Nvidia RTX 3090 gaming system. While we all yearn for high-end systems to get the best performance and maximize our PC experience, the average gamer or PC user just wants something they can plug in and turn on. They just want something that works. It is this type of buyer who would consider a system with a board like the Gigabyte A520 Aorus Elite we are reviewing here.

Ostensibly, the A520 is an entry-level AMD Ryzen chipset. But what does that mean? Looking at the chipset itself, it doesn't lack much in terms of realistically needed features: it doesn't have PCIe 4.0, but neither do Intel systems until next year's Rocket Lake.

Overclocking is not possible (not by multiplier anyway), but current Ryzen CPUs don't have much leeway anyway. If it matters, there are fewer faster USB ports, but they can run on any Matisse Ryzen CPU and use memory at speeds much faster than DDR4-4000.

The essential considerations seem to be mostly covered. One major advantage is support for the next generation Vermeer AMD Ryzen 5000 CPUs and Renoir APUs. Boo-yah.

The main difference between the A520 board and its more expensive B550 and X570 siblings is the use of an auxiliary controller and circuitry to reduce costs, along with the use of a lower quality power delivery system. Many boards do not have VRM heatsinks and therefore cannot be used for CPUs with high core counts. They also tend to lack WiFi 6, ALC1200 audio, and faster-than-gigabit networking.

Motherboard manufacturers want you to buy boards that cost five times as much.

The Gigabyte A520 Aorus Elite is a high-end A520 board, which may seem contradictory, but if you don't know what it is, you could be forgiven for assuming it is a mid-range board rather than a $90 bargain. two RGB headers and two more ARGB headers. The only thing missing is WiFi, but do we really expect to have WiFi at this price?

It doesn't have the kind of VRM you'd use to run a Ryzen 9 3950X at full power for extended periods of time, but the right CPU could do the job; a CPU like a Ryzen 3 3300X would be perfect, and a Ryzen 3 3300X would be the best choice. If you can afford it, that is; an 8-core 65W Ryzen 7 3700X worked fine. The heatsinks did their job properly and there were no cooling issues even under sustained load on all cores. VRM temperatures, which peaked at 73°C, are perfectly acceptable.

There is one M.2 slot and four SATA ports. Standard specs, but adequate for most users. How about memory support; unlike the ridiculous memory limitations found on Intel B460 motherboards, the Gigabyte A520 supports up to 128GB with DDR4-4733. While no one will realistically run such a setup, at least they are given the option.

The rear I/O comes with a pre-installed shield, and there is a good selection of USB ports: one USB 3.2 Gen 2 port, three Gen 1 ports, and four 2.0 ports. 8 ports is nice, although no Type-C. We would have liked a DisplayPort, but the DVI- D port supports 1080p 60Hz for many users, and the HDMI port is a 2.1 type. This makes it an attractive option for pairing with the forthcoming (or hopefully soon to be forthcoming) Renoir APU. Gigabit networking is also as expected.

Gigabyte deserves credit for including audio built around the ALC1200 codec. Typically, this is reserved for use on more expensive motherboards. It does not have the high-end circuitry found on high-end boards, but for an entry-level board, the choice of headset, S/PDIF or HDMI audio is better than the implementations found on older ALC882 or 892-equipped boards. Remember, you are dealing with a board that costs only $90.

Performance was mostly as expected; the Ryzen 3 CPUs have been on the market for over a year and the underlying BIOS code is mature enough. Differences between boards were small, with the Gigabyte lagging slightly under light thread loads, but leading the pack in our gaming tests. Overall, we have no complaints about the Aorus Elite's performance.

The DIY gaming market is usually not very interested in boards like this, but perhaps it should be. This board is more like a "B550 Lite" and not a board that belongs in a word processor or mahjong machine. If you have a mid-range GPU, 65W Ryzen, an M.2 drive, and a mechanical hard drive or two, the question is worth asking: do you really need a high-end motherboard?

The $100 or $200 you save could go toward a better GPU. While we don't recommend combining a high-TDP processor and a high-end GPU with such a board, if you're on a budget, the Gigabyte A520 Aorus Elite is worth a look; it makes Intel's cheap B460 board look weak by comparison, and it's even compatible with the next generation Ryzen. Is it for everyone? But the Gigabyte A520 Aorus Elite is definitely not cheap and nasty, unlike almost all preceding A320 boards.