ASRock A320M-DGS

foundation of the foundations

ASRock A320M-DGS is the cheapest motherboard with socket AM4 and one of the cheapest motherboards with M.2 SSD socket in east european retail. It is ideologically positioned as a partner for the existing Bristol Ridge hybrid processors and the upcoming Raven Ridge, but it can also be combined with more efficient Ryzen chips without any problems. But the A320 chipset does not support manual overclocking of the processor (Turbo Core auto overclocking works without problems).

The specifics of the memory

Fortunately, at least the overclocking of RAM, which is quite important for Ryzen processors, is supported by the A320M-DGS motherboard — up to 3200 MHz. However in the case of using double-sided or dual-channel memory, the maximum allowable frequency will be one or two positions lower (2934 or 2667 MHz). Bristol Ridge processors are not so picky about the memory frequency, but they also get a performance boost, especially for integrated graphics, in the case of high-frequency memory.

Format Compatibility

Despite the fact that the M.2 slot belongs to the Ultra standard, we do not recommend connecting high-speed NVMe drives to the ASRock A320M-DGS, as this may result in insufficient bandwidth for USB 3.1 ports. It is better to limit yourself to moderately fast M.2 SATA SSDs, such as WD Green or Patriot Ignite. And given the mATX form factor, it makes more sense to build a computer based on the ASRock A320M-DGS in a mid-sized case, such as the Deepcool Smarter LED. The only significant drawback of the motherboard — only one video output (DVI) — is easily solved with a penny adapter to HDMI, and then, if necessary, another adapter to VGA.