MSI A520M-A PRO Gaming Motherboard (AMD Ryzen 5000, AM4, DDR4, PCIe 3.0, SATA 6Gb/s, M.2, USB 3.2 Gen 1, DVI/HDMI, Micro-ATX)

I’ve been using this motherboard for two years now, and it’s been rock solid. For the price, I wasn’t expecting much, but it has completely exceeded my expectations. No issues, crashes, or failures – it just works.It handles my [CPU/GPU/RAM setup] perfectly and runs smoothly even with long gaming or work sessions. The build quality is surprisingly good for the price, and installation was easy.If you’re looking for a reliable, budget-friendly motherboard, this one is a no-brainer. Definitely worth it!

WORKS GREAT

Great price and very fast.

After the experience with the first one of these purchased gave confidence in purchasing again for another budget build. Cannot recommend using this motherboard with anything more powerful than the Ryzen 5 or a 7 on stock clocks. The first board purchased has performed admirably so purchased another one to complete a low cost build with leftover parts. The second one purchased has a bad fan header. It works but there is no control over fan speed with 3 or 4 pin fans. The applicaiton didn't really need it and didn't want to take the trouble of disassembly, return, rebuild and so on especially after activating OS license on it.

After days of fiddling with a new Asrock motherboard that turned out to be faulty in several ways out of the box, I replaced it with this one. It literally just works. Plug and play. BIOS is easy to navigate, and it plays nice with my Ryzen 7 2700x. The PCI-E slot is in a great spot where it won't be blocked by the GPU so you can install a wifi card there if you wish.One thing to be aware of is that it only has 1 case fan header, which I didn't know before purchasing, but isn't the fault of the motherboard itself since I would've noticed if I looked closer before buying. I have a fan splitter coming in that should remedy this.This is the third MSI motherboard I've used in a build, and they have never failed me. This brand is a mark of quality. If you're stuck between multiple, go with this one.

I received the motherboard 3 days early. I got it installed. its working great.

Decent board for the price, however a few notes:The manual is completely inadequate for first-time use. It's supposed to be an "older" board. Has four huge drawbacks, one of which caused me to have to replace it.1. Secure Boot/UEFI are enabled by default. This means that if you have an older install of Windows 10, there's a good chance it won't boot by default until they're disabled.2. BIOS is only accessible by DisplayPort, at least first off.3. The POST (Power On Self-Test) is not onscreen. What is this, the dark ages? I've never had a windows-based machine in 30 years that didn't have an onscreen POST, and for the last 15 years, I've had dozens of machines to call my own, of all makes and models, primarily self-built, and for the last 20 years, I've worked as a field desktop technician under a variety of titles and worked on no doubt thousands of machines from Dell, HP, Compaq, Packard Bell, IBM, Lenovo, and many self-built. What the absolute heck!?3a. So with that said, the POST is an "ez debug" on-motherboard set of four LED's, each illuminated during and if stuck on a test. It reveals NOTHING about the actual problem, nor does it point to anything resembling a symptom.4. Don't update the BIOS.... just don't.That said, let me lay out my experience.I had a pre-existing install of windows on my kids' machine. I ordered the CPU/Board/memory, all new, and swapped them in with my other existing components, PSU, GPU, SSD's, and optical drive.Installed everything, and powered on, nothing. Black screen. That leads me to the sparsely-detailed, not included manual (PDF). I learn it has the "EZ Debug" POST, a small row of LED's on the motherboard. They read BOOT, VGA, DRAM, and CPU. They light up individually during each test. It's stuck at Boot. That could mean no drives, no OS, corrupt OS, missing MBR, etc. Only after extensive research, several hours, and with the tenacious help of a buddy, a post was located on TomsHardware in which someone discovered that it has to be connected with DisplayPort. Alas, the machine's desk only has DVI. At the suggestion of said post, I reset CMOS, and connected it at my desk with DP. Finally! it goes straight to BIOS. Tried to skip, but it kept cycling back to BIOS. Disabled Secure Boot and changed UEFI to CSM, and instantly it boots just fine.*****Note: this shouldn't have been an issue if it was installing a new OS via a bootable USB drive, but I have one that I use regularly, and it wouldn't boot either*****This machine had been off for several months. Ran it through all updates, even from the manufacturer, and I'm down to just the BIOS. It is a March 2023 version currently, but there is a July available. I download it, load it to a FAT32 stick per instructions, reboot to BIOS, switch to Flash mode, and begin the process. It slowly gets to 100%, at which point it should reboot.....but it just shuts off, completely. I've seen some systems appear to be off at this point in the flashing process, only to power themselves back on after several minutes, but I gave 10-15 minutes for this one, and nothing. I powered it back on, and now it's failing at the CPU POST LED, again no onscreen indicator. How in the heck could the CPU be failed? No idea. Clearly this LED isn't useful. I again tried the CMOS reset. Nothing.I did spend several more hours trying what turned out to be irrelevant possibilities, but suffice it to say that the CPU was not and could not have been the problem. I replaced the board with Amazon's speedy sub-24-hour delivery. I immediately put it on a DP connection, modified the Secure Boot and UEFI>CSM settings. and I'm back up and running all day now, back on the DVI connection, and returning the first board.Summary:1. The EZ Debug LED's are garbage and not useful in the slightest. They don't even give you an idea of where to start, and with the CPU light being stuck on, just plain wrong.2. A lack of an onscreen POST is a travesty to say the least.3. The requirement of being on a DisplayPort connection to see the BIOS SHOULD BE IN THE MANUAL!!!!!4. Updating BIOS is Standard Operating Procedure in my line of work. We have to check to ensure it's current before we deploy equipment to end users, when troubleshooting hardware issues, and are required to do it by Dell and HP before we engage them for any kind of warranty service or repair.

Gente, recomendadisimo, no se mucho de pcs pero mi hermano si, el es ingeniero de sistemas , y me lo recomendó. El rendimiento es de locura, obviamente deben elegir bien los demás elementos como las ram, o el ssd.En términos de conectores, tiene solo una entrada hdmi para una pantalla, si desean conectar otra pantalla, tendrán que usar la otra ranura DVI 24pines + 1, no trae ranura Vga. Cuenta con 4 ranuras usb 3.0 y dos ranuras usb 2.0. La entrada ethernet para el Internet y los demás normales como sonido, micrófono, y para mouse y teclados con entrada antigua, si es que los tienen, de lo contrario pues las entradas usb.Recuerden que ninguna pc tiene antena de Internet wifi, por eso toca con cable ethernet, o sino una excelente alternativa en mi caso es tener una pequeña usb extensor de red, es simplemente conectarla a un puerto usb y funciona (tengo la MERCUSYS MW300UM), actúa excelente y la red nunca se cae.