Last year ASUS established a subsidiary in China to manufacture inexpensive and low-cost mainboards as well as other products sold under different brand-name or names. As we have just found out, ASUS will also manufacture several of its own i865 (Springdale) powered mainboards on its Chinese plant.

Initially the company built its fab in China in order to make cheap solutions for lower-end market in order to compete with Elitegroup Computer Systems who is a very strong company nowadays. Originally ASUSTeK expected to expand its lower-end market presence with mainboards branded as ASRock, however, eventually the company found out that it is not enough and it needs more inexpensive solutions for successful expansion. This Spring ASUS launched its X-series mainboards intended for mainstream and lower-end market segments that are sold under ASUS brand-name and are built in China. Nevertheless, the company still seems dissatisfied with the results and now it appears that several products of Springdale lineup are also made in China!

It is not hard to tell what leads ASUS to make its mainstream and higher-end mainboards in China mainland. Fierce competition between mainboard makers led to low ASPs and eroding gross-margins and now more and more manufacturers of hardware components try to lower production costs and also present inexpensive products for appropriate market segments. I expect more mainboards from ASUS, including those for Socket A CPUs to be made in China as well.

Since not only ASUS, but also other makers of mainboards now produce their products in China, I believe ASUS’ quality the company is known for will remain on these devices as well, but at this time mainboards from this well-known company may be a bit cheaper.