A recent survey by X-bit labs has found that while there are still a lot of mainboard producers, the most popular among computer enthusiasts is Asustek Computer and no other motherboard maker can boast with similar popularity. Despite of aggressive marketing campaigns, popularity of the “new age” suppliers of computer platforms is similar to Asrock, a low-cost arm of Asus.

According to the results of the poll, mainboards from Asustek Computer are preferred by 44.1% of respondents, an unprecedented result. Companies like Gigabyte Technology, Abit and DFI have much lower support: 13.1%, 10.3% and 9%, respectively. MicroStar International, another large maker of motherboards, is preferred by 6.9% of those, who participated in the survey. The remaining mainboard makers are not popular among computer enthusiasts.

It is interesting to note that in spite of truly aggressive marketing campaign and media acclaims of “Designed by Nvidia” mainboards based on the company’s nForce 680i chipset and its derivatives, popularity of such brands as EVGA, XFX and BFG Technology is pretty low: only 2.5%, 0.5% and 0.3% respectively of the poll participants would choose a motherboard from them. Even mainboards from Intel can claim support of 3.8%.

The results of the survey generally reflect the market trends, when larger makers of computer platforms can deliver products that have better feature-set and quality compared to products smaller suppliers may deliver. However, there is an interesting exception: only 0.7% of polled would choose a mainboard from Foxconn, who is one of the world’s largest producers of electronics. Such situation can be explained by the fact that the brand is relatively young and Foxconn has not been really aggressive in promoting it. Another reason could be in the fact that even computer enthusiasts cannot get really familiar with the company’s product lineup, as the firm’s model names used to be very hard to hard to understand until very recently, when the company reconsidered its model naming scheme (e.g, 975X7AB-2.0-8EKRS2H vs. P35A).

X-bit labs polled over 5500 of its readers in the second half of May and in the first half of June, 2007.