Intel Exits Desktop Board Business

[btarunr]

Intel decided to quit the PC motherboard business by shutting down its Desktop Board brand. To company will begin shrinking its motherboard product line with the arrival of socket LGA1150 Core "Haswell" processors, and eventually leave the market within 3 years. One can draw three distinct inferences from this move. First, Intel's Desktop Board lineup is too bloated, and the desktop form-factor is on a rapid decline in relation to the rest of the PC industry. Second, with the emergence of new high-volume brands in the motherboard industry, Intel is finding its lineup out of place.

Third, and more interestingly, this could be a move by Intel to pacify other motherboard vendors about the impending transition of a bulk of the motherboard volume from changeable CPU socket to hardwired BGA, which is bound to happen in a couple of years from now. Other vendors expressed apprehensions over the transition to BGA believing such a more could make Desktop Board put them out of business. Intel's Desktop Board team will instead spend resources in developing new form-factors such as the NUC.

View at TechPowerUp Main Site

 

[btarunr]

Many Thanks to adulaamin for the tip.

 

[natr0n]

Intel boards are mostly used in office/corporate builds.

IMO they are boring ass boards.

 

[MxPhenom 216]

I never used an Intel motherboard in a build.

 

[[Ion]]

Intel boards are mostly used in office/corporate builds.

IMO they are boring ass boards.

I have a variety of Intel desktop boards (G3x, primarily) and they do their job. Not for overclocking or anything fancy, but they hold up well and are cheap

 

[Jstn7477]

So will this put the BGA only midrange/enthusiast processors possibility to rest?

 

[Krazy Owl]

My Acer Aspire M5620 bord is from Intel. G33 chipset. Rolling well and correct. Might keep it for long time again since the things I do with it still not justify to change. I will only get a better CPU and Voilà!

 

[ViperXTR]

i remember the ol Skulltrail D5400XS board D:

 

[Jorge]

Intel has been losing desktop mobo sales for decades as the Asian companies offered more feature rich mobos at lower prices. Until the Asian mobo companies got up to speed, Intel had a captive audience but that is long gone.

BGA will not be good for Intel mobo makers and likely Intel customers. It may turn out to be like BTX in many ways, a loser. AMD has no plans to go to BGA in the foreseeable future so many enthusiasts will go with them and a quality mobo for far less than Intel's bundled mess.

For those who don't know Intel has made some quality "basic" mobos but they have also had a number of models of both mobos, chipsets and CPUs that were defective. At one time they were the mobo industry quality/design leader but that was decades ago and it's been all downhill from the early 90's onward.

 

[Protagonist]

What?!!! I have been a loyal consumer for the Intel Desktop Board, what a sad day. But considering the recent 6 & 7 series Bios screw ups, i guess its time to go back to other brands. I'll be looking into Micron, MSI, ASUS & Zotac for possible future builds after Intel exit's in the 3 years time if i read the post correctly, So a possible 8, 9 & 10 series only, wow i never thought this day would come. I'll ride with the brand for the 3 years before i make my switch back, to other Intel Partners.

 

[Steevo]

Most Intel boards suck and are expensive. Some were awesome, unfortunately those were too few.

But this signals the end of midrange and lightweight PC's running X86 chips overall I am afraid to say. With SOC and ARM making the move, thin clients a real possibility and almost a mandate with the watered down "pad" generation of hardware I see two markets, enthusiast/HPC and tampax.

 

[bim27142]

But considering the recent 6 & 7 series Bios screw ups, i guess its time to go back to other brands. I'll be looking into Micron, MSI, ASUS & Zotac for possible future builds

You mean Intel boards are having BIOS screw ups for the 6 and 7 chipsets? If so, so is Asus!

A little OT but so you may know, I though I was the only one having weird BIOS issues but it seems common to other Asus Z77 users particularly the P8Z77 series...

 

[Animalpak]

I had the first Intel skull logo moherboard named BONETRAIL x38 chipset...

It was a GREAT and NICE mother board, CLEAN and PURE with full power for overclocking and rock solid reliability.

It's a shame.

 

[Krazy Owl]

Mine just died

 

[bim27142]

I only tried an Intel motherboard once, it was D865GBF... Prescott, era... It was a great board though...

 

[Deadlyraver]

Am I the only one that seems happy about this?

I loved Intel for their unique platform boards but never really for the conventional kind. Things are changing in their target and they are finally killing off the major problems they have had with their poor mainboards by eliminating them.

 

[craigo]

Nooooooooooooooo,ooooooooo!

 

[Assimilator]

To company will begin shrinking its motherboard product line...

"To" company? Y U NO PROOFREAD?

p.s. if TPU is looking for a proofreader, contact me

 

[jagd]

Actually intel boards are outsourced and produced by aopen for long time , aopen was a acer brand
'' Currently, AOpen is a subsidiary of Wistron Group, a spin-off of the Acer Group '' http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AOpen .

My Acer Aspire M5620 bord is from Intel. G33 chipset.

 

[de.das.dude]

well, their boards werent fancy, but they were indeed cheap, and reliable. but rma meant 1 month delays

 

[drdeathx]

Intel has been losing desktop mobo sales for decades as the Asian companies offered more feature rich mobos at lower prices. Until the Asian mobo companies got up to speed, Intel had a captive audience but that is long gone.

BGA will not be good for Intel mobo makers and likely Intel customers. It may turn out to be like BTX in many ways, a loser. AMD has no plans to go to BGA in the foreseeable future so many enthusiasts will go with them and a quality mobo for far less than Intel's bundled mess.

For those who don't know Intel has made some quality "basic" mobos but they have also had a number of models of both mobos, chipsets and CPUs that were defective. At one time they were the mobo industry quality/design leader but that was decades ago and it's been all downhill from the early 90's onward.

The enthusiast market is a small percentage. Foxcon pretty much rules the OEM market and I think it is more based on this .

 

[tacosRcool]

Too bad. Intel motherboards were always more expensive and lacked some features vs some of the other board manufacturers around the same price point. Never bought one and never will

 

[Cybrnook]

"To" company? Y U NO PROOFREAD?

p.s. if TPU is looking for a proofreader, contact me

To add:

believing such a "more" could make; should be "move"

 

[Am*]

Good riddance. The last time they made a well-priced motherboard with decent features was some time in the PIII era and even then, their support has always sucked. Hopefully this means that they'll focus more on the stuff they do well, like their network cards.

I am just surprised that this didn't happen sooner.