With HDD shortages come a reduced demand for most PC components as shipping a system without a hard drive tends to be frowned upon.  This will be hitting motherboard makers fairly hard over the last quarter of 2011.  DigiTimes reports an estimated 20% drop for Gigabyte; MSI, ECS and ASRock are expecting around a 10% decrease and ASUS projects somewhere in the neighbourhood of 5-10%.  We can certainly hope that there will be discounts offered in the attempt to focus on upgraders.  A nice price on some of the new motherboards that have just come onto the market might draw the attention of those who already have a fully functional PC but are considering a possible hardware refresh.

"Motherboard makers have been impacted by HDD shortages arising from flooding in Thailand since mid-October, and are expected to see their fourth-quarter shipments decrease 10-15% on quarter, according to industry sources.

Gigabyte Technology may see shipments falling 20-25% from five million in the third quarter to below four million in the fourth."

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