Asustek, the world's top motherboard brand has allegedly cut its board production for Q1 from the 'usual' 5 to 6 million units to about 3 to 3.5 million. The Taiwanese company apparently has about 1 million motherboards 'left over' from Q4 (2011) so the priority is to clear out inventory before putting production lines back into full gear. Of course Asus also has to worry about the hard drive shortages as they do affect PC sales. Plus, Q1 is usually a slow sales period.

The lower production plan also means Asus will be buying fewer chipsets this quarter. The order for Intel chips is said to reach 2.5 to 2.8 million units, while that for AMD silicon is supposed to be of 500,000 to 700,000 units. Board production at Asus should return to normal in Q2.