PC manufacturers see better business from RP gamers

By Alexander Villafania, hackenslash Reporter
INQUIRER.net

TAIPEI, Taiwan–If there is one business in the Philippines that is expected to grow, it would be the do-it-yourself (DIY) PC building sector, particularly the market of people who build gaming PCs.

The gaming enthusiast business in the Philippines is considered the most stable sector in the PC building business, especially with the advent of more triple-A or premium PC gaming titles, as well as new online games that require faster and more robust systems.

Most PC builders would spend between P20,000 and P30, 000 for a basic PC that can run most games and other applications. However, hardcore gamers will spend P50,000 or more to build a powerhouse system.

During the recent Computex Taipei International Information Technology Show in Taiwan, some computer parts makers revealed that the Philippines’ growth in the DIY market has been at par with those in other Asian markets. Despite rising costs, there is still a strong and stable sector of gamers and PC enthusiasts.

InnoVision Multimedia marketing manager Caroline Kwok said that the DIY market remains the strongest sector for all component manufacturers, especially the very niche market of gamers who build their PCs from scratch but are willing to spend about $1,000 for a high-end system.

Not even the introduction of gaming computers from brand names such as HP and Dell could outrun the DIY business as computer builders are very picky with their choice of parts.

“DIY builders are difficult to please but when they spend on something, they spend on it a lot. That is why manufacturers have to be on their toes to provide the best solutions for this market,” Kwok said.

She added that their Philippine operations has been doing well in the last few months as they market their Inno3D mainstream graphics card.

She said the business is doing well enough that the company will introduce its more extreme high-end graphics card brand called iChill, which uses the latest NVIDIA 7000 and 8000 series of graphics processing units.

iChill cards have gold-plated outputs instead of aluminum for better signal transmission and these can be overclocked at high-speeds without burning. This brand’s main features are its customized fans and heatsinks to ensure stable overclocking.

At the heart of a DIY or gaming enthusiast machine is the processor. With the recent launch of Intel’s Core 2 Quad processor series, manufacturers are racing to come up with motherboards that support the chip. Even AMD has come up with its own quad-core processor line.

In comparison with the current dual core processors, quad core processors from both Intel and AMD have four cores in each die. In simpler terms, it is like running four processors in a single chip, making it four to six times faster than the older Pentium 4 processors
two years ago.

Elitegroup Computer Systems vice president for Worldwide Channel Sales David Chien told hackenslash that the mainboard business will be driven by the quad-core processors, which will encourage manufacturers to push their products to become more stable in running an extremely complex quad-core processor.

“While I don’t see the time when we need to replace the standard size (ATX and micro-ATX) of the motherboard, there will be new innovations in boardmaking that will prove how well a company can keep up,” Chien said.

Chien noted that the Philippines is a particularly good market for ECS motherboards. Like Inno3D video cards, Chien said their entry-level to mid-level motherboards are the top selling models for the company.

“We sell thousands of units per month to the Philippines, mostly in the low- to mid-tier sectors. We’re expecting to sell quad-core motherboards that are the most affordable in the industry,” Chien said.

With a very niche but heavy spending market of DIY and game enthusiasts, memory module maker Corsair knows that it would not be a hard-sell in the Philippines. Despite not having a major presence in the mainstream DIY sector, the US-based company said that the Philippines is still a good market for its more expensive modules.

Corsair Asia-Pacific sales manager Shane Dennison said that while Corsair continues to sell high-value memory modules, their users are more than happy to have purchased their products.

“We test our modules thoroughly and we buy parts that are of good make. This is an assurance to our customers and in fact, we have reported failures of no more than 0.02 percent per batch. That means the chances of a memory module failing is almost impossible,” Dennison said.

He said that the company is confident enough to introduce other non-memory module products, particularly water-resistant flash drives and power supply units for computer casings.

And like all of its other products, the new ones to be introduced in the Philippines will also be high-end units.

“We won’t be entering this market unless we’re confident that we can sell,” Dennison summed up.

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