vivo Philippines just launched a new midrange phone, the vivo Y31d. The vivo Y31d is a 4G-only phone powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 6s Gen 2 processor, coupled with 8GB of RAM and 256GB of, sadly, non-expandable storage. A highlight here is the large 7,200mAh battery that lasts for up to 68 hours of music playback, 45 hours for videos, 14.5 hours of GPS navigation, and 13.2 hours of playing MOBA titles. It also supports bypass charging and has a 6-year durability. Speaking of durability, the Y31d received an SGS 5-Star rating for its drop resistance and has MIL-STD-810H certification for its shock resistance. It is also IP68/69/69+ dust and water resistance, and has Wet-Hand Touch support. We also have a 6.75-inch IPS display with a 120Hz refresh rate, but only an HD+ resolution. Stereo speakers are also here, as well as the Android 16-based OriginOS 6 interface, 50-megapixel main camera, and 8-megapixel selfie shooter. The vivo Y31d is available...
Thinking about building a new computer from scratch? You might want to check your wallet first. The market for do-it-yourself PCs is in a bad place right now, and the companies that make the main circuit boards for computers are taking a big hit.
A recent industry report shows that sales of PC motherboards are expected to drop by about 25% this year compared to last year. The main reason is that people just are not buying as many parts as they used to.
Here is the strange part. The boom in artificial intelligence is actually hurting regular PC builders. Companies are rushing to build huge AI data centers, and those centers need a lot of memory chips and processors. This has created a major shortage of key parts like DDR4 memory, DDR5 memory, and standard CPUs.
Because supply is low and demand from data centers is high, prices for these components have gone through the roof. That makes it very expensive for an average person to build a new PC at home.
Three of the biggest names in PC motherboards are from Taiwan. And all of them have had to lower their sales targets for 2026.
ASUS is now looking at selling around 10 million motherboards this year. Both MSI and GIGABYTE expect to sell less than 10 million units each. That is a drop of one quarter compared to what they sold in 2025.
The worst situation is at ASRock. The company is predicted to see its sales fall by a huge 30%.
You might think that new graphics cards would get people excited to upgrade. But that is not happening this time.
| Manufacturer | Projected 2026 Sales Volume | Year-Over-Year Decrease (vs. 2025) |
| ASROCK | Not disclosed | ~30% decrease |
| GIGABYTE | < 10 Million units | ~25% decrease |
| MSI | < 10 Million units | ~25% decrease |
| ASUS | ~10 Million units | Downward revision (Specific % not disclosed) |
NVIDIA recently launched its new Blackwell generation of GPUs. At first, many gamers bought new PCIe 5.0 motherboards to get the best performance out of these cards. But then the graphics cards became very hard to find. And when people did find them, the prices were extremely high.
So now, most gamers are simply deciding to wait. They do not want to spend a lot of money on a full system upgrade when they cannot even get a reasonably priced graphics card.
The short-term future does not look very bright. The head of AMD, Dr. Lisa Su, has already said that demand for gaming hardware is likely to keep falling in the second half of this year. For anyone hoping for cheaper PC parts anytime soon, that is not good news.
Source: Tom’s Hardware
This article, PC motherboard sales expected to drop 25% in 2026 — report, was originally published at NoypiGeeks | Philippines Technology News, Reviews and How to's.
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