Lenovo’s reportedly entering the motherboard market under its Legion brand

Rumour has it that Lenovo plans to enter the motherboard market, bringing themselves into competition with the likes of ASRock, ASUS, Gigabyte and MSI, at least according to Guru3D. 

Images have surfaced online of Lenovo Legion branded motherboards, each of which utilises a non-standard form factor and supports Intel’s 300-series and Intel 400-series chipsets respectively. 

While some could see this is hints at Lenovo’s entry into the desktop motherboard market for home PC builders, it is more likely that Lenovo simply plans to use these motherboards in their future OEM PC builds. Simply put, it would be silly for Lenovo to release motherboards like the two below onto the consumer market, given their non-standard form factors and their utilitarian design. Both motherboards offer minimal I/O options and the Legaion-branded heatsinks on the larger model would be seen as simplistic or flimsy when viewed by DIY motherboard users.  

The idea of additional competition within the DIY PC market is a welcome one, but it must be remembered that tackling the DIY PC market is not an easy task. The DIY market has a lot of different considerations to consider, especially with regards to overclocking. It requires a completely different design mindset, and it needs high order volumes to be successful. 

As it stands, I don’t see Lenovo entering the motherboard market with Intel Comet Lake compatible motherboards. While I’m sure Lenovo could make motherboards for the DIY market, there is little reason why they should.