Gone and Nearly Forgotten, Chaintech May Be Making a Comeback

Show of hands, how many of you remember the name Chaintech (or Walton Chaintech, if you prefer)? Don't beat yourself up if you've forgotten all about Chaintech, a once popular player in the motherboard and graphics business. The last time we featured a Chaintech product was in 2004, back when we reviewed the company's Apogee AA5700U graphics card. And the last Chaintech brand motherboard we tested was a 9CJS Zenith Series... in 2003.

Chaintech officially quit the motherboard and graphics card markets in 2006, but word on the Web is that it's looking to make a comeback. According to DigiTimes, Walton Chaintech has partnered up with a leading graphics card vendor in China called Colorful in order to return to the business of making both videocards and motherboards.


The last time we benchmarked a Chaintech motherboard was in 2003, and if the latest rumors are true, the next time could be in 2013.

As the story goes, Chaintech expects to gradually return back to branding its own products in 2013. With the help of Colorful, Chaintech will target markets outside of China and the two will eventually expand into other consumer electronics markets, though neither company said what those might be.