Inside Elitegroup Computer Systems: From Taipei to Shen Zhen
by Kristopher Kubicki on October 4, 2003 12:39 PM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
Dragontop and ECSM
Unfortunately, we did not get a chance to visit ECS’ Dragontop facilities. Another one of the ways ECS keeps its costs so low is by manufacturing most of its own connectors for the motherboard. Dragontop is a joint venture with AMP, perhaps one of the largest component manufacturers for PC motherboards. Once again, our PC Chips friend, Johnson Chiang, saw an opportunity and jumped all over it when a Hong Kong company put the factory up for sale in the mid nineties. Since we didn’t get a chance to see it, there isn’t really much to talk about. However, if you get a new motherboard and see AMP or ECS written on any of the components, you’ll know it is thanks to another one of Johnson’s factory.
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We are back in factory #20, and its time to cut those motherboard plates in half. While the whole facility has over 60 SMT lines, the floor we were on only contains 12. These are massive machines capable of soldering hundreds of machines an hour. The 60 lines we mentioned are capable of soldering 120,000+ boards per month.
Click to enlarge.
The next part is fairly fun to watch as well. Most motherboards are constructed in line assembly setups. About 25 workers will sit in a line and plug a few components into the predrilled board. Remember, the SMT machines have already connected north bridges, LAN and other chips. The few connectors and sockets left just slide into the board like some kind of unusual LEGO set. A final worker verifies that the components are all set in place, and then the assembly line puts the board in an oven.
Click to enlarge.
At this point, the boards continue down an elevator to one more floor where they will be tested for quality. Much to my surprise, the Quality Assurance (QA, but ECS also calls it Manual Inspection) portion of the factory seemed to consume the most time and energy. Below, you can see a worker testing the motherboard CPU socket for correct voltages. This is one of five or so specific component tests.
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Here, a worker actually assembles a full system and starts it up to run. Each component of the motherboard is tested from LAN to CPU. It only took about 5 minutes for this worker to assemble the unit, run about 10 DOS-based tests on it, and then disassemble it. If you ever felt like winning one of those CNET system builder contests, you could get one of these ECS girls to be a pretty sure ringer.
Below, a worker tests the network components of a motherboard.
A specially designed video card that can be removed and inserted into a motherboard without damaging the pins on the motherboard or the card.
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Anonymous User - Monday, October 6, 2003 - link
"Quote # 19"Anonymous User - Sunday, October 5, 2003 - link
#17-Most people RMA products because they are ignorant fools who should be buying Dells.Anonymous User - Sunday, October 5, 2003 - link
Is it a misprint, or do 50% of the originally manufactured bare motherboards fail QA? If that's true, you think they could figure out what the single biggest problem there is, fix it, and drop the fail rate to 20% or something. Yeesh. This article makes it seem like a miracle that their motherboards even work at all.I was going to mention how terrible a job sticking SIMM/DIMM connectors onto motherboards, all day, every day, for $150 a month would be, but then I thought there are a lot worse ways these women could be forced to make money.
AgaBooga - Sunday, October 5, 2003 - link
Any response to #7?Anonymous User - Sunday, October 5, 2003 - link
#9 you ignorant slut...since it is impossible to get the truth about employment practices, manufacturing practices (although the article alludes to how others around ECS are polluting)or just about anything else in china your statements just show you to be an apologist for a corrupt and tyrannical system...
i can guarantee that there are no 'lazy' workers over there, a mistake or two on the line and you go back to the rice paddy and another slave takes your place - one hell of a motivator...
Anonymous User - Sunday, October 5, 2003 - link
Nice article although ECS and it's affiliates still produce some of the worst motherboards I have ever used.Anonymous User - Sunday, October 5, 2003 - link
A very interesting article.What is surprising is that it is not more mechanized and that there is so much (wo)manual labor involved!As far as the cost of labor is concerned.It may be likely that $150 is considered a good wage in ChinaAnonymous User - Sunday, October 5, 2003 - link
A very great article, I knew that ECS was a large company. But not that large and I did´nt know that they have had Matsonic and PC Chips.The article could have been much more with their mainboards and Notebooks Espacially about the QA, and production technics.
#6 ECS Produce ALOT of mainboards it is somewhat impossible to garantee a mainboard that is not defetive, or an entire shipment.
Here they article could give us some insight on what happens with RMA mainboards at ECS, this would defently provide some insight what a mainboard manufactor do with these mainboards.
#11, I agree with you.
#9, to the part of the postoffice, I can only say this. In the US the law require that a Coperate Employer also hire Minority Groups in giving %.
Anonymous User - Sunday, October 5, 2003 - link
#6, you're an idiot, stop posting.DAVIDS - Sunday, October 5, 2003 - link
#9, I think you're making a lot of over-generalizations about American workers. Lazy people can be found in every country. There are a lot of American workaholics who spend 50-60 hours/week on the job. Also, you seem to forget that many of the technological innovations found in computers were made by researchers here in the US. The microprocessor, random access memory, etc. are all American inventions.