Making Motherboards The Gigabyte Way
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Enthusiasts may know tons about the hardware that comprises their PCs, but it’s much more difficult to fully appreciate how those components come to be. We spend so much time talking about bleeding-edge manufacturing processes and the millions of transistors etched into silicon, then distill the technology into its asking price without appreciating the R&D invested in creating a new product.
But let’s be fair. One reason the average computer user’s interest in the inner workings of tech is so superficial is that hardware manufacturers’ communication is deliberately simplistic. Fortunately, there are exceptions. At the last Computex consumer electronics trade show, which is held yearly in Taipei, Taiwan, Gigabyte invited the press to visit one of its factories. We obliged.
Come along, as we take you on a pictorial tour of how some of your favorite motherboards and graphics cards go from lifeless components to—well, lifeless, yet functional, hardware.
Remind me not to buy any Gigabyte products from when those reporters were there. We all know how reporters like to shed!
Now I know how my P35/P45-DS3x boards are made!
man, this is some shit. i feel that the price they ask us is so little. lol
I couldn't help but notice that with the exception of 3 men in the last 2 pictures, every other employee of Gigabyte seems to be female. I always associate factory jobs with men, but apparently things are different in Taiwan. Of course, it could just be that the photographer "forgot" to take pictures of men.
Wow! you should also visit the other top 3 makers ASUS and MSI. Let's compare them which one is much professional on this. ^_^
very insightful. im guessing women workers are on the floor probably because they are more agile with their smaller hands. After all, it's only fair for women to make 'mother'boards i assume
Wow, that is cool. I have seen wave soldering in person so I know how precise and neat that is. I'm not sure I like how that guy is looking at my DS3L in slide 18 or 19 thought...
Whisper silent... I hope those are earbuds and not earplugs then. I think I'd have some form of carpel tunnel in a week there. Makes me appreciate the boards a bit more.
Thanks for a smart (though not super detailed) write up with fewer then usual errors in the writing!
Gigabyte FTW
Very interesting. I would love to go on a tour!
The Board in picture 17 has a really wicked rear. 4 RJ45 (possibly LAN) connectors and 8 USB? Which Gigabyte board is that?
Wooow that really impressive! That wants me to choose Gigabyre over other brands seeing the quality of the production and how much manual labor giving the quality over quantity
very nice article
funny how we saw only 1 guy workin there
holy crap! that is cool. I really want to buy gigabyte now...
i wish to become an employee there
Interesting... Now if you could only get inside Intel and get picks of how Nehalem is being constructed...
Wow, in picture 17, the motherboard has 4 ethernet ports? Which board is that?
Really cool article btw.
I had 5 expensive gigabyte motherboards which died in less than one year, amd 939 socket(2006), that was a well known gigabyte issue, why do you think they advertise "durable capacitors" on all of their boxes, tried 2 mobos 2 years after, got I bad, no longer trust gigabyte. Now I just buy Asus mobos. I'm surprise they have become the third largest motherboard manufacturer in the world.
Picture #17, what kind of board is that? it has FOUR Ethernet ports and EIGHT native USB ports, on top of legacy PS/2 ports?! I want THAT!
I'm surprised they have supposedly become the third largest motherboard manufacturer, which I just found out it's not true.
Please check on digitimes financial information and check revenues for 2007 and it clearly states, gigabyte it's barely number 6.
please take a look at:
http://www.digitimes.com/fin/CoList.asp
and just pull down "mobos" and "motherboard" info and check by yourself.
They also have 2008 sales up to june and 1st quarter numbers as well.
Asustek is a monster company.
Nice article..