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.