HL Tours ECS' China Facilities

[Lokie]

Originally Posted by gvblake22

WOW, that was amazing! I had no idea they boards start as a solid sheet of copper! No wonder they are so expensive...
Thanks for all the great pictures Rich, I can only imagine what it was like to get home after a 30 hour plane ride and a 12 hour time change to resize that many images!

Actually Blake, the PCB sheet has copper on both sides. Not an actual sheet of copper. With cooper on both sides you have more realastate for all the traces. My partner Twizted, did a small PCB in this video at Bill Owen's (Mod Nation)shop.
Video is here... YouTube - Case Mod: Custom LED Circuit Board by DragonModz.net

That is just a simple PCB...where as companies like ECS have the sweet toys to make the real fine traces...not to even mention the design of them

And back on topic, thanks for taken that trip. Lots of cool stuff to see.

[Beetle Bailey]

Sorry I couldn't resist!! looooong line of girls working at a table doing the same repetitous work over and over again... that just makes my fingers and hands ache. Are you sure thats why they are sore?

[Capper]

Originally Posted by Panda Man

well said! Nice article Rich. I may not look at a motherboard the same again :O

I was also surprised when I saw that ECS made 1 out of ever 5 motherboards sold world wide, I didn't know that they were that big. I hope that's what they were saying anyways, because like their manuals, it would seem that this was fed through an automated translator.

I think if you saw the company names on some of the boxes, you'd never look at ECS the same again. I know I was definitely surprised.

time was really tight, its hard logistically to set up an event like this covering 3 countries, with customs, travel, etc....and i was impressed we got to take in as much as we did.

I'm still trying to get caught up on emails, food, and sleep.....it was a Loooooooooooooong week

[wtcnbrwndo4u]

Originally Posted by Capper

I think if you saw the company names on some of the boxes, you'd never look at ECS the same again. I know I was definitely surprised.

What OEM companies do they distribute to?

[Capper]

Originally Posted by wtcnbrwndo4u

What OEM companies do they distribute to?

If I get permission to post the names I will, but we were asked not to say because of the NDA they had with the companies

[wtcnbrwndo4u]

Originally Posted by Capper

If I get permission to post the names I will, but we were asked not to say because of the NDA they had with the companies

That's what I figured why you didn't say it. I don't know if these have changed recently, but this is what I know.
HP - Asus
Dell - Foxconn (but I'm feeling it's changed recently).

I think Gateway literally uses Intel boards still.

[Jokerswild]

Dell used Intel boards for awhile too. No telling now. Probably whoever gives the best deal.

[Lokie]

Yeah SuperTalent is the same way, they were (are) manufacturing for so many other companies they decided to lable their own product.

[wtcnbrwndo4u]

Originally Posted by Jokerswild

Dell used Intel boards for awhile too. No telling now. Probably whoever gives the best deal.

Well, about a year ago, Dell told several mobo manufacturers to start working on AMD boards for them. If I'm not mistaken, they told Foxconn, Asus, and perhaps ECS. I know the first two were on that list, but unsure of ECS. They were manufacturers in China/Taiwan though.

[gvblake22]

Originally Posted by wtcnbrwndo4u

They were manufacturers in China/Taiwan though.

aaahhh, that narrows it down. Let's see who's left... hmmm, just about EVERYONE!