The Notebook Review forums were hosted by TechTarget, who shut down them down on January 31, 2022. This static read-only archive was pulled by NBR forum users between January 20 and January 31, 2022, in an effort to make sure that the valuable technical information that had been posted on the forums is preserved. For current discussions, many NBR forum users moved over to NotebookTalk.net after the shutdown.
How Laptops Are Made in Factories | How It's Made Science Channel Published on Feb 15, 2019
Learn how a laptop designed for gaming is built in a factory.
The by hand assembly should be fully automated (it can be done).
That would reduce the number of errors significantly... but OEM's are lazy and cheap at the moment to bother that much with it.... so they will probably do it gradually... meanwhile, many more errors will crop up.
Gamers Nexus grand tour of Taiwan manufacturing...
How Motherboards Are Made (2019) | Taiwan Automated Factory Tour, ft. Gigabyte Gamers Nexus Published on Mar 13, 2019
We toured Gigabyte's Taiwan SMT lines and factory to show how motherboards and video cards are made from start to finish.
Making a motherboard mostly involves the surface-mount technology process, but DIP (dual in-line packaging) and product packaging are also important, as is the preceding product testing and EMI testing.
Motherboard manufacturing is a refined process, but each board still takes upwards of an hour to finalize on the assembly line. About half of the assembly is now done by automated SMT lines, with the rest being manual quality checks and large component installation (like PCIe slots). As for how to make a video card, it follows exactly the same process -- the difference is just which board is being fed through the machines on each day.
This factory is located on Nanping Road in Taiwan, about a 40-minute drive from Taipei 101. Other electronics factories and SMT lines exist predominantly in China, like in Shenzhen, but Gigabyte has shifted operations toward its Taiwan-based factory to help dodge potential incoming tariffs. The company also focuses its higher-end product manufacturing on this line.
How PC Case Fans Are Made | Shenzhen Factory Tour (Deepcool) Gamers Nexus Published on Mar 10, 2019
PC case fan manufacturing is growing more advanced with automated production lines, but manual assembly is still involved. Learn more in our Deepcool fan factory tour in China.
Deepcool has factories located in both Shenzhen, China and Dongguan, China. For this tour, we're focusing on the company's Shenzhen factory for its PC case fan manufacturing, where we show how fans are manufactured in China. This facility uses "robots" and automation for its assembly, with human oversight to ensure proper installation of bearings, blades, and more.
KINGPIN Overclocking Lab Tour & Secret EVGA Products Gamers Nexus Published on Mar 9, 2019
Touring KINGPIN's & TiN's XOC lab shows us the tools of the trade, like an ultrasonic cleaner, CPU sander, oscilloscopes and logic analyzers, and customized hardware.
EVGA's KINGPIN and TiN have one of the coolest labs in the industry. The shop is filled with customized XOC tools, like IHS direct die frames, custom sockets for die sanding, prototype video cards and PCBs, one-off video cards, liquid nitrogen tanks, and more. In this tour, K|NGP|N and TiN walk us through the equipment on display, old products (like EV Bot), and upcoming projects that were secret until now.
If you've been wondering if direct die cooling or CPU lapping are worth it, KINGPIN answers that in this video. If you've been wondering how motherboards are made and designed, TiN talks about some of the electrical engineering and circuit chasing processes.
GPU Radiation Testing & Signal Engineering | MSI Lab Tour Gamers Nexus Published on Mar 8, 2019
This tour of a video card validation lab shows how MSI checks for EMI, radiation, signal integrity, and acoustics of its components.
Learning about how video cards and motherboards are made brings us to MSI's validation lab, where we see the pre-production steps in testing to ensure CE or FCC compliance (and compliance with other ISO standards). This also includes optimizing circuit traces to reduce EMI (electromagnetic interference), crosstalk, and signal degradation. The signal analysis labs and EMI labs are accompanied by a semi-anechoic chamber for more accurate acoustic testing than could be done in a traditional room, equipped with ten microphones for various angles of measurement.
The Infamous Intel Chiller, Threadripper LN2 Results, & Gigabyte's OC Lab Tour Gamers Nexus Published on Mar 6, 2019
We toured Gigabyte's overclocking lab with Hicookie, one of the leading extreme overclockers in the industry, who aids in R&D at the company.
Although Hicookie didn't want to be on camera today, he was willing to show us his very cool XOC lab at Gigabyte HQ, filled wall-to-wall with upcoming projects, customized OC tools, chillers, LN2 dewars, and more. The lab currently is focusing on the Gigabyte X599 C621 Aorus Extreme motherboard for the Intel W-3175X 28-core CPU.
How "TDP" Is Calculated & Why Cooler Reviews Are Flawed | Lab Tour Gamers Nexus Published on Mar 15, 2019
This tour of Cooler Master's fan & heatsink testing lab gives an opportunity to discuss how TDP is calculated and how cooler reviews are difficult.
"TDP" is sort of a difficult metric to work with. Intel, AMD, and NVIDIA all calculate TDP differently, and cooler manufacturers calculate their own TDPs still differently from these companies. In this video, we show one of the tools that Cooler Master could use to calculate "TDP" of a cooler, although the company more commonly leaves the number off of boxes to reduce confusion. The same testing lab is used for case fan benchmarks, CPU cooler and heatsink benchmarks, and product development of coolers.
"RIP" KINGPIN | 2200MHz RTX 2080 Ti Kingpin Overclock on Water @ EVGA Taiwan Labs Gamers Nexus Published on Mar 17, 2019
EVGA's new RTX 2080 Ti Kingpin card can run high overclocks on water, perhaps best illustrated by Kingpin himself on the new flagship GPU. This walkthrough of EVGA's new RTX 2080 Ti Kingpin video card looks at what EVGA promises to be its best RTX 2080 Ti, starting first with the real-world achievable overclocks on a water cooler. We also talk with Kingpin and TiN about VBIOS power target increases, delta clocks, memory straps, and more.
How Copper Heatpipes Are Made | China Factory Tour (Cooler Master) Gamers Nexus Published on Mar 21, 2019
We show how CPU cooler and GPU cooler copper heatpipes are made by Cooler Master in HuiZhou, China. These automated factories near Shenzhen make the heatpipes. Copper heatpipes contain liquid inside to accelerate heat dissipation by using the phase change to shed energy quickly. This video shows cross-sections of sintered copper heatpipes and talks about how much liquid (and what kind of liquid) is inside of a copper heatpipe. We also show the start-to-finish process of manufacturing heatpipes, which is part of the long process to make a CPU or GPU heatsink.
Why USB3 Type-C Isn’t on More Cases | How Cables Are Made Factory Tour Gamers Nexus Published on Mar 24, 2019
This factory tour shows how cables are made, especially USB 3.1 Type-C cables, in SanDian's factory in China. Cooler Master uses this factory for its cables.
Part of this factory's testing is to establish that its USB 3 and Type-C cables actually reach rated speeds (some factories make fake USB 3 cables that don't reach speeds advertised), but it also looks at how long USB cables actually last by doing endurance connection cycle testing. The factory's primary job is to manufacture and assemble cables of all kinds, including HD Audio, front panel, and USB cables, and sell said cables to case manufacturers, phone manufacturers, or other partners in the industry. This factory does about 80,000 cables total per month, or up to 25,000 USB cables per month.
How an AMD Ryzen Cooler is Made | Factory Tour (Cooler Master) Gamers Nexus Published on Mar 27, 2019
We follow the lifecycle of making an AMD Wraith cooler in Shenzhen & Dongguan, China, as manufactured by Cooler Master. Includes tooling, fin stamping, & more.
AMD and Intel both have their CPU stock coolers made largely by Cooler Master, responsible also for the new "Wraith" and "Spire" series coolers for Ryzen processors. Cooler Master also makes many stock GPU coolers, and so some of the machines we look at in this video will technically be stamping GPU coolers, but they're also used for CPU cooler manufacturing. Each part of the line makes parts on a one-part-per-day basis, typically, so we'd have to be in the same factory for a week or so to see each cooler part made for a single SKU. The process remains the same regardless of what's being made, though.
How Tempered Glass is Made | Everyone Uses the Same Factory Gamers Nexus Published on Mar 26, 2019
This tempered glass factory tour shows how PC case glass side panels are made -- most case manufacturers even use the same exact factory!
We visited this tempered glass factory in Dongguan, China with Cooler Master, but the factory also makes glass side panels for Lian Li (the O11 Dynamic), ASUS, and Thermaltake. Cooler Master's MP530P was being made on the same day we visited, and the factory also makes the Master Maker glass paneling. Tempered glass panels for PC hardware became an overnight business, causing this furniture glass factory to expand into PC tempered glass manufacturing rapidly.
How PC Liquid Coolers Are Made | China Factory Tours (Cooler Master & DeepCool) Gamers Nexus Published on Apr 1, 2019
This factory tour shows how computer water coolers are made, focusing on DeepCool & Cooler Master liquid cooling factories in Shenzhen & HuiZhou, China. Computer liquid cooling is made with a complicated manufacturing process. Skiving machines are needed to make the microfins in coldplates, CNCs are used for custom radiator mounting work or heatsink prototyping, manual work is needed for pump and tube assembly, and multi-hour burn-in tests are required to ensure the products pass quality control. Leak testing is also done to try and isolate any leaking liquid coolers prior to release to public, with special air leak testing machines used for this process.
Electronics We Got in China & Taiwan, ft. Intel Tools & Bare Kingpin PCB Gamers Nexus Published on Mar 29, 2019
We picked up some cool electronics in China and Taiwan, some of which are not for public sale. We also stopped by SEG E-Market in Huaqianbei, Shenzhen. This video has some cool behind-the-scenes parts in it from MSI, like the Intel gauges for motherboard clearance, and an unpopulated 2080 Ti Kingpin PCB from EVGA. We also bought a knockoff SNES classic in SEG E-Market and picked up one of the cheapest CPU coolers on the market.
How Screws Are Made | Automated Factory Tour in China Gamers Nexus Published on Apr 3, 2019
We visited a screw factory in Dongguan, China to show how screws are made. Many of these are for the PC hardware industry, like standoffs and thumb screws. This is another factory tour with Cooler Master, but it is a third-party factory responsible for screw manufacturing. Screws start as a steel wire and get fed through various tap and die machines until they eventually become the hardware we use daily.
How Cardboard is Made | Factory Tour Gamers Nexus Published on Apr 6, 2019
This is one of our final factory tours, and shows the end of the supply chain with cardboard box manufacturing. This cardboard box factory tour shows start-to-finish. Cardboard box manufacturing is a long process -- literally, the machine to do it is several hundred feet long. The process involves steaming, heating, drying, gluing, crinkling, and cutting, and is heavily automated.
Socketable GPU Testing & Binning | MSI Factory Tour Gamers Nexus Published on May 1, 2019
We found a socketable GPU testing tool on a PCB at MSI's factory in China, but also some custom GPU testing tools. MSI's factory has some unique GPU testing tools on-site. Test technicians are capable of operating at least 12 systems simultaneously, with each system automatically executing GPU tests for validation of IO (DisplayPort, HDMI, etc.), colorimeter tests, and more.
BPS Customs made a few "factory tour" video's around the same time as Gamers Nexus...
Cooler Master Thermals Factory Tour w/ Gamers Nexus BPS Customs Published on Mar 18, 2019
How PC Cases Are Made: Raw Metal to Retail Box BPS Customs Published on Mar 24, 2019
Gamers Nexus1 month ago "Excellent job at breaking down such an absurdly complex topic into 16 minutes. The video came together really well and gives a good start-to-finish look at case manufacturing."
Last Day In China BPS Customs Published on Mar 22, 2019
Automated Motherboard Testing & Robotic PC Building | MSI Factory Tour Gamers Nexus Published on May 5, 2019
We found a set of automated motherboard testers in a factory in Shenzhen, China, featuring in-circuit testing (ICT), semi-automated PC building, and more.
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