Inside Elitegroup Computer Systems: From Taipei to Shen Zhen
by Kristopher Kubicki on October 4, 2003 12:39 PM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
Getting down to the politics of the situation, the partnership between PC Chips and ECS is actually slightly complicated. For those of you who don’t quite know the situation between China and Taiwan, let us take a crash course in Chinese politics. China technically considers Taiwan as a “rogue state,” and thus, it does not allow Taiwanese citizens and companies the same rights as Chinese. The PC Chips CEO, Johnson Chiang, is a Taiwanese citizen and may not own Chinese factories, offices, etc. In the early 90’s, PC Chips became one of the first motherboard companies to spin off a motherboard production factory, which is actually its own company, in mainland China.
Edit: Joseph Yu, our tour guide for the ECS factory provided us with a few details we got wrong: Mr. Johnson Chiang became one of the major shareholders of ECS in 1998 while he was Chairman of PC CHIPS. But, this was Mr. Chiang's personal investment. In fact, Pou chen Group, the world's leading shoe maker who design & OEM for Nike, Rebook, and Adidas, is the biggest shareholder of ECS (13.56% in 2002). Precisely speaking, Mr. Chiang became Chairman of ECS in 1998, but did not take over ownership of ECS. Due to Mr. Chiang's relationship toward this two companies, ECS and PC CHIPS began their cooperation on manufacturing since then. From legal aspect, these two are still independent companies.
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Sengir - Thursday, April 22, 2004 - link
They need to rework their Quality Control policies.. and pay more to their workers.As I stated in a different article.
I am a Service Technician with a large electronics retailer on the West coast.
ECS is our #1 returned motherboard/computer (Great Quality brand).
If you plan on buying or building a computer system, stay away from ECS and Great Quality.
davemc759 - Sunday, March 21, 2004 - link
To compare and contrast you may wish to look athttp://www.legitreviews.com/Reviews/corsair_trip_1...
Being a lifer in the electronics manufacturing industry in the US, stories like these really bring home just how volatile the work situation really is. If the mainstay of economic stability is gauged by productivity, it would appear China has more working in it's favor than simply cheap labor.
Rumpltzer - Tuesday, November 4, 2003 - link
NMAnonymous User - Friday, October 24, 2003 - link
The people who say ECS make crap Boards should read more carefully. ECS makes also mbs for Shuttle and Abit!Anonymous User - Thursday, October 9, 2003 - link
Interesting article. I use an ECS board in mysystem 'cause by American standards I'm poor.
It works fine and the slight bugs that seem to be
there are most likely software related....
Anonymous User - Thursday, October 9, 2003 - link
Love the article, very insightful.Anonymous User - Thursday, October 9, 2003 - link
Free room and board.Anonymous User - Wednesday, October 8, 2003 - link
I have three ECS board based machines (including one dual PIII) and one PC-Chips board machine. They are running well. I am doing a lot of IT development and run some server apps on them. Seems to me they are even better than the equivalent HP PCs at work.Anonymous User - Tuesday, October 7, 2003 - link
Every country has its way to develop , China has it too. and China is on its way now. China will become stronger and stronger, look back american , you can see there are so many chinese in your university, they are working hard too. china become strong is not just because of cheap labour.Anonymous User - Monday, October 6, 2003 - link
I'd really enjoy this story and all of the valuable information from this auther. I do further believe that all American should work harder or appeciate the shear fact that we live in a very VERY good enviroment. I appeciate life more when I do see what are the living condition and (average) standard of living is so much different in China/India or even the very mondernized Taiwan.I TOTALLY AGREE WITH THIS COMMENT!! Thank you!!
J.S.