Inside Elitegroup Computer Systems: From Taipei to Shen Zhen
by Kristopher Kubicki on October 4, 2003 12:39 PM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
Getting to China
Computex 2003 Hall 1 Showfloor
As we mentioned earlier, the ECS-PC Chips company is headquartered in Taipei, Taiwan (Republic of China). There are dozens of ECS branches in the world, from California to Japan, South America and Europe. Because we were in Taipei for Computex 2003, we had a perfect opportunity to visit Shen Zhen, China and see the production facilities of ECS firsthand.
Already, just getting to the factory in China is a political fiasco. For US and European citizens, the ability to travel into China requires only a Visa, which is usually pretty easy to obtain. However, our Taiwanese hosts required a bit more paperwork since the Chinese government does not recognize Taiwanese citizens as Chinese citizens. Thus, only the port city and former British ruled colony of Hong Kong allows entry to planes from Taipei. Our final destination, Shen Zhen, has an international airport, but we have to fly from Taipei to Hong Kong and then drive 2 hours from Hong Kong to Shen Zhen. Six checkpoints and 5 hours after leaving the Taipei World Trade Center, we arrived at our destination: ECSM Shen Zhen.
The ECSM facility is comprised of three separate buildings. The #5 and #20 factories are owned by ECSM (one of the Chinese sub-companies in Elitegroup), while the #26 factory is a new factory that is owned by ECS Taiwan. Chinese government allowed ECS to become one of the first Taiwanese companies to own a factory in Shen Zhen, a fact they are quite proud of. It is easy to forget that Shen Zhen used to be a sleep port city neighbored to Hong Kong. As an experiment in the late 1970’s, China allowed Shen Zhen to become the first city in the country to allow capitalism. As the city exploded into a metropolis of more than 7 million people, the Chinese government watches the city and its workers vigorously.
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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.