Zotac Factory Tour or "How Video Cards are Made"

Funny thing is those are the exact cards that have temp problems right now. The Zotac AMP 1070 and 1080 (non extreme).
 
travm said:
static control? i wonder how many they blow up.
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ESD flooring, static resistant uniforms, rubber soled slippers, static resistant gloves, wrist straps for most people directly handling the card. Seems like they have pretty good static control to me.
 
Surely rubber soled slippers are the opposite of requirements for ESD control.
They prevent static from leaking away.
 
Hahahahahahaha.........your GPUs are belong to us.

Wonder what shift that is? The peeps don't look real happy.
 
Rvenger said:
Funny thing is those are the exact cards that have temp problems right now. The Zotac AMP 1070 and 1080 (non extreme).
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Too much thermal paste. That's almost always the cuplrit. Occasionally you have a misaligned heatsink base or manufacturing defect that causes heatpipes to fail early, but I can think of only 2 widespread instances of such in the last 10 years. Every other time it's just globbed on thermal paste, plain and simple.
 
Nenu said:
Surely rubber soled slippers are the opposite of requirements for ESD control.
They prevent static from leaking away.
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Every pair of ESD shoes I've ever seen are rubber soled. ESD mats (both floor and table) can also be made from rubber. I don't know about all but some ESD flooring is also made from rubber.
 
Derangel said:
Every pair of ESD shoes I've ever seen are rubber soled. ESD mats (both floor and table) can also be made from rubber. I don't know about all but some ESD flooring is also made from rubber.
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They must be matching the potential of everything instead of relying on ground connections.
Potential Difference can still be zero.
 
techguymaxc said:
Too much thermal paste. That's almost always the cuplrit. Occasionally you have a misaligned heatsink base or manufacturing defect that causes heatpipes to fail early, but I can think of only 2 widespread instances of such in the last 10 years. Every other time it's just globbed on thermal paste, plain and simple.
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Check reddit. Seems like a bad batch of coolers. Perhaps they forgot to fill the heatpipes with liquid or something. Amp Extreme doesn't exhibit the issue at all.
 
techguymaxc said:
Too much thermal paste. That's almost always the cuplrit. Occasionally you have a misaligned heatsink base or manufacturing defect that causes heatpipes to fail early, but I can think of only 2 widespread instances of such in the last 10 years. Every other time it's just globbed on thermal paste, plain and simple.
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no such thing as too much, only too little. prob is bad batch of hsf units, maybe bad heatpipes, maybe not installed tight enough.
 
pendragon1 said:
no such thing as too much, only too little. prob is bad batch of hsf units, maybe bad heatpipes, maybe not installed tight enough.
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You're joking right? You just want enough thermal paste to fill in the voids. No more, no less. Each transition creates a thermal boundary and paste does not conduct as well as metal.
 
yep thermal paste is only there to even out the surfaces, not to transfer heat, it definitely isn't as good at transferring heat as most metals.
 
DigitalGriffin said:
You're joking right? You just want enough thermal paste to fill in the voids. No more, no less. Each transition creates a thermal boundary and paste does not conduct as well as metal.
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nope not kidding. only down side of too much is a mess. posted this before and posting it again. watch and learn...

 
LOL he himself says don't over do it, and the temps are probably due to newer thermal paste.

Now if you have a good deal of pressure applied from the heat sink and when screwing in the heat sink, you are pushing the thermal paste out, which is exactly what Jayz2cents did, there is no need to use excessive amounts.

Now if ya don't put enough thermal paste and don't even out the surfaces that is also a problem.
 
well I have seen people put too much and not tighten the screws enough, Which just causes lots of issues.

Then again I have seen people put too little and screw too hard too.

Just use a basic X and + and you should be set. No need to over do and waste the thermal paste.

CPU's are a different story though, never ever use too much thermal paste there..... You don't want to have excessive gunk all over the place on your socket, I usually put drops of thermal paste, in X and + pattern and that is enough.

Also if you look at the deltas have different thermal pastes vs. something like liquid metal, the conductivity of heat, its easy to see that thermal pastes even the best ones aren't any where as good liquid metal compounds. If I remember correctly like 100% differences. And liquid metals aren't as good as a solid piece of metal either. This is why you should never over do it with these compounds if at all possible and make sure heat sinks are snug, not too tight not too loose.
 
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American Jobs? Actually pretty cool my eyes would be all wonked out at the end of the day though during that testing phase.
 
Always cool to see how much work goes into a computer component, especially video cards/motherboards. Kinda makes you appreciate what you have more.

magoo said:
Hahahahahahaha.........your GPUs are belong to us.

Wonder what shift that is? The peeps don't look real happy.
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Well, TBH I don't think I'd be too "smiley" either if I had to do the EXACT same thing over and over again for 5-6 days a week, every minute and every hour. But, "Western-style anticipation/addiction for work soma" or not, these guys can take it for years on end, and in "much better than Foxconn" conditions (the Gigabyte video was in Taiwan, where manual tech labor actually matches that of the US for wages -- but Gigabyte places value in experience, with a number of their low-level technicians having over 15+ years of experience, which is why they didn't ship all of their factories into China). So lots of respect for those guys.

As a number of my friends from the PRC have stated, it's a lot better working in a tech factory than, say, construction in certain parts in the interior of China, where the conditions are still right out of a third-world country (only sophisticated items are the construction materials/equipment themselves) and the pay is ok at best (the manual tech workers get paid considerably more). And now that construction is slowing down drastically in China, those that have manual tech jobs are even more appreciative ...
 
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