MSI Shenzhen Factory Tour - how Z890 motherboards are made!

KitGuru recently flew out to China where we met Ethan Yang, the vice president for MSI Shenzhen’s manufacturing plant. He gave us a tour of his factory facility just as they were going through the process of building the first Z890 Tomahawk motherboards, so we thought we'd bring our readers along for the ride! Read more here: www.kitguru.ne...
The complex itself is huge, as you might expect, and with strong security around the outside. When the plant first opened in 2001, it could house up to 12,000 workers. Nowadays, through increase efficiencies and the application of automation and Ai, MSI Shenzhen is down to just 3,000 workers - across all shifts. Yang told us that he expects to get this down to 1,500 in the near future.
So exactly how long does it take for a production line to be prepared and, once up and running, how long does it take to make one specific motherboard and how long does it take to switch from - say - a Z890 Tomahawk to a Z890 Carbon on the line itself?
Yang said that they tend to work in batches of 2,000 units at a time, that each board takes around 90 minutes to go from ‘plain PCB’ to ‘boxed and ready for sale’. Finally, switching products takes around 6 minutes.
As the plain PCBs arrive in the factory, the first station they hit is a solder paste printer. Yang explained that this machine lets them mask the motherboard in a precise way, so that later when the board goes through the solder path, they can control exactly what does and does not get connected.
The majority of components that will be installed on each motherboard actually come into the factory on a roll of tape, allowing the robotic manufacturing system to pick up each component and position it correctly on the motherboard. It is the role of the human operators to ensure they have enough tapes on standby and that they swap them out in time to reduce the chance of a production line having to stop.
In order for the soldering process to work perfectly, the board and everything on it must be brought up gently to a temperature of around 270 degrees. It's crucial that every part of the board is at the same temperature, if you want a successful solder.
Next we come to one of the automatic optical inspection machines, which can do a very detailed analysis of everything on the motherboard at this stage; this allows them to quickly and easily highlight any potential issues.
As we go along to the next section of surface mounting machines, Yang pointed out the second stage production line information screen showing which of the units are perfectly loaded and have plenty of spare components and which ones are getting to the point where they will need to be reloaded soon. Now that all of the surface mount components have been added to the board, it needs to go into a second oven.
After going through the second oven, each board is now inspected by a much more sophisticated unit that intelligently analyses everything that's been done on the board so far and tells the management team that everything's okay. Having seen all the surface mount parts of the process, we now get onto the machines that do insertion.
As you'd expect, there's another automated checking machine that will scan every part of the board looking for issues and defects that can be either fixed immediately or taken offline.
We've now moved to the first of a series of physical and electrical tests that are automatically carried out on the board. At this stage we're still missing the CPU mounting mechanism, which you can see being added here manually by human operator… …and it then goes into a robotic machine which will do up each screw to exactly the right pressure.
Then we're on to automated function tests where specialised machines will tell the operators if the board has been successful in its assembly. Operators can normally test 4 boards at a time like this, but the fact that this test is relatively slow means that they can have up to eight units being tested - by a single operator - all at once.
Buy our merch from here: kitgurutech.my...
Discord invite link: / discord
Steam Community steamcommunity...
Be sure to support us on PATREON / kitgurutech and read our MANTRA on HONEST REVIEWS Here: bit.ly/2BopnF9
Visit our facebook page over here! / kitguru.net
Visit our Twitter page over here! ki...
#msi #z890 #intel #msigaming

[@KitGuruTech]

Please report spam as you see it, we try and get it as quickly as we can - and on a brighter note - let us know what you think of the factory tour !

[@dreschaffhausen5693]

Amazing when the video pans around the factory at the end its friggin massive!

[@jake152]

Very cool to see how stuff is made, lots of design and work!

[@KitGuruTech]

Definitely!

[@JulianTurner2019]

Agreed, I'd never seen the factories where these sorts of parts are made before.. crazy cool to get such a close up look

[@ThakurHabeta]

that is incredible, had no idea - the liquid section was incredible

[@smith4235]

One of the most complex components for any system - the fail safes, and checks alone are mind blowing.

[@PCPro2017]

Not sure how I feel about losing thousands of jobs, but I guess it should keep kit affordable

[@Linuxdistro15-ih8ox]

Thanks Kitguru that was a very enjoyable show of various things I never even knew existed 🤓

[@Bellestronsse]

Hope they do more videos in this series. Would love to see GPUs and then chip manufacturing.

[@KitGuruTech]

Glad you enjoyed it

[@starcitizen6651]

Thanks for the video, I've been a happy loyal MSI customer for almost 15 years now. All my motherboards and graphics cards have been MSI for 15 years.

[@KitGuruTech]

Thanks for sharing 👍🏻

[@Berserkism]

The X570 Tomahawk WIFI has been an outstanding AM4 Board. If they keep that up I will keep buying that sub brand.

[@devonjohnson7501]

Great video, very fun to see all of this. It left me wanting more at the end, so feel free to make your next factory tour longer and more in-depth.

[@KitGuruTech]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@PCPro2017]

Damn! Thought it was a single line until the camera spins around, that place is enormous. Any idea what the production cost is for something like this Tomahawk Z890?

[@andrzejbania5612]

Thinking about a career change? 😂

[@JonathanPilson-mu3rg]

The r&d would be the killer and having the engineers to design the multilayered boards. Once that’s in place it’s a case of ensuring the boards are all 100%. the initial cost for the factory , staff and equipment would be high. The more they use it for various lines the more money they make.

[@Iloveyoutube-oh4ug]

Was eye opening seeing all those lines

[@festerleech4952]

@@andrzejbania5612 Bit far to commute for me

[@UnitedAlgorit-el4hy]

Thanks Kitguru loved this video MSI are one of my favourites ❤❤❤

[@KitGuruTech]

Glad you liked it

[@visionary4787]

It’s wild how the precision of modern motherboard manufacturing blends human oversight with cutting-edge robotics. Ethan’s explanation really highlights how intricate and layered the process is-from solder paste application to final assembly, each step is optimized for minimal errors. What caught my attention most is the way every detail, like temperature control and component placement, is tightly monitored. It’s almost as if the factory is its own living organism, constantly adapting to ensure perfect production. Makes you wonder just how much further automation will go in perfecting these processes.

[@harleylover9446]

Thank you for this. Very cool to see inside that kind of factory 🤩

[@KitGuruTech]

Glad you enjoyed it

[@pixelrefresh348]

Brilliant always wanted to see how this stuff is put together!

[@CambridgePunk]

My B660 Tomahawk wifi ddr5 was born in that factory? Crazy stuff! It’s a great motherboard though, well done MSI and kitguru for this superb little documentary!

[@vishalgaud3631]

Thanks Dominic - nicely done !

[@KitGuruTech]

Thank you too!

[@jayu_rathod_070]

Thank you for this, educational and very interesting to see. nice to see MSI working with you guys so closely.

[@KitGuruTech]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@svlagonda7417]

FASCINATING video!!! The production really is quite complicated in terms of all the stages and components used.

[@kaylee.snyder]

You guys are awesome for giving this tour

[@KitGuruTech]

Thanks !

[@asrafulkhan9659]

Well I enjoyed that , thanks - wasnt expecting it to be so interesting

[@KitGuruTech]

Glad you enjoyed it

[@RajkishorHamram]

Thanks to MSI for allowing us to see this, very cool. I am indeed buying a tomahawk too soon for my new build with a core ultra 7

[@KitGuruTech]

Good luck!

[@krjal3038]

Fantastic video! I bet you could do an hour long docco on this sort of place (and I'd watch it too). Love to see more pieces like factory tours!

[@KitGuruTech]

More to come!

[@clansome]

Makes you wonder at how long they have been tooling up for the boards. Nice tour, thank you.

[@PranikhilRai]

Thanks Dominic, great job - feel like I have been educated today, looking forward to seeing your reviews coming soon for these MSI boards.

[@KitGuruTech]

Glad you like them!

[@NeetuSingh-ds7os]

Awesome video, makes me appreciate this tech a lot more when you see all the work people put into making them

[@KitGuruTech]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@kskyfact2Mking-yk2yx]

fuji are everywhere ! I love their cameras, amazing company

[@Magnus_E]

I am really sorry I only have one life and I miss out on your wonderful content... :( Thanks and stay strong and healthy!

[@neymar.xr.10]

FUJI make a lot of that stuff to create boards, - that robotic manufacturing system is next level. Really love these videos, wish you guys would do more of them

[@KitGuruTech]

Glad you like them!

[@plexi-k3d]

Great tour video! Thanks for sharing.

[@KitGuruTech]

Glad you enjoyed it

[@ParmarPratiksha-t5n]

Super impressive factory - i had never seen inside a motherboard factory before

[@AnkushSonune-ef8fm]

Ethan looks like a happy man bossing all those people about !

[@ismailsekhsekhismail1142]

Insert machines are amazing !

[@BrookesStevenson-vw4xf]

That tomahawk board Leo showed looks really good to be honest ❤

[@theonlyredspecial]

Great video guys thanks 👍🏻

[@KitGuruTech]

Glad you enjoyed it

[@lucifersheadscarf6988]

That factory is huge. Looks like an infinite mirror focus later in the video when the camera pans.

[@SimonBennett-fw6zq]

That river of silver at 4:55 looks amazing. More efficient than my efforts at college! The board looks so simple at the start, pretty rough as it goes through, but completely clean by the end. Cool! How much are these boards?

[@dreschaffhausen5693]

I'm amazed the board doesnt come out with just a smooth silver coating across the whole back. Really clever it just solders the bits that need solder sticking to it.

[@KitGuruTech]

Leo did a video on some of the boards. They range from £300 to well over £600. Worth checking that video out.

[@PraveshChauhan-2004]

Good video thanks guys for this.

[@KitGuruTech]

Glad you enjoyed it

[@Praireboy-hg8ip]

Fascinating to see these things. Would never have a chance to experience this myself 🍻

[@KitGuruTech]

Thanks ❤️

[@BrookesStevenson-vw4xf]

Id love to know the R&D costs for the 5 motherboards leo showed yesterday, must be millions - many of them

[@festerleech4952]

I bet its shared with Intel and AMD though,

[@xbox360Rob]

I miss running the pnp line I had as a job, I shot some training videos for internal use I should share one day.

[@Bellestronsse]

It's reallly cool but I think the real magic is in those machines that are putting all of this together.

[@philipjfry628]

Those machines must cost an absolute fortune

[@user-uv8qn1br8q]

Can’t get over the amount of production lines. Looks like that place is the size of a small town in uk.

[@pixelrefresh348]

Must be an amazing place to work

[@lovingthehardwarethisyea-py1xp]

Really amazing place. Loved seeing the flux liquid

[@philipjfry628]

t1000

[@festerleech4952]

@@philipjfry628 Mimetic polyalloy

[@DavidLeBon-qq9vr]

Nice drone footage at the start 😮

[@KitGuruTech]

Glad you liked it!

[@piyushrathor132]

04:05 That inspection board monitoring system, looks epic, wish we had a close up of all the layers and traces.

[@Manishbirtbirt]

Those holding stations are amazing by themselves - magic ray - what a name - weird seeing some of the screens in english as well as chinese

[@DilipDilip-cr7ok]

That place is massive, is that one single factory?

[@pixelrefresh348]

If I didnt see the drone footage I'd say it was cgi...

[@Abhishek_gautam001]

A lot of these guys move between gigabyte, MSI and ASUS, like the engineers who design the boards. very skilled jobs

[@hairsprungdutchtechnique9626]

How many rows of production lines where there? near the end, the scale is incredible. wasnt expecting that to be such a dense line. I see at least 7 lines in the video

[@Lersangjithakor]

270c for the baking process - cant believe what i just watched - I knew there was a lot of work in this, but I just lift my mobo out of the box and put it into the case. thats it! so much work

[@festerleech4952]

Yeah I dont get this. I always thought temperatures like that just fried electrical components.

[@FrankLeCross-fo5kr]

Incredible. No one noticed how clean it is too ? Even the floors. My local pizza place should look at this

[@festerleech4952]

Cant have sawdust inside an environment like that everything would come out broken

[@madhabimurmu18]

Those scanners to show board failures - really impressive - like an xray machine for silicon

[@MrSamadolfo]

😏👍 Very Cool, i would love to work on the Factory Floor for a year or two. Every few months reassign me to another section. I want to learn everything 😍

[@komuruddin4377]

That is a finely run machine ! no room for error there, one guy is testing 8 boards at a time - wonder if I applied for a job in there, I could manage to grab a God Like in secret :p

[@RahulKumar-dc1up]

Wonder what the perecentage of boards that dont make the grade at the final stage, that go back to the start? they are such complex designs

[@Kunalmrk]

That Flux is cool to watch - looks like something out of a marvel movie

[@RainbowSunset-uq2hs]

The only thing more difficult to manafacturer in the PC space are processors and graphics cards - amazing to see the flux etc.

[@vithalrathvagodli4912]

Ovens - its like tech baking ! Those tomahawk boards are looking to be really good this generation, but £300 is the starting point, its an expensive hobby now

[@Bellestronsse]

Could stick a quick oven pizza on the conveyor belt

[@philipjfry628]

The supply chains for these things must be absolutely immense.

[@sortingoutthebills-dy6td]

yeah that’s impressive. How many people work in that factory ?

[@rufusmctavish1164]

how long does it take for a single board to get made from start to finish ? All done in a day ?

[@4thofjuly-fk4oq]

Fuji machines everywhere ! Didn’t know they manufactured those kind of industry components for pc makers

[@KitGuruTech]

Very important company globally 👍🏻

[@hothardwareforthewin-he4fz]

Is that factory just for motherboards or do they make gpu boards in there too ? Wish it was longer.

[@JulianTurner2019]

How does MSI ensure quality control with this level of automation.?

[@EvaMorris3718-g2z]

Must be such a small error rate along with human and machine checks, they likely go through a check after each process to manufacture :)

[@UCantSeeemeee]

US WOULD blame china for force labour if it's manual work.

[@CatherineMitchell-br8dx]

They look great, but I'm going to have to save for a while before I can upgrade from my B450 😢

[@andrzejbania5612]

I'm torn between, "Shiny, Shiny - must be expensive" and "So much automation - bring the prices down!" 😂

[@ASHISHMarkamBRAND94]

How many people work on a single board from the start of the line to the finish?

[@mastanshaik7162]

the pan around the place was eye melting, I thought it was one line at the start !

[@WhiteCedarsGamersjournal]

May I share this video on my Social Media pages if you don't mind please? Will be tagging you of course & it's the type of video I like myself & my viewers to see. Thanks !

[@KitGuruTech]

You're welcome to link to our video

[@WhiteCedarsGamersjournal]

@@KitGuruTech Really appreciate it, thanks a lot. This will great🙏🏻

[@adisinghara2]

8 units being tested by a single person at the same time - that must take some practise. Dont let me in there, 7 out of 8 would be dead by the time I got my hands on them.

[@festerleech4952]

It's crazy to think they have to be around 270 degrees to assemble. And then it still all works afterwards at ambient temperature.

[@vijayhavon]

Are all of their boards made here? no wonder the lines are so wide, with so many boards to be made

[@pawanbaba7999]

Love their lab coats, very trendy

[@Simplyswish-xx6wr]

I want their new ace board. 🙂

[@thetechdevil-jn1vo]

Ethan is the man 😮😂

[@UCantSeeemeee]

His name is not Ethan, he use English name to someone who is not t familiar with Chinese name

[@stickyfingers9710]

Do they make godlike in here as well or is that a different factory ?? 🤷🏻

[@Alpha-ms9nj]

That is amazing! Thanks for sharing this.

[@KitGuruTech]

My pleasure!

[@EvaMorris3718-g2z]

*only* 90 minutes to make a motherboard!! Thats some speed!! 😮

[@SamantaSandha-kl8pn]

How many boards do they produce a day in here? did you ask?

[@Eesaregood]

Who designs the production process? Do Intel and AMD just give them a bunch of reference stuff and let them get on with it?

[@brianwest7344]

I assumed it would all be automated!

[@davewave2760]

This is way better than that DIY guy with a soldering iron.

[@canarychrome7012]

06:32 - is that a mirror trick? surely thats not right? how big is that factory

[@KitGuruTech]

No it’s that big.

[@SahilKumar-nj5om]

For some reason I thought a lot of these boards were made in the same factories like cases - what did I know!

[@Dr.WhetFarts]

I will get a MSI board next now.

[@mikegaming4924]

You have sometimes incorrect terminology there. At 4:17 it's not flux, but liquid solder!

[@arpitaranjanpathak8243]

Ethan is in charge of a lot of component value, must have been doing this a very long time

[@game_terra9663]

Msi and asus all day every day

[@PcM143]

Wonder how many boards fail the final tests and inspections to get repaired..... less than 10% i would guess

[@priyanshugamingstudio4835]

had no idea the baking temperatures were just under 300c

[@IrshadKhan-l2t]

Wonder how much that factory is worth, 8 figures Im reckoning.

[@temcodegamer5972]

How many are running side by side? WTF! 06:32

[@MehdiHakimi-x8o]

مرسی

[@SureshSuresh-um8rg]

Can most chinese speak and read english? fascinating to see the screens showing a lot of english text - great job Kitguru thanks

[@KitGuruTech]

A lot of them can yes.

[@Street_crazy_boy]

Solder paste printer, I need one of those puppies. time for an ebay search

[@Max-c9e]

Bet Ethan is worth a few dollars!

[@ArmanKhan-ri2if]

I normally find these videos a bit boring but I was quite disappointed when this one ended, it was a little short, could have been longer to cover more of the procedure

[@KitGuruTech]

Noted !

[@Darknightsandwetdays-lb9ko]

That was educational. That said it looks like a very dark and depressing room to work in. Maybe that’s just me and it’s common over there.

[@DhavalGohel-mf9su]

so much technology, so little time

[@rajeshdantani1128]

A lot of components on these boards when you look around the PCB. must be a nightmare to get 100% right all the time, even a slight variance would mean a failure. I remember the old days

[@GodsSoldier2]

Where's the new AMD boards