Manual Assembly

Once a PCB is ready, with all its components in place, it is sent to the manual assembly line, where line engineers give the PCB a final visual inspection for missing components or defects, before mating the PCB with the non-electronic components that make up the graphics card.


In the very first stage, rubber washers are stuck onto the various mount-holes of the PCB. The PCB is held in place by an assembly "stage," while a worker bolts on the backplate and rear I/O shield, using motorized screw drivers that exert a pre-set amount of turns and torque.


In the next stage, a worker uses a stencil to apply a precise amount of thermal paste onto the GPU ASIC die. Previously, PowerColor would use a blob of TIM that's spread under pressure from the cooler, but has since changed it to a stencil-based application method that ensures uniform amounts of TIM. PowerColor intends to upgrade this stage to a fully mechanized TIM application in the near future, using a machine that's essentially similar to the one that applies solder paste in the earlier stages of the automated assembly.


After application of the TIM on the GPU, we move onto a sensitive portion of the manual assembly, the mating of the PCB with the cooler. A line worker peels off the protective film off thermal pads that have as part of the cooler. These thermal pads make contact with the GDDR memory chips, VRM MOSFETs, and in some cases, even chokes. The GPU, on the other hand, has a TIM application by PowerColor. They then connect all the cables between the cooler and the PCB (fan and lighting). A worker places the cooler on the workbench with its contact points facing upward, flips the PCB downward, aligns it with the mount holes of the PCB, and then uses a power screwdriver to mount the various screws that hold the cooler in place. They use the diagonal-mounting sequence, where diagonally-opposite screws are mounted first.