Walking Through iBUYPOWER's Assembly & Shipping Facility
There are several steps to the process of systems integration: The customer submits an order through the online configurator, iBUYPOWER receives a ticket – much like what would happen for an order in a restaurant – and passes it to parts collectors, parts are collected in a box and given to system builders. At this point, the system is assembled, overclocked to whatever settings were requested, and then conveyed down the line to the next station; the system goes through a PXE station (Preboot eXecution Environment), where dozens of hard drives can be simultaneously imaged via high-speed intranet. Imaging a drive in this way reduces individual Windows install times and reduces post-install demands.
An image can contain a very specific configuration and all of its required drivers, installing an entirely functional environment in a single blast, rather than manually updating drivers. We enact similar methodology for our test bench. Imaging is named such because the install package is contained in an image file (effectively a snapshot) that can be installed just like from a disc or USB device. Imaging is sometimes called “ghosting,” named for Norton's Ghost image deployment software.
A modular GPU size testing dummy for case compatibility.
Once imaged, the customer's system moves down the line and gets burned-in. Burn-in testing involves a few steps, but we only show the GPU test in the above video. The GPU undergoes about 30 minutes of burn-in using a custom deployment of FurMark; this stresses the GPU to 100% load and digs-up failures early. If a part fails this test, it is removed and replaced, then retested. That part would then be RMA'd with the supplier or manufacturer, a process that the customer would never see. It is likely that iBUYPOWER also conducts Prime95 CPU + memory testing, though we showed up pretty late (and unannounced) and didn't see those stations.
After burn-in, the system is sent to a packing station, packed manually in a box, and then pushed through a taping robot. The taping machine rolls a line of packing tape down the center of the box and pushes it down the line. At this point, the boxes are loaded onto palettes and shipped out appropriately.
Check the video for the whole process – we kept it short and interesting.
Cool stuff. That's why we do these tours.
- Steve “Lelldorianx” Burke.
