TEAM Group Memory Factory Tour

Last week we were invited to visit the TEAM Group factory here in Taipei, Taiwan. TEAM is a Taiwan based memory company with offices also located in Hong Kong and USA.

TEAM was established back in 1990 and until recently they had always focused on their OEM and value RAM business. Only recently has the company started focusing more of their efforts on producing overclocking RAM for the retail channel, which is why we become more interested in the company. TEAM's overclocking RAM maybe not be as well known as Corsair's XMS or OCZ's high performance memory but TEAM products are popular here in Taiwan and they are quickly becoming well known around the rest of the world.

TEAM produces a lot of different memory products from value RAM modules to flash cards and of course overclocking RAM, which they call "Xtreem Gaming RAM". Their series of gaming RAM includes their entry level Apollo series as well as High Frequency and Low Latency series products. We haven't tested any Xtreem memory yet but we are lead to believe that the performance is good. We'll be testing some in a large memory roundup, which will be posted on our website soon.

Today in this article we'll show you the production stages of a memory module from the very beginning until the point where it is ready to be shipped off to the customer. We'll also show you how memory is tested for stability before testing along with how heat spreaders are installed on TEAM's range of Xtreem memory modules.

We have visited many memory and motherboard company factories in the past years but it's interesting to see how these uber-expensive $400,000 USD (each!) robotic Surface Mount Technology (SMT, for short) machines have improved over the years - especially when you see the new Japanese high speed SMT lines, which TEAM Group use. They pick up and place chips on the PCB (Printed Circuit Board, for short) so fast that it's mind-blowing!

Editor Note: Please note throughout this article we'll be looking at the production of DDR and DDR-2 memory, as that was what was being produced when we visited the factory. Sometimes the photos aren't in exact order, so sometimes you will see DDR and sometimes you will see DDR-2. We'll mostly be following the production of older DDR memory.