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Discussion (...) on ASUS Taipei and MSI Taipei as valuable differing entities (big?)
Well this is excitingly long so,,,
As has been mentioned here before it remains a fact if we don't mind but for clarity (and... one I grant you this seems on the face of it unlikely but I still retain some items like funky mobo HSF and such) that waaaaay back in around 2002 3 I was able to help MSI UK (Micro Star International, TW) in their then Hayes Office. For future reference and the interest of any readers, here is some detail ( ... unfortunately my older Gmails from that time were not retained):
(note MSI folk left UK... see below 22 12 2023)
MSI™ Computer (UK) Ltd.
Unit 3, Swallowfield Centre, Swallowfield Way,
Hayes, Middlesex, UB3 1AW, UK
(X) 0208 81366?? (X)
Hayes is a lovely multicultural area of West London (effectively) and is diverse and colourful, with old canal path(s) and plenty of good organisations still. I used to commute on 2 buses or sometimes a local train service and walk 15min after a bus. If you know the area I would like to say hello to Southall as known it over 4 decades!
As an aside I still believe Google Gmail to be the best email solution (for home?) and if you run out of the 15GB (for me 17 due to offers) space like I did recently 100GB even 200GB presents as very good value to me over time, if you like. For people who might not 'know' yet say... [Proton eMail www is also good].
For some details , I worked for if I remember around 16 months (became unwell) with MSI UK Staff (great crew!), and our -department- area of operations included all UK Support for emailing product owners who could prove such and kept boxes. [Hours were 9am-5:30pm often after]. Other parts of the work of a three of us who spent a very busy day generally (I personally had a lot of time for email support though it could maybe build up a lot and require dedicated time and even extra help from friendly expert contact who would 'temp') would include as I fondly remember what I will freely state was All The Required ATX Stuff+ (and more because we also did ?router... support which was given to me personally). We worked on everything from brand new rack mount server built solutions to problems with boards that we make but don't silkscreen the name MSI on (Dell and many others I don't recall). So we engaged with purchasers, warranty clients, System Integrators, Retailers with technical questions and such.
Every single board that was returned to us was tested by 1/3 people (sometimes teamwork and discussion too) to see if the flaw could be reproduced and If so a suitable replacement item (within clever perhaps parameters of it not then normally having been unused honestly though) was prepared packaged and sent out by ourselves as I worked there as part of a busy workflow. Serial numbers etc were required and fully checked on site.
Emails that were well crafted and explained all relevant information easily were more quickly replied, while we did help people through this if they kept up the exchange in fact. Some users were less technical and we offered suggestions to try and requested deets. The other things we did were most anything we needed to like...
... 'testing' (v. impressive bench runs on new stuff often!) the first available working samples of legendary items such as initial AMD64 CPUs (!), Opterons in that area and even 2 socket those, and equally historically significant Nvidia and ATI products such as effectively all of them (the main ones at least because we did know our stuff really worked (!) but it was good practise). Before I go into this the physical location was a modern 2 floor building that was used as warehouse storage for GPU, MOBO, and anything sold here otherwise such as Micro Barebones, Laptops and even 1U-4U Our Stuff. Based on our UK testing (you never know) of one of the first Athlon 64 3000+ processors I personally went ahead to an Opteron 148, as you do if you were able and informed on such things honestly. I should have initially bought a Opteron 148 solution to start with but it worked out fine. That chip was factually the first and then best
An interesting story that I never verified but still believe to be true is that we were informed reliably through our own official channels that at a certain now (becoming historic) trade show, fans industry types and even anyone involved would I hope be intrigued to note, the company really impressed in practise. This was the event that was actually the first opportunity for companies such as MSI and even Intel Corp (and others dunno) to show working INTEL CORP (tm) Server Grade CPU hardware -- with the first ever AMD64 operation set that allowed use of over 4GB of memory in addressable space due to it being the de facto already extension that is still in use for such on any CPU since -- which meant it was exactly an industry and global Big Thing. I know not which trade show this was or where it is, apologies, but if you know you might even remember this.
It's not a long tale (and long since past so credit where it's due for best effort honestly) and is: There was a bit of a race to develop and implement working server level system boards for these CPUs. As industry leader solutions (Intel also made system boards for their own CPUs and have since a Long Time) and as a result we were very pleased when our solution was fully functional with their server CPUs (we did of course work with Intel on that even as they had competing system board parts for clarity). For reasons that remain unfortunate but that did cause some jubilation within the whole of MSI and related circles, it turned out that the Intel Solution server boards that were demo'd at the time nearby (even as the go to all in one I'll admit as I was to experience later in another role) simply were unable to function at all for any demo running at that somewhat fun but gratifying (to the smaller players say) to MSI and others as this kind of thing is even a real Engineering and Software and Solutions competition if you like.
That's probably enough about that set of events because I don't want to upset those of you (as I was) who thought such things from the CPU vendor Just Work it's really not simple to do in essence so fair play. I remember fondly a company Centreparks outing too which was fun and it's well worth visiting for the good air.
I'll go back to GPUs. We tested stuff all the way from Geforce 2 MX400 (when I joined this was just out IIRC) and the competing ATI 8500 solutions upwards. Even we marvelled at how fast simple Visual Display Adaptors adopted (more) 3D and math functions and cards while Direct X 9 for example was reaching maturity. We tested the first AMD64 builds of Windows XP 64 which I can tell you first hand were at that amazingly faster than we had yet seen in practise, even as they booted. MSI had it's own internal XP OEM Software Key that I used to recall and it was official.
I think that's enough for now on what is an enjoyable but long writing experience here. I'll come to the point. I've just found on Google the following information which surprised me much (and why I'm writing this morning):
(these are ballpark '22)
Asus Taiwan
~17,000 employees
$17.9 B turnover
MSI Taiwan
~3,000
$7.3 B turnover
Writing this (it seems more appropriate even to ask in years prior on similar info) I was wondering what are people's thoughts as to these two companies and their current products* and as a function of people size how is it we might guess that MSI makes more money per capita (person employeed)?
Any discussion or questions around the above and these two entities or similar is encouraged of course but I'm honestly really busy as 2024 approaches (~Happy New Year! Enjoy your celebrations do) so replies may be later.
[*I have generally just preferred MSI products in the market but with my current {5800x amd470 32gb cl14 1T} I am minded to perhaps try Asus next time as until tonight I was unaware both companies were neighbours in Taipei Taiwan and I enjoy their work too. If you would like to follow me on Twitter X I'm there as *fairlytalereese* feel free of course but I follow full adults so do beware-. ]
If you are unaware of why it seen improved to run 1T timings in general (since Nforce 1 and Athlon itself honest) it's because 2T adds around 1 cycle to every timing on the DRAM. This is not optimal! Yet another reason to build your own PC or similar IMHO
Thanks for reading I realise it was long but I am enjoying a rubber O-Ringed new mechanical keyboard and will soon visit that thread here and ... thanks!
For practical purposes if you like MSI UK Support according to the MSI site at present is currently handled by:
UNITED KINGDOM
Repairtech Services (UK) Limited
City: Warwickshire
Address: 4B, Kineton Industrial Estate, Westfield Rd, Southam CV47 0JH, United Kingdom
TEL (Repair) : +44 (0)1926 818220
E-Mail: msi@repairtech.co.uk
Working Hours: 9:00 - 17:00 local time
uksupport@msi.com
https://account.msi.com/services/
From experience I would add would contact Repairtech first off (better placed to aid) and please include full information such as scenario fault full parts list description *steps to replicate* and of course serial number and purchase proof status/format. If you have technical questions around a UEFI or usage you can just contact MSI.com email though as you like. I would advise making content entertaining or easy to reply to also it's real people!
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