will this capacitor work?

[h0t3r]

I'm replacing capacitors on a motherboard.

In replacing some 1000uf 6.3v caps, the old ones are marked:
RLX
105C
0519

My replacement caps are marked:
RLS
105c
0312

Will they work? I don't know what RLX or RLS mean and I don't know what the 0519 and 0312 are. Can anyone explain them to me or give their opinion? Thanks.

[mariushm]

Re: will this capacitor work?

RLX and RLS are two series of capacitors made by a company called OST.

0518 and 0312 are probably date codes. As in 05 = 2005, 18 = week 18

OST is not a particularly good brand of capacitors and they tend to go bad when used in areas where there's lots of heat (near processors for example), often without showing any signs of failure.
So personally, I wouldn't recommend them.

The RLX datasheet is here:

The RLS datasheet is here:

According to the datasheet, the RLX caps are 10x16mm , 0.034 ohm impedance, 1540 mA ripple.
You need to replace these with ones that fit the area, with lower or equal impedance than the ones you have, and equal or higher ripple value.

In the largest can size, 1000uF 6.3v RLS has 0.053 ohm impedance and 1030mA ripple, both below what you need. So, it's not recommended.

As a tip, you can always pick a capacitor rated for higher voltage, as they usually have better specs but they're usually taller or wider.

Since you're in US, a good store to buy would this site's store, or Digikey.com

On Digikey, these will work for you:

http://search.digikey.com/us/en/prod...2353-ND/613714
http://search.digikey.com/us/en/prod...PD9-ND/2428117
http://search.digikey.com/us/en/prod...2354-ND/613715
http://search.digikey.com/us/en/prod...MPD-ND/2428129
http://search.digikey.com/us/en/prod...1646-ND/756162

The ones towards the end as you can have a slightly lower ripple value than the OST specs but I trust these brands more than I trust OST listing accurate values in the datasheet, so I believe they're good enough.

PS. If the capacitors are grouped together and some are bad while others aren't showing any signs, you should replace all in the group anyway - the others you won't replace will die soon.

[h0t3r]

Re: will this capacitor work?

Thanks so much for the info! I appreciate it.

[John Doe]

Re: will this capacitor work?

The ones towards the end as you can have a slightly lower ripple value than the OST specs but I trust these brands more than I trust OST listing accurate values in the datasheet, so I believe they're good enough.

RLS (brown ones) are good caps. FSP used them in the ProXStream 1000 and they've shown to be sufficiently reliable and decent.

RSX (blue ones) are junk though, they caused the failures of many Topower units.

If you can, replace them all with RLS. If not, don't mix the two as it'd make things worse. In that case, get rid of them all as he pointed out.