Poly Modding

Poly Modding is the practice of replacing Electrolytic Capacitors with Polymer Capacitors on motherboards, graphic cards, and other such devices.

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Benefits and Drawbacks

Benefits

• Not sensitive to heat; good for high-heat areas and devices.
• In some cases, better overclockability.

Drawbacks

• Thicker capacitor leads
• Higher cost per capacitor
• Undocumented poly mods can be unstable and may require fine-tuning of capacitor values.

Procedure

Polymer capacitors cannot be swapped for electrolytic capacitors, as they have different characteristics depending on where on the device they are being used.

In all cases, like with electrolytic capacitors, the voltage must be greater than or equal to the peak voltage across the capacitor, which often times is far less than the rated value of the old capacitor; this is easily found using a multimeter.

For capacitors being used in VRMs, the best practice is to match the ESR of the old capacitor. When the ESR of the old capacitor cannot be found in a datasheet (common with off-brands), halving the value is usually sufficient.

For all other capacitors, the best practice is to match the value of the old capacitor.