So how bad are OST motherboard caps?

[TheLaw]

Hello,

Background:

I found it astonishing that their an entire forum dedicated to capacitors. <3

Anyway. A friend and I are looking to start up a small computer building business to sell to a niche market. (Senior Citizens). We are going to be running a heavily modded version of Ubuntu to help accomplish that.

However, we are looking into possible motherboards for our PCs and we really are trying to get the cost of the computer down...quite a bit. These have to be affordable. We also need lots of features on the board so cards etc. are not needed. The rear I/O panel has to be as simple as possible and free of any thing that might confuse them. (Ex. Trying to plug a monitor into a serial port etc).

----

Question:

So, after some research, using Newegg as our search engine, we came up with these two boards.

BIOSTAR A880G+ Link

ASRock 880GM-LE Link


Unfortunately, these boards are using some lovely :sarcasm: OST electrolytics. I know OSTs aren't regarded as very good, but to what degree do they suck? Our next viable option is about $15 more, which would have all Sanyo/Os-con solids, but $15 is quite a bit when you are actually trying to make profit.

Dell/HP/Acer get away with tons of electrolytics on their boards. I doubt they are all using Chemi-cons...though I don't know that for a fact.


Two more questions:

The dark blue solid polymer caps on the Biostar board; What brand are they?



The silver and black solid caps on the ASRock board (not the turquoise ones); What brand are they?



Any insight?

Thanks.

[c_hegge]

Re: So how bad are OST motherboard caps?

The first board has so-called "Elite" polys. I think kc8adu has seen a few of them fail shorted before. The caps on that ASRock motherboard are not polys (solid caps). They are Panasonic FL, which are generally very reliable series of electrolytic cap.

To answer the title of the thread, OST stands for Only Some Trash. They are junk and often fail without showing any visible signs.

[Topcat]

Re: So how bad are OST motherboard caps?

If it's a piece of hardware I'm using for my stuff that has OST caps, I recap them preemptively. Why mess around with known junk.

[TheLaw]

Re: So how bad are OST motherboard caps?

Shoot. Yeah I was just assuming those were solids but they didn't have the same traditional polarity color marking...

Wow, so it appears that I have a board full of junk in exclusion of the maybe alright Panasonics. Well, I guess we'll go for a little bit more....I don't want old people to have to deal with exploding caps...

But if you had to choose. Would you go for the so-so Elites or the Panasonic electrolytics as far as quality and stability goes?

And the turquoise once are like FZ or something?

Thanks for the quick replies!

[TheLaw]

Re: So how bad are OST motherboard caps?

You guys are good!

[TheLaw]

Re: So how bad are OST motherboard caps?

Well just a short while looking around here, and I've fallen in love. Sort of...Anyway. Found a nice Gigabyte board with Nichicon HMs and some sort of polymers for $65. We were actually looking at an ASUS board...but if it wasn't for here, I wouldn't have known that KZGs are problematic...which that ASUS board has. Thanks for the good information.

Sorry to bother, but do you know the origin of these caps?

Do you guys, or any place else on the internet, have a solid cap identification guide of some sort? Just wondering.

[Topcat]

Re: So how bad are OST motherboard caps?

And the turquoise once are like FZ or something?

FZ's, replace those ASAP!! Search 'sacon FZ' here and see the horrible results you'll come up with. Those caps are the cause of a lot of dead hardware, especially video cards.

[370forlife]

Re: So how bad are OST motherboard caps?

Look like UCC poly. Don't see the K vent like usual on FZ.

[TheLaw]

Re: So how bad are OST motherboard caps?

I would replace them...but if we are going to sell a few of these, getting out the Weller and spending an hour per board replacing them...won't be too efficient. I'm just hoping they are Chemi-Cons...Gigabyte is usually pretty smart with capacitor selection, I'd say.

[Agent24]

Re: So how bad are OST motherboard caps?

The first board has so-called "Elite" polys. I think kc8adu has seen a few of them fail shorted before.

That's just what I suspected some time ago... those crappy companies can't even get solid polymer capacitors done right...

[TheLaw]

Re: So how bad are OST motherboard caps?

I understand OST caps are bad, but I mean to what level. Are they down there with Fuijyuu or more like CapXon?

I think we'll go for something better, but still curious. $60 is a pretty seductive price.

[Th3_uN1Qu3]

Re: So how bad are OST motherboard caps?

In my experience CapXon has been worse than Fuhjyyu. Anyway, i've had to replace enough OST caps to be confident about their (in)abilities, and i haven't fixed that many mobos.

Get a Gigabyte board with all-solid capacitors.

[c_hegge]

Re: So how bad are OST motherboard caps?

That Gigabyte board looks good. The caps in the picture are Chemi-con PSC polys, which are very reliable. Gigabyte is also one of my favourite brands. They don't often use bad caps, usually either Nichicon HM, Sanyo WG and/or Chemi-con and Sanyo Polys

[larrymoencurly]

Re: So how bad are OST motherboard caps?

Do you guys, or any place else on the internet, have a solid cap identification guide of some sort?

Here's one, but notice for poly caps you have to go way to the bottom of the menus on the left:

http://capacitor.web.fc2.com/

I think the cheapest motherboards with no junk capacitors are from Gigabyte, and even their $50-60 models use only Japanese brands for the conventional electrolytic caps (at Fry's, I saw only Nichicon and Sanyo for those). I don't know what solid polymer caps Gigabyte uses, but a couple of people with $300 Asus Rampage III Formula mobos who overclocked their CPUs to about 4.4 GHz blew out some solid caps near the CPU. Some of the solid caps used in those Rampage III Formula motherboard have a dark brown or black strip on one side of the top and are marked:

FP
07Cx
101
16

Does anybody know what brand this is?

[lmcancu]

Re: So how bad are OST motherboard caps?

Whatever board you pick, put in some good cooling (at least one intake and one exhaust fan) in the case to keep the motherboard temperatures down. From what I've read on this site temperature has a significant influence on cap longevity.

[PCBONEZ]

Re: So how bad are OST motherboard caps?

I would replace them...but if we are going to sell a few of these, getting out the Weller and spending an hour per board replacing them...won't be too efficient. I'm just hoping they are Chemi-Cons...Gigabyte is usually pretty smart with capacitor selection, I'd say.

Wrong.
It's VERY efficient when the alternative is having the customer come at you later for a warranty issue where you have to tear down the whole system and replace them anyway. [Hoping they didn't fry the RAM or corrupt the HDD on their way out.]
- Not to mention you may end up with a reputation for building systems that have problems.
- Not to mention the PC's may simply run like shit without ever breaking, which -you'll- probably never hear about,,, but your customers friends will..
.

[PCBONEZ]

Re: So how bad are OST motherboard caps?

When you need boards in bulk you are better off looking for a closeout of slightly older models of GOOD motherboards than looking for cheap new ones.
-
There is an added benefit to doing it that way in that you can troll the internet looking for problems with the prospective model because they have been around long enough for the reports/complaints to have come in.
.

[TheLaw]

Re: So how bad are OST motherboard caps?

Wrong.
It's VERY efficient when the alternative is having the customer come at you later for a warranty issue where you have to tear down the whole system and replace them anyway. [Hoping they didn't fry the RAM or corrupt the HDD on their way out.]
- Not to mention you may end up with a reputation for building systems that have problems.
- Not to mention the PC's may simply run like shit without ever breaking, which -you'll- probably never hear about,,, but your customers friends will..
.

Sure, I could replace all the capacitors and upgrade them to some decent ones...But, for an entire board, that'll cost maybe $15-20...Plus labor would be a set back.

For $15-20, I could have a regular precision machine soldered board with a good mixture of good polys and good electrolytics.

Really, no offense, but think about it.

[c_hegge]

Re: So how bad are OST motherboard caps?

I would agree. First Preference is to have a board where the caps were good in the first place, followed by re-capping all of your boards and the last thing you want is to ignore bad caps on a board and use it anyway.

[PCBONEZ]

Re: So how bad are OST motherboard caps?

Sure, I could replace all the capacitors and upgrade them to some decent ones...But, for an entire board, that'll cost maybe $15-20...Plus labor would be a set back.

For $15-20, I could have a regular precision machine soldered board with a good mixture of good polys and good electrolytics.

Really, no offense, but think about it.

I already did.
Your response is out of context.

I would replace them...but if we are going to sell a few of these, getting out the Weller and spending an hour per board replacing them...won't be too efficient.

You were deliberating replacing crap caps on boards you ALREADY HAVE.

DUH, it would have been better to do some research and buy better boards to start with.

With Abit gone your options are Supermicro, Intel, or experimentation because it's hit and miss by the specific model with all other brands.
.

.