proactive replacement, good idea?

[inuyasha.rules]

I have an old pentium d on an asus motherboard and saws wondering if it would be a good idea to recap it even tho there's no signs of failure. Its 6 years old and ran 24*7 most of its life so mtbf is getting close I think. This thing cost me a fourtune back in the day and it O.C.s like a raped ape

[larrymoencurly]

Re: proactive replacement, good idea?

At 6 years 24*7, is replacement really proactive.

[Agent24]

Re: proactive replacement, good idea?

I'd say depends on the capacitors already there... If they are something less than great, and you want to keep using the board, probably you should recap as long as you know what you're doing. Would be a shame to ruin your favourite board with a bad soldering job!

If it's full of good Rubycons or something though it'll probably last a while yet...

[inuyasha.rules]

Re: proactive replacement, good idea?

Yeah my soldering skilz are good, I've done board repairs before. I've just been having really high cpu temps but that may be because my cpu cooler has crud on it that I can get off with air. Im gonna pull it in a couple days and give it a scrub and I'll post back brand and specs then. I didn't think it was dirty enough to go from 65° load to 65° idle but we will see.

[Th3_uN1Qu3]

Re: proactive replacement, good idea?

High CPU temps can also be a sign of bad caps, since peak voltage will rise to maintain the same average (from the VRM controller's point of view). The CPU runs an order of magnitude faster than the VRM - so on those peaks the CPU has a higher voltage supply thus it absorbs more current and runs hotter.

[inuyasha.rules]

Re: proactive replacement, good idea?

High CPU temps can also be a sign of bad caps, since peak voltage will rise to maintain the same average (from the VRM controller's point of view). The CPU runs an order of magnitude faster than the VRM - so on those peaks the CPU has a higher voltage supply thus it absorbs more current and runs hotter.

Yeah that's what I read. Vcore and all other voltages are stable to .01v but my cpu cooler covers all the caps in the vreg section so we will have to wait and see when I pull it. And who knows how much lag there is on those sensors anyways, it may not show spikes till chernobyl is in the house lol.

[inuyasha.rules]

Re: proactive replacement, good idea?

Just a quick update, way more dust than I saw at first glance plus TIM that was dead = high cpu temps. I had to pull my mono to get the cpu cooler off so im going to replace the TIM on the north and south bridge chips. At least I didn't join the bad caps club!

Edit can anyone recomend some good cheap non conductive non capacitive TIM for the vreg heatsink?

[Agent24]

Re: proactive replacement, good idea?

Arctic silver is probably fine, just don't get any on the leads.

[lti]

Re: proactive replacement, good idea?

Don't use Arctic Silver Ceramique unless you like to reapply thermal paste once a year. Any other Arctic Silver product is probably good.

[inuyasha.rules]

Re: proactive replacement, good idea?

That's the problem is keeping it off the leads. The fets it covers are tiny! Didn't know that about as cremaque but makes since. Its been 2 years since I did my cpu and that was dried as a bone. What about zalman's zinc oxide that they ship out with cpu coolers? Thanks and if all else fails I guess I could be careful with the as5

[Agent24]

Re: proactive replacement, good idea?

Just use a very small amount?...

What do they actually have on there already? paste or a pad? You can buy thermal pad sheets on eBay etc, you could cut it to correct size...

[inuyasha.rules]

Re: proactive replacement, good idea?

Looks like a pad but is soft and goopy like paste. Its a freakin mess all over the leads and crap. I figure if im doing the work it isn't worth it to shortcut with pads. Horrible transfer rates. And I just picked up a tube of as cremaque for $3 with free shipping from amazon so that's probably what I will use if I don't hear anything better. Yes thermal pads last longer but to me are sloppy. Plus I have to pull the mobo to pull the cpu heatsink to clean it so if I have to pop off the three other heatsinks at the same time its no biggie. Thanks for all the input

[Digital Technophile]

Re: proactive replacement, good idea?

Don't use Arctic Silver Ceramique unless you like to reapply thermal paste once a year. Any other Arctic Silver product is probably good.

Why so? Just because it dries out? Should that matter if it continues to transfer heat to the sink? Is there any articles or relevant and empirical data to support this?? Not trying to be a nudge, just want to be certain (as you may have guessed it's what I use on my CPUs and other IC to heatsink applications). Just the facts, Ma'am!

[Digital Technophile]

apologies for the off-topic

As far as recapping, Asus is usually good for using top quality caps, so unless you do see something off the bad cap list/visual damage, I'd leave it alone unless you plan on running this board beyond it's practical service life. Hopefully you're not using for mission critical apps?

[inuyasha.rules]

Re: proactive replacement, good idea?

No digital. The reason behind thinking of a recap was my way higher than normal cpu temps. 69°c on idle with an ambiant air of 65°F @2.9GHZ when it used to load at 69°c with an ambiant air of 70°f @ 3.2Ghz. After I pulled my cpu cooler to inspect the caps it was very evidant that my artic silver 5 was dried and crumbly and causing the high temps. So in answer to both your questions with the info in front of my id say the artic silver creamque will dry and get crumbly, and yes I do plan on running this system till its as out of date as the celaron 500mhz was that it replaced 6 years ago. And no it isn't mission criticle, that's what the celaron is doing being a web server file server and gateway router running monowall