Teapo capacitor quality

[bestsystem]

I bought a cooler master GX450 with Teapos caps, just wonder how is their quality in last 2 years?

[dmill89]

Re: Teapo capacitor quality

In power supplies they usually do ok. The only failed teapos I've found in PSUs were in units that were 5+ years old with allot of hours on them (corporate/commercial systems running 8+ hours a day, many running 24/7 to receive automatic updates from a central server). And most of the failed Teapos in these units were in hot areas (right next to coils or heat sinks). If the PSU is used for a "normal" home system you should be fine.

[Th3_uN1Qu3]

Re: Teapo capacitor quality

Confirmed, they're okay. I pulled some from an old PIII motherboard that exhibited classic symptoms of bad caps but none were bloated, and what'd ya know - they all tested good for ESR. It probably was a bad chipset. I still have a bunch of them lying around, a few have found their way in one project or the other, no issues yet.

I wouldn't rate them higher than the likes of Ltec - but Delta uses Ltec caps in a lot of stuff and they hold up good. I know a certain person here hates them with a passion, but they're a big step up from Capxon and Fuhjyyu. I'd say they will last 2 years.

[Pentium4]

Re: Teapo capacitor quality

I've had good experience with Teapo, but they do hate heat. One that I just found dead had 25,000 hours of use. The whole secondary of my Hipro unit has Teapo and that thing has been running 24/7 for about 18 months, checked them a month ago and they're all good.

[c_hegge]

Re: Teapo capacitor quality

I know a certain person here hates them with a passion, but they're a big step up from Capxon and Fuhjyyu.

I'm guessing that certain person is me. I'll stop hating them when I stop seeing them failed in 2-3yr old PSUs which have only been used in a home environment. I'd rate them slightly above Fuhjyyu, but below CapXon.

[bestsystem]

Re: Teapo capacitor quality

In power supplies they usually do ok. The only failed teapos I've found in PSUs were in units that were 5+ years old with allot of hours on them (corporate/commercial systems running 8+ hours a day, many running 24/7 to receive automatic updates from a central server). And most of the failed Teapos in these units were in hot areas (right next to coils or heat sinks). If the PSU is used for a "normal" home system you should be fine.

In this instance, i am using it as a 24x7 home server in Thailand, average ambient temperature is 35 degrees.

[c_hegge]

Re: Teapo capacitor quality

I'd be surprised if they lasted 3 years.

[dmill89]

Re: Teapo capacitor quality

In this instance, i am using it as a 24x7 home server in Thailand, average ambient temperature is 35 degrees.

That's going to put some stress on the PSU. Standard grade PSUs are not really designed for such use especially in temperatures like that. You may want to consider a server grade unit or at least a high end standard unit (SeaSonic, Delta, Antec HCP/HCG, PC Power & Cooling, etc.) or plan on replacing them every 2 or 3 years.

[bestsystem]

Re: Teapo capacitor quality

That's going to put some stress on the PSU. Standard grade PSUs are not really designed for such use especially in temperatures like that. You may want to consider a server grade unit or at least a high end standard unit (SeaSonic, Delta, Antec HCP/HCG, PC Power & Cooling, etc.) or plan on replacing them every 2 or 3 years.

Both solutions should cost the same, assuming the PSU doesn't fail catastrophically

[dmill89]

Re: Teapo capacitor quality

Both solutions should cost the same, assuming the PSU doesn't fail catastrophically

The GX 450 is a relatively well built unit OEMed by Enhance which is a good manufacture so the odds of catastrophic failure are low. Just keep an eye on those Teapos they may fail allowing excess ripple through. This is also one of the few CoolerMaster PSUs that can actually do its rating(Most CoolerMasters are overrated by 10-20%).

[mockingbird]

Re: Teapo capacitor quality

I have been looking at quite a few FSP units (SPI "ATX-350-PN") from systems that are a few years old... They use all Teapo caps, some low-ESR "SC" series and some general purpose... So far, they all exhibit the same two bloated +5VSB Teapo "SC" caps (Which is probably because of overstressing, not lack of quality). None of the other Teapos are ever bloated (I re-cap them all anyways), and I would be very curious to check them if they are indeed in spec...

So I suspect that Teapo are generally OK in PSUs... I've even seen Compaq P4 towers that have Teapos scattered throughout, they seem to do ok as long as they're not in the VRM, and they don't arbitrarily bloat like KZG/TK/OST caps do.

[ratdude747]

Re: Teapo capacitor quality

I have been looking at quite a few FSP units (SPI "ATX-350-PN") from systems that are a few years old... They use all Teapo caps, some low-ESR "SC" series and some general purpose... So far, they all exhibit the same two bloated +5VSB Teapo "SC" caps (Which is probably because of overstressing, not lack of quality). None of the other Teapos are ever bloated (I re-cap them all anyways), and I would be very curious to check them if they are indeed in spec...

So I suspect that Teapo are generally OK in PSUs... I've even seen Compaq P4 towers that have Teapos scattered throughout, they seem to do ok as long as they're not in the VRM, and they don't arbitrarily bloat like KZG/TK/OST caps do.

Very true. The key is keeping them cool... they don't like heat.

[c_hegge]

Re: Teapo capacitor quality

^
Yes, but in Thailand (and even Australia), that's easier said than done.

[Heihachi_73]

Re: Teapo capacitor quality

Teapo. I only had to look at this thread the other day (prior to registering), and my PC died an hour ago!

What did I find in its Acer OEM, FSP Group FSP200-60ATV power supply from December 2005? Four bulged Teapos (at least) and a fifth non-bulged one looking like the Leaning Tower of Pisa.

Funnily enough, this PC has been on 24/7 since 2006 and only failed when I had to turn it off to test a PCI SCSI card. Once I hit the power button, it went on for about half a second and went off straight afterwards, the classic "bad cap" symptom. Obviously it just couldn't draw the current to spin the hard drives, fans and power the rest of the PC. After draining the power, it wouldn't even turn on at all.

Luckily, I had a brand new-looking (and new-smelling) 2010 model Thermal Master 420W unit lying around which I picked up for $2. Unfortunately, I can see Fuhjyyu primaries without even opening it, and it also has a -5V rail for some reason, but at least it works for now.

[c_hegge]

Re: Teapo capacitor quality

Thermal masters are "high-end" Sun Pro builds. They are better than the dirt cheap $20 Sun Pros, but still not fantastic. See http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wOjJOXIJNt4. I load tested one and it exploded when I asked for 100% Load.

[Heihachi_73]

Re: Teapo capacitor quality

Haha, I saw that exact same video before I signed in here - it was one of the first results for the model number in Yahoo search!

Good times, first I find Fuhjyyu caps and then come across a blown up version of the PSU I decide to install! Hopefully mine fares slightly better.

The motherboard itself has a mixture of Sanyo and Panasonic/Matsu caps, and not one has bulged in the 6½ years of constant on-time this Acer T310 desktop has had. This PC was an Xmas 2005 present, and has never skipped a beat, even with its original 40GB Seagate drive still in use as C: (it has a larger secondary drive for games and the like, but Windows and non-game programs can have the C: drive all to themselves).

The only thing I've inadvertently blown up was a Pentium 3 system, plugged in the power socket without disconnecting the cable from the wall, and blew the fuse immediately. Instead of repairing it I just scrapped the PSU for its caps (although they were all cheap ones like Viva/CapXon/Su'scon, they still might come in useful just for the odd swap/test).

[c_hegge]

Re: Teapo capacitor quality

Sanyo and Panny both make reliable caps, so no surprises there. What is a surprise is that Acer would have such good caps in their PCs. I've found Acer to be total junk. Most of the boards I've seen them use had OST, G-Luxon, TK, and Chemi-con KZG caps.

[Pentium4]

Re: Teapo capacitor quality

My old gaming rig that I'm letting my best friend use was having some issues when he tried gaming, It would always freeze when loaded up. It is a MSI TurboStream 600W (Solytech unit), and I opened it up to find 2 dead Teapo's. It has all Teapo as the single Primary cap (has APFC) and Teapo on the secondary. The 2 caps that died are fairly small, unfortunately I can't see the uf and V numbers. But all of the 4700uf, 16V and the primary are fine. The single primary cap is rated at 85C and the rest are rated at 105C...I'll post some pics when I get home. I'm not sure if I'd be able to replace all the caps without taking off the heatsinks...The soldering is sloppy....and there are some what look like brown burn marks around some of the solder but I can't tell if it's from burning up or not...The PCB says Deer 600W Ver:1.2 But anyways this is what it died powering:
Core 2 Duo 3GHz
8GB 1066 RAM (4x2GB)
Single 320GB HDD
BFG GTX 260 Maxcore 55

I bought it used in April, 2011 for $20 and it was insanely dusty when I bought it. I cleaned it out before I put it in this computer. Probably got another 2,000 hours of use out of it so it must have had some heavy use by the previous owner. It has dual 80mm fans so it should have had decent cooling, dust doesn't help though.

[capacitorguy]

Re: Teapo capacitor quality

I had good experince with Teapo capacitors I wont say they are excellent but in my friends old computer had teapo caps he had the system running much of the day for 8 or so years before the motherboard chipset went bad, I have the PSU (HIPRO) running in my computer now which is going well... nowdays he has another machine it has a coolermaster unit it is running windows 7 it was one of the last windows 7 stock machines before they went to 8 and i used the rest of his old system for parts. but still those caps just keep on going they could die tomorrow or they could die in 5 years or keep on ticking longer... then again im using it for daily internet and using a old AMD athalon 64 which is well for internet so light load will be fine on the thing

[Pentium4]

Re: Teapo capacitor quality

With a lot more experience now, I can say that probably 15-20% of the Teapo caps I have encountered that failed, failed without showing any visible symptoms.