Why no Elna Cap for motherboard ?

[Brian C]

Just wondering why Elna doesn't make electrolythic cap for computer motherboard application. Elna cap are so popular, especially among DIY audio community.

By comparing specification, there is no way that Elna low esr Elna cap like RJH, RJ4 can outperform Rubycon MBZ, ZL or even Chemicon KZG...

The NRSX series from nic on the other hand, is very hard to find.

Anyone tried Elna cap in motherboard before ?

[linuxguru]

Re: Why no Elna Cap for motherboard ?

Drool - those Elnas in that tray are cool! That tray is the Wal-Mart transparent plastic fish-tackle box, right?

BTW, Elna RJH is comparable to Nichicon PW, Panasonic FC or NCC LXZ. I haven't seen Elna in mobo applications, perhaps because their large electrolytics aren't competitive on price, and they aren't focussed on ultra-low ESR electrolytics.

That said, I have a small stockpile of Elna 4700/6.3 12.5mm RJH for PSU recapping and the like.

[Brian C]

Re: Why no Elna Cap for motherboard ?

Oh... U like it.
The transparent plastic fish-tackle box is made in Japan (if i am not mistaken... SHIWA or SHOWA). I use them to store my ecaps, screws, etc.. all electronic component.
I did use Elna cap in SMPS but not motherboard, probably because it is hard to find here... But one thing for sure is, elna cap like cerafine, Tonerex, silmic are damn good in audio equipments.

[jakah]

Re: Why no Elna Cap for motherboard ?

I recapped my i845 mainboard with elna (RJH) caps, and still using it in my "main rig". The reason for using elna was becase that was what I could find here at that moment, back then. I admit I didn't really know what I was buying, but I figured they would work as they were low ESR.

https://www.badcaps.net/forum/showthread.php?t=1824

[Big Pope]

Re: Why no Elna Cap for motherboard ?

I have seen some Elna caps on PII mothboards in the past. Actually, i like it's "vent" only.

[hkivan]

Re: Why no Elna Cap for motherboard ?

Elna is expensive and famous. It is well known to many audiophiles around the world, just like Rubycon in mobo.

You will find elna caps in many mid to high end receivers. My ONKYO came with 2 bulky input cap " ELNA for audio , 56V 8200uF ".

AFAIR, I saw the price of 2 ENLA for audio 10000uF was a few hundred HKD in a shop.

[willawake]

Re: Why no Elna Cap for motherboard ?

i think the motherboard industry will be very competitive on price like linuxguru says.

now that many makers want quality jap caps you can imagine that the japs are fighting over themselves for a bigger piece of the market. We have seen even panasonic to enter the mobo market more strongly, before it was quite rare to see them on boards.

Panasonic is actually quite interesting because we see that they are promoting caps to the mobo makers which are only made in their malaysian factory and not available in their catalogues. This can only indicate to me that those caps are heavily discounted. These caps became reasonably popular with some makers.

In manufacturing it is important to know about how much you will need to make in the future. The reason is that getting a new factory online is very expensive. You want that new factory to be using a good amount of its capacity otherwise you have spent huge amounts of money for nothing. I am not aware of how the market for audio goods is but the computer industry goes up and down. A year or two ago it was pretty awful but now its back again.

So you have an industry which is very competitive on price and is also not very stable. Then you have an industry like the audio sector where elna is strongly established. Its not suprising that they are not strongly participating in the computer sector but concentrating on the markets which they know.

[willawake]

Re: Why no Elna Cap for motherboard ?

On the matter of expensive audio caps you can see why there are quite a few online shops selling these and not many at all selling caps for motherboard applications. Simply if you are selling items which are quite significant in price and the average order is totalling say around $100 or more then there is potential for profit there and it is worth doing small orders. But if you are talking about a few bucks of caps and a significant amount of work involved in servicing the order, doing communications, shipping it, no wonder that there are not many shops offering that service.

[linuxguru]

Re: Why no Elna Cap for motherboard ?

> Panasonic is actually quite interesting because we see that they are promoting caps to the mobo makers which are only made in their malaysian factory and not available in their catalogues.

Yup - I just spotted Panasonic FL on some Asus and MSI motherboards.

FJ, FL - Malaysia only (?).
FK, FM - Japan

Perhaps this pattern suggests that it's comparable to FM, but lower in cost.

[willawake]

Re: Why no Elna Cap for motherboard ?

only have found FJ specs

[linuxguru]

Re: Why no Elna Cap for motherboard ?

Same here - no trace of FF or FL specs, both of which are Malaysian. BTW, the FJ has pretty good specs - check out the 1800uF/16v 10x25, with Ir of 2.8 A, endurance of 3000 hours and ESR of 0.012 ohms. I could use that as a universal mobo/VRM cap. Not sure if it's aqueous or non-aqueous - I'd guess the former in view of its tiny size.

[Big Pope]

Re: Why no Elna Cap for motherboard ?

[QUOTE=linuxguru]
Yup - I just spotted Panasonic FL on some Asus and MSI motherboards.

FJ, FL - Malaysia only (?).
FK, FM - JapanQUOTE]

Yup, same result of reseach in recently mothbaords. FL are most appear in Asus and MSI mothbaords.

FF/FJ/FL are available(produce) in Malaysia of Pannys ONLY. I am sure.

FK/FM both are available Japan or Malaysia, not Japan only.

[Big Pope]

Re: Why no Elna Cap for motherboard ?

Country of origin for all of Panasonic caps, official document download here.
http://industrial.panasonic.com/www-...BC0000PE68.pdf

[splaz]

Re: Why no Elna Cap for motherboard ?

^ That makes sense. An Asus board I returned for repair was recapped with FLs. Couldn't find specs on them but I thought they were FC/FM at first as they look very similar.

Elnas are actually pretty cheap, their RFS Silmic II series is available at digikey. That is part of their audio line, cheaper than same value FC.

THe RFS were 11c each, FC 14c at the 10 price break for both.

[kc8adu]

Re: Why no Elna Cap for motherboard ?

i have seen elna caps on the mobo of netbees bookpc.
one of my customers has about 50 in pos service.
no failures yet.
the psu in every one has been recapped though.
damm g luxon