OST Caps in Power Supplies

[bgavin]

I did some searching and came up inconclusive.
OST RLP seems to be common along with TEAPO in power supplies.

OK to leave these alone, or should they all be replaced?

[willawake]

Re: OST Caps in Power Supplies

personally i dont like the psu specs after recapping. i think its best to purchase seasonic for instance which is tuned for the good caps rather than recap a new cheaper one. of course after some years of service and caps bulging then ok recap there is nothing to lose.

anyway in answer to your question, at the moment i dont have a problem with ost rlp, need a few more years to advise. i think they are not like the fuhkyouuuuuuu caps. same with teapo, i have seen lots of years of service.

[Galvanized]

Re: OST Caps in Power Supplies

A comment.
The new Antec Earthwatts PSUs are built on the same Seasonic provided platform as the mid-range Cosair VX units.
The Earthwatts is populated with OST RLP and the VX Corsairs are populated with United ChemiCon (UCC).

[bgavin]

Re: OST Caps in Power Supplies

There certainly is a point of diminishing returns: cap price and time vs. buying a new Seasonic.

I just resurrected a Gateway 500GR by replacing a slew of bad Nichicon caps. BTW, a big thanks to Topcat for the Rubycon 1500/16v that was required by this board.

The Gateway came with a Hipro P3057FW power supply. It is full of OST and TEAPOs. I was going to leave it alone, but found sufficient comments here to convince me to replace it. I'd hate to smoke that resurrected board.

This machine was a throw-away by a good client of mine. They wanted a new machine, and tossed out 200 SATA, P4/530 at 3.0 GHz with 800 FSB, and 512mb PC3200. If it remains stable, I'm going to pop CentOS onto it for my mail server. Thx for that tip, also. CentOS is basically the free version of Red Hate Enterprise. Just what I wanted.

[gonzo0815]

Re: OST Caps in Power Supplies

AFAIR KC8 has repeatedly reported failed Ost caps in some FSP and /or Seasonic PSu`s.
Personally i think that it is a safe bet to take his reports for granted.
Generally i have no problem in recapping any PSu with something decent like Rubycon ZL, Panasonic FC / FM or similar good caps.
Furthermore i have not noticed any issues with recapped PSU in contrast to Willawake.

In fact, i have done this on several Seasonic ss400FS,some FSP, some older Enermax and some LC-Power units.
Some of them even as they where brand new (to avoid early returns of systems fixed by myself or fixed upon advice from me).

I measured ripple current all the time with a analog scope and have not noticed any problems so far.
Sure, i don`t own a PSu tester nor a real load, but all i can say, it has worked out for me.

But i think you should stick with the original specs of capacitance, unless you are unable to source quality replacement caps with same spec and size or you own a scope and know when things went fubar.

There are some reports, that recapping certain units (e.g. FSP Epsilon) wit better caps (and higher capacitance ) could lead to increased ripple.

In the end, i think it is your decision, if you want to recap an PSu for you or others.
This includes to bear the risk of failure, which is there in any case, if you try to fix something.
If the decision is already made, to recap a PSU, i think it should be done once & right including any cap of not top notch brand >470uF on the secondary side and if you are in the mood every lytic.

As precaution i would add, that recapping of known crap psu´s is always a gamble.
Those units are may be tuned to work with crappy components or even relay at marginal components and are may be not fixable easily or with no better outcome then before.

[willawake]

Re: OST Caps in Power Supplies

AFAIR KC8 has repeatedly reported failed Ost caps in some FSP and /or Seasonic PSu`s. Personally i think that it is a safe bet to take his reports for granted.

oops i start checking then

This machine was a throw-away by a good client of mine. They wanted a new machine, and tossed out 200 SATA, P4/530 at 3.0 GHz with 800 FSB, and 512mb PC3200.

i want these clients

CentOS is basically the free version of Red Hate Enterprise. Just what I wanted.

this is anti-communist os? i support

[kc8adu]

Re: OST Caps in Power Supplies

CentOS is basically the free version of Red Hate Enterprise. Just what I wanted.
:crackmeup:

[bgavin]

Re: OST Caps in Power Supplies

Are you guys picking on the linux noob?



Willa is the one who turned me on to CentOS... I am now busy installing it on the resurrected Gateway. I really need a better mail server than my ancient Netware box.

I've been doing installation development on CentOS inside a VMWare session on my workstation. So far, I've got djbnds scripted to where it compiles and installs correctly. Next is QMail, then SpamAssassin and ClamAV.

[willawake]

Re: OST Caps in Power Supplies

it is not possible to become a good CentOS admin....works so good that you forget later how you did it

[kc8adu]

Re: OST Caps in Power Supplies

no crackmeup?
i was making fun of red HATE

[hkivan]

Re: OST Caps in Power Supplies

I did some searching and came up inconclusive.
OST RLP seems to be common along with TEAPO in power supplies.

OK to leave these alone, or should they all be replaced?

BTW, the asrock K8upgrade-NF3 has many OST RLP 6V3 1000uF all over the
slots & NF3 chipset.

weeks ago, I replaced them with sanyo WG 6V3 1000 & Panasonic FL 10V 1000.
The result is my ram could run at 222Mhz ( i.e. DDR444 ) , CL2.5 , 1T command rate. B4, it could only be 220Mhz, CL3 , 2T with 2 DIMMs installed.

[gonzo0815]

Re: OST Caps in Power Supplies

That`s was i intend to do with my Asrock Dualsata II. I probably use some 1200uF Pansonic FM near ram and some 1000uF ones for the rest.
I just have to pull it from my system......

[gonzo0815]

Re: OST Caps in Power Supplies

That`s was i intend to do with my Asrock Dualsata II. I probably use some 1200uF Pansonic FM near ram and some 1000uF ones for the rest.
I just have to pull it from my system......
I assume that i will get a real benefit in every aspect from this. Most quirks around this board are probably due to bad caps anywhere except the VRM.

[bgavin]

Re: OST Caps in Power Supplies

OT: I installed CentOS 5 on the resurrected Gateway 500GR, and it crapped right out of the box. The X server cannot recognize the Intel board, and i915G video chipset.

This sucks.

I put Windows Server 2003 on the same machine, and it sees the video adapter as Standard VGA Device. Puzzling, especially when 2003 won't install the i915G drivers, saying the standard drivers are a better match. I dunno if I have a board problem, or ?

I guess there is always a naggic doubt when jusing a recapped and resurrected board.

[Super Nade]

Re: OST Caps in Power Supplies

OST on MB's are shit. OST on PSU's are shit (especially near the power transistors), in fact OST is probably as bad as the Fujjjuckus.