Opinions please!!!

[Xpo]

Hi Guys,

I have an 8rda+ v1.1, caps used are GSC. I have noticed 3 of the four 2200uF caps bulging with one leaking quite significantly. All the other caps are fine.

I have worked out that i would need to pay quite a bit of cash to replace all the GSC caps to Rubycon or Panasonic FC.

Can some one tell me what would be the most important caps to replace or are all of them just as important to change? The 4 2200uF are the only ones i'm 100% sure would make a big difference in stabilty.
Or to put it another way.... what caps on the board if i change wouldn't make a difference?

Looking at upgrading in a few months so not looking to spend much $$$

Any comments welcome.

[Topcat]

Replace all GSC's or known bad brands of caps 1000uF and up. Otherwise, you'll likely still have a flaky system.

[Xpo]

Replace all GSC's or known bad brands of caps 1000uF and up. Otherwise, you'll likely still have a flaky system.

It was actually quite stable before when i noticed 1 cap bulging a few months ago but know 3 are and 1s leaking. All the other Caps are fine.

[willawake]

hey now, listen to the man.

the fact is that nobody can tell you which caps are bad without testing your board with expensive lab equipment. Even if some of the caps have not visibly failed they might still be off spec. You could replace only the bad looking caps and still have stability probs. On the other hand you could have success and then some time down the road the other caps you didnt replace would fail also, putting you in the same situation again. The thing is that it is not good to be running a board with caps ready to blow, they could short and take out your ram/cpu/cards etc.

i agree that there are a lot of caps on that board but it is not a good idea to do half a job. If you recap the board properly you can sell it when you upgrade at a premium price because it has good caps now.

a motherboard is one unit with all components working together, prolly all the caps 1000uf and above are pretty damn critical, esp near the atx connector/cpu/ram/ which is the majority of the big caps on your board.

pics
http://www.ninjalane.com/display.aspx?docname=ep-8rda

[Xpo]

Ok thanks for the more thorough advice, that's what i thought you might say.

I want my system to run only another few more months then upgrade, that is why i wasn't sure if it was that critical to replace ALL of the caps if you know what i mean? Why spend $40 on caps when i can buy a whole new board for $80 with a better revision NB chipset.

I doubt i could sell the board at a premium price but i would like some component replacement practice since i'm studying electronics presently (moving away from working in IT).

Anyway at the moment i only have instablility in the warmer weather, and i thought that just replacing all the 2200uF and a few other more critical areas such as RAM and AGP, should give me an ok system to use for the short period i will be keeping it.

[bushytails]

instability during hot weather likely is the caps, but you should also check that your cpu (or other components) isn't overheating... dust in fansinks is remarkably good at causing instability.

--Randy