Congratulations for this great and amazing forum, and excuse that English is not my native language so I´ll try to do the best to tell my experience.
I think most of the members are well enough into the capacitor issues, and that will save me from deep explanations.
I am not an EE, just an enthusiast located in dark down Peru, South America
I got hands on an Asus A7N8X Deluxe Rev 1.04 Serial # 31ZG095961, before it was gonna be thrown to the bin, together with all the case and psu. Only explanation received “The board wont POST nothing, we send the PSU to the case vendor and said it was okey, the board dealer (in US) asked to RMA the board and send it over for replacement. No way with shipping cost” I was told.
Inspected closely the whole thing at home
1) Rear fan in the case was NOT exhausting the air (installed backwards)
2) Poorly ventilated case, no side intake air for the CPU, nothing on the front, a real stove/oven.
3) 8 Nichicon 6.3V 3300uF bulged/hilly 4 of them with leaking signs, not recent, no smells.
4) PSU tested, was OK within ranges
The rest of components with no sign of distress or whatsoever.
1+2=3? That is something that I will live for your thoughts, hence I´ve read that some badges of this board version carry a bad reputation and ton of issues.
On a desesperate last intent to make this thing work I smashed all the 8 caps with a spoon!!!
So you wont see them as hilly as I found them. Some pics of the board:
(Ooops, forgot to set the date on camera)
On the search of the adecuate caps to replace, the only thing available in town was a “Chang” brand of capacitor, as I havent heard a mention of that name except on the movies, had to steer to other sources.
Luckily got hands on a complete replacement kit of “SAMXON” brand Low-ESR caps. Compliments to Joe (aka Big Pope). Thanks!!!!
With all the caution, I proceed with the job
Area to replace
Take your pace, no hurry. Half painted circles help a lot with polarity...
Time for a beer
The SAMXON replacement team
Almost done at this point, spread your legs…
Homework done, I am sure that it can be done better than this.
SAMXONS in place, a loyal Palomino 1.4 ready for sacrifice....
As expected the recapped board did not post, bios seems to be the front burner on this cap disasters, so it had to be reflashed.
For this purpose I used a similar board (Asus A7N8X Deluxe Rev 2.0 s/n 34ZGOG0719) doing the hot-swapping trick. and ....voala!
Lets now compare both boards under fair conditions. (Im looking for STABILITY, at the end, this board is like a hurt war vet, shouldnt expect it to perform as my Rev 2.0 board…)
Guests to the party:
Superlocked XP2400+ AIXJB0401
Matrix DDR 512MB PC3200 stick
Illusion Golden PSU (PSP4600) 680watt
Akasa 825 Colour Carnival Cooler
Method: FSB adjustment applied manually on 1mhz steps, verified with nVidia nTune Stability Tests v5.05.18.00 utility, till any instability issue showed up(hang-up or reboot), if so, it was stepped back 1 mhz, and again to burn test. Default bios voltages for all components on both boards.
After final setting was achieved, runned on both boards for 24 hours, this is the final outcome:
Recapped 1.04 board max FSB accepted 148mhz
Standard 2.0 board max FSB accepted 145 mhz
After recapping the Rev. 1.04 board it had this main capacitors:
-8 SAMXON 6.3V 3300uF GC(M)
-16 OST 6.3V 1000uF RLS
The version 2.0 board has never been recapped or modified, tested on its standard presentation:
-8 NICHICON 6.3V 3300uF HM (M)
-14 OST 6.3V 1000uF RLS
-2 CHEMICON 6.3V 820uF KZG
Both boards were biosed with the Asus 1008 version.
Gentleman, my preliminary conclusion is that the SAMXON recapped board shows a better stability than a similar board with the NICHICON caps.
It will take some more time of testing to give my definitive impression, will now submit both boards to the anger hands of my son (13year old avid gamer) for a 3 month individuall test period.
On the meantime, will wait the Great Capacitor Showdown!!!
Chris
I think most of the members are well enough into the capacitor issues, and that will save me from deep explanations.
I am not an EE, just an enthusiast located in dark down Peru, South America
I got hands on an Asus A7N8X Deluxe Rev 1.04 Serial # 31ZG095961, before it was gonna be thrown to the bin, together with all the case and psu. Only explanation received “The board wont POST nothing, we send the PSU to the case vendor and said it was okey, the board dealer (in US) asked to RMA the board and send it over for replacement. No way with shipping cost” I was told.
Inspected closely the whole thing at home
1) Rear fan in the case was NOT exhausting the air (installed backwards)
2) Poorly ventilated case, no side intake air for the CPU, nothing on the front, a real stove/oven.
3) 8 Nichicon 6.3V 3300uF bulged/hilly 4 of them with leaking signs, not recent, no smells.
4) PSU tested, was OK within ranges
The rest of components with no sign of distress or whatsoever.
1+2=3? That is something that I will live for your thoughts, hence I´ve read that some badges of this board version carry a bad reputation and ton of issues.
On a desesperate last intent to make this thing work I smashed all the 8 caps with a spoon!!!
So you wont see them as hilly as I found them. Some pics of the board:
(Ooops, forgot to set the date on camera)
On the search of the adecuate caps to replace, the only thing available in town was a “Chang” brand of capacitor, as I havent heard a mention of that name except on the movies, had to steer to other sources.
Luckily got hands on a complete replacement kit of “SAMXON” brand Low-ESR caps. Compliments to Joe (aka Big Pope). Thanks!!!!
With all the caution, I proceed with the job
Area to replace
Take your pace, no hurry. Half painted circles help a lot with polarity...
Time for a beer
The SAMXON replacement team
Almost done at this point, spread your legs…
Homework done, I am sure that it can be done better than this.
SAMXONS in place, a loyal Palomino 1.4 ready for sacrifice....
As expected the recapped board did not post, bios seems to be the front burner on this cap disasters, so it had to be reflashed.
For this purpose I used a similar board (Asus A7N8X Deluxe Rev 2.0 s/n 34ZGOG0719) doing the hot-swapping trick. and ....voala!
Lets now compare both boards under fair conditions. (Im looking for STABILITY, at the end, this board is like a hurt war vet, shouldnt expect it to perform as my Rev 2.0 board…)
Guests to the party:
Superlocked XP2400+ AIXJB0401
Matrix DDR 512MB PC3200 stick
Illusion Golden PSU (PSP4600) 680watt
Akasa 825 Colour Carnival Cooler
Method: FSB adjustment applied manually on 1mhz steps, verified with nVidia nTune Stability Tests v5.05.18.00 utility, till any instability issue showed up(hang-up or reboot), if so, it was stepped back 1 mhz, and again to burn test. Default bios voltages for all components on both boards.
After final setting was achieved, runned on both boards for 24 hours, this is the final outcome:
Recapped 1.04 board max FSB accepted 148mhz
Standard 2.0 board max FSB accepted 145 mhz
After recapping the Rev. 1.04 board it had this main capacitors:
-8 SAMXON 6.3V 3300uF GC(M)
-16 OST 6.3V 1000uF RLS
The version 2.0 board has never been recapped or modified, tested on its standard presentation:
-8 NICHICON 6.3V 3300uF HM (M)
-14 OST 6.3V 1000uF RLS
-2 CHEMICON 6.3V 820uF KZG
Both boards were biosed with the Asus 1008 version.
Gentleman, my preliminary conclusion is that the SAMXON recapped board shows a better stability than a similar board with the NICHICON caps.
It will take some more time of testing to give my definitive impression, will now submit both boards to the anger hands of my son (13year old avid gamer) for a 3 month individuall test period.
On the meantime, will wait the Great Capacitor Showdown!!!
Chris
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