Help me rank these caps for my application

[Maxxarcade]

I am going to be making another parts order at work tomorrow, and I need to replenish my stock of caps. I get all my caps from Digikey, and I know what specs I need, but I would like some opinions on which cap is the best for my application, while still being reasonably cheap.

They will be used in 24/7 duty, commercial PC based games for PSU's and motherboards which run at a pretty high temperature and are subject to fan failure and blocked vents now and then.

Here are my picks, in no particular order.

Chemicon KY
Chemicon LXY/LXZ
Panasonic FC
Panasonic FM

Any other suggestions? I shyed away from Nichicon because we used to use those a lot, and many of them are going bad too soon. Lately I've been favoring the FM's because they are cheaper (and better) than the FC's for some reason.

I apologize if this has been discussed before, I guess I'm just tired tonight and feeling a bit lazy when it comes to searching...

[Fizzycapola]

Re: Help me rank these caps for my application

No Rubycon ZLH ? low esr + endurance according to spec

[Maxxarcade]

Re: Help me rank these caps for my application

Can I get those from Digikey? If I could, that would definately be the best bet. Aren't Rubycon's considered to be the top of the line when it comes to electrolytics?

[PeteS in CA]

Re: Help me rank these caps for my application

Non-Aqueous Electrolyte:
Chemicon LXY - low Z, 8K hours
Panasonic FC - low Z, 5K hours, better CV product than LXY
Chemicon LXZ - low Z, 8K hours, better CV product than LXY

Non-Aqueous Electrolyte:
Chemicon KY - lower Z than LXZ, 10K hours
Panasonic FM - lower Z than FM, 7K hours

For Nichicon:
PW series has identical specs to the UCC LXZ series
HE series has identical specs to the UCC KY series

I've not heard of any problems with the PW or HE series.

I have heard that Newark will soon start carrying Rubycon, but I didn't see Rubycon in Newark's online catalog.

[bgavin]

Re: Help me rank these caps for my application

I'm finding that availability is the determining factor for cap selection. After that are the physical dimensions.

As a USA buyer, the only source I have found so for for Rubycon is Wai Fong in Hong Kong. They are very reliable and fast shipping... but their selection is VERY limited. If Newark carries the Rubycon line, that would be great.. depending upon pricing.

I am still assembling a huge spread sheet that encompasses all the premium caps, and names all the bad ones. It is far from complete, but quite useful. Thanks to everyone on this board for the huge amount of useful information.

www.compudox.com/reference

[Maxxarcade]

Re: Help me rank these caps for my application

Non-Aqueous Electrolyte:
Chemicon LXY - low Z, 8K hours
Panasonic FC - low Z, 5K hours, better CV product than LXY
Chemicon LXZ - low Z, 8K hours, better CV product than LXY

Forgive me for being dumb, but what does CV stand for?

[gonzo0815]

Re: Help me rank these caps for my application

Aren`t thePanasonic FM waterbased?

Any way, i would use the series with longest endurance, but Panasonic Fm is probably the cheapest selection from this list.
I do not have lontgime experience with the FM`s, but from my point of view you can`t go wrong with them.
Panasonic hase IMHO proved that they can do very good caps, and even if i consider Rubycon as one of the absolut best brands capwise, i think the difference are negligible.

But shure, the smaller diameter FM caps are only 2000 to 3000h 105°c, so if yu aren`t always far from that temperature, i would use one of the long endurance series at least for the smaler ones.
Just to be shure ;-)
Otherwise you can calculate the lifespann of the caps, if you can estimate the worst case ambient temperature (doubling the rated endurance 105°c by any 10°c below 105°c).
If the Pansonic FM still fits your endurance requirement, then you can for shure use them.

CV, i assume this means that this series is smaller compared with others. But not shure about that.

[PeteS in CA]

Re: Help me rank these caps for my application

Sorry, I forgot to edit what I copy-and-pasted. FMs and KYs are both aqueous series, as is HE.

CV product (C x V) - poor shorthand on my part. What I'm trying to express is that for a given can size and voltage, the LXZ series usually has a higher capacitance than the LXY series. For example, in a 16mm x 25mm can at 35V, the LXY part is 1200uF, while the LXZ part is 1800uF.