ABIT BP6 - confirmation on which caps to order

[draxx]

Hi All,

I'm looking to do a retro PC build, using an ABIT BP6 which I recently had shipped from the UK to Australia for $55AUD with 2x Celeron 433's included.(I really wanted one)

Even though the mainboard is fully functional and seems stable at the moment (surprisingly), I've decided to re-cap it anyway so I would like to confirm which caps I should buy.

On this post it says the following:

The following capacitors stock are 1500uF 6.3v caps. Replace them with 2200uF 6.3v or 10v capacitors. Use only LOW ESR caps!! This is VERY important!
EC15, EC5, EC1, EC11, EC4, EC6, EC9, EC7, EC8, EC2, EC13, EC14.

Ok, EC10 needs to be replaced with a 1500uF 10v capacitor.

These caps need to be left at their stock values of 1000uF 10v caps.
EC3, EC17, EC25, EC21, EC20, EC24, EC18, EC19, EC22, EC23, EC28, EC31.
!

However on the online store it shows the premade kit as containing:

This is what your kit will contain to successfully rebuild your Abit BP6 Mainboard.
The kit contains 25 capacitors, itemized as follows:

Quantity Value Voltage Diameter
12 1500uF 6.3v or 10v 8mm
12 1000uF 6.3v or 10v 8mm
1 470uF 16v 8mm

The 470uF caps is for the EC10 mod, replacing the 100uF cap.

As you can see, there is a fair difference between the two, and I want to get this right first go as these boards are very hard to find in good condition.

I haven't ruled out performing the coppermine mods at this stage, but initially I'd like to get it refreshed first.

Cheers in advance...

[lti]

Re: ABIT BP6 - confirmation on which caps to order

Use what is included in the kit. The capacitance is the same as the originals, and the change in the voltage rating doesn't matter in this particular application.

Also, if there are any Jackcon caps on that board, they will need to be replaced, even if replacements are not included in the kit. They are so bad that even the small ones need to be replaced.

[draxx]

Re: ABIT BP6 - confirmation on which caps to order

Thanks for your input - do we know what the purpose was in the first post to increase them to 2200uf over the original 1500?

[Topcat]

Re: ABIT BP6 - confirmation on which caps to order

2200uF wont fit. they're too big. The kit will do your board perfect as far as values.

[mockingbird]

Re: ABIT BP6 - confirmation on which caps to order

You might want to read this:
http://web.archive.org/web/200503290...e=article&k=12

If I were doing a classic setup like that, I would have ordered the Asus P2B-D... There are tons of stuff to mod on it and you can run two Tualatins on it.

[Topcat]

Re: ABIT BP6 - confirmation on which caps to order

^
I had the P2B-DS (SCSI version), it was one of my most favorite hot-roddable boards ever!! The BP6 could be modded to run cumines, but it required powerleap adapters and some wiring mods to the socket....it wasnt an easy board to do. I've heard tales of there being Tualatin hacks for it, but by then, I had moved on. I did a cumine mod to one BP6 and it was never really stable....I dumped it and went to the VP6.

[Th3_uN1Qu3]

Re: ABIT BP6 - confirmation on which caps to order

I had two P2B-DSs... The first got eaten by a crap PSU (or rather, the board was likely still fine, but i didn't know back then, that was 7 years ago), and the second was never stable with dual Tualatins for some reason. In my dual-PIII i'm currently rocking a CUV4X-DLS with two PIII-S 1.4GHz OC'ed to 1.53, 2GB SDRAM, Radeon 9800 Pro VIVO 256MB vmodded, VIA PCI SATA card + WD 320GB. Still keeps up with mostly everything on the web, but i'd like a GPU with some Flash acceleration.

The 440BX was an awesome chipset, but IMO AGP2x is no longer useful these days, unless you plan to run it as a server of some sort. With AGP4x on the other hand, you can run the last AGP cards, the HD3850 and HD4670. I'm still keeping my eyes peeled for one of those.

[Topcat]

Re: ABIT BP6 - confirmation on which caps to order

^
I've got a Supermicro P3TDDE with a pair of 1.4GHz tuallies in it, 2gb of RAM with an 8x AGP HD4650 1gb GPU. It has no problems whatsoever. Flash is fine on it. I have 2 of those cards, the other is in a Xeon system, it also has no problems. Good AGP cards like that are almost impossible to find. I won't part with either of mine.

[mockingbird]

Re: ABIT BP6 - confirmation on which caps to order

but IMO AGP2x is no longer useful these days, unless you plan to run it as a server of some sort

Ah, that's right. I forgot about that limitation. It's not the actual AGP revision that matters, but the type of slot.

Are you sure you have a 9800 Pro in there and not the 9700 Pro? It was the 9700 Pro that did either 3.3v/1.5v, but the 9800 was strictly a 0.8v card. I think there might be PCI vesions of better cards.

What happened to your 939 system?

I've got a Supermicro P3TDDE with a pair of 1.4GHz tuallies in it

VIA Chipset Alert!!!

[Topcat]

Re: ABIT BP6 - confirmation on which caps to order

VIA Chipset Alert!!!

I've never had a problem with one. The only thing I wish the board supported was DDR1 memory....it uses SDRAM. the only DDR1 dual P3 board ever was the iwill DVD266uRN....and that was a really quirky board.

I agree that the 440BX was the P2/P3 workhorse though....it was tough as nails and extremely stable!

[mockingbird]

Re: ABIT BP6 - confirmation on which caps to order

Looking back at your thread on that board:

1) Why did you leave those Hermei caps in there?
2) What did you end up doing with that board? (My hunch is that you ripped out the northbridge while trying to remove that oversized heatsink you put on )

Best BX board I ever had was the Abit BF6... It was the equivalent of the BE6-II but without the pesky RAID chip. They must have tweaked some timings on those later boards, because the speed was a lot better than previous BX boards. Unfortunately, back in those times, I couldn't make heads or tails out of a soldering iron so the board got relegated to the garbage heap. I dreamt of being able to afford a 9700 for it eventually back in those days, when they were still selling for $200-$300+ back in those days.

[Topcat]

Re: ABIT BP6 - confirmation on which caps to order

Looking back at your thread on that board:

1) Why did you leave those Hermei caps in there?
2) What did you end up doing with that board? (My hunch is that you ripped out the northbridge while trying to remove that oversized heatsink you put on )

...the only DDR1 dual P3 board ever was the iwill DVD266uRN....and that was a really quirky board.

I sold the iwill on ebay....with the heatsink still attached. Some joker paid a nice chunk for that flaky piece of garbage. Unstable boards are a common thing from Iwill....it wasnt the chipset per se. I did recap it....just not before that pic was taken.

The supermicro P3TDDE has been used as a backup server for years, it was always 100% stable, it ran 24/7/365 for a couple years without issue.

[mockingbird]

Re: ABIT BP6 - confirmation on which caps to order

Next step is building a legit 486 system for classic stuff. I want to get boards with the real Intel chipsets since there were so many of them at the time. Today all we have is Intel and AMD.

I've seen someone claiming that you can get a Super Socket7 board to behave like a 486 if you disable the L1 and L2 cache... I've actually got an ATX Asus P5A-B board here I would be able to use with a normal case and PSU.

Funny how a $1000 computer still can't emulate DOS or Windows 3.1 properly in Virtualbox or VMWare. Yea, DOSBox is nice, but not ideal.

[Topcat]

Re: ABIT BP6 - confirmation on which caps to order

For a socket 7 board, I'd want the Tyan Tomcat dual socket 7. HX chipset, will run the MMX CPU. Almost impossible to find now.

[mockingbird]

Re: ABIT BP6 - confirmation on which caps to order

The point is not having too much speed or those games will be unplayable.

You reminded me of this guy on the StorageReview forum who was spending a fortune building a Pentium Pro system for an upgrade when he could have spent a lot less on something modern and fast.

[Topcat]

Re: ABIT BP6 - confirmation on which caps to order

^
I would never buy retro hardware.....that's the difference.... I get most of this stuff free or find it in goodie boxes.... I like to tinker with older hardware, but I'd never actually buy it. If I could score a tyan tomcat dually 7 board for 5 bucks in a junk bin, I'd take a gamble on it....but theres nuts that pay big bucks for this junk on fleabay...

[Th3_uN1Qu3]

Re: ABIT BP6 - confirmation on which caps to order

Are you sure you have a 9800 Pro in there and not the 9700 Pro? It was the 9700 Pro that did either 3.3v/1.5v, but the 9800 was strictly a 0.8v card. I think there might be PCI vesions of better cards.

It is the 9800 Pro. It's some sort of limited edition made for IBM - it's a 9800 Pro GPU on a 9700 Pro PCB. It worked in my GA-6BXDS so i know for sure it does support AGP 2x too.

And like i said, my current mobo has AGP 4x so i can run later cards too. I just need to get my hands on one. No need for PCI cards.

What happened to your 939 system?

I never had one. I think you're mistaking me. I have a dual-PIII, a C2D and a few laptops.

VIA Chipset Alert!!!

Mine's a VIA too... Apart from needing a VIA PCI SATA card as it didn't play nice with my Silicon Image 3112A, no problems.

[kc8adu]

Re: ABIT BP6 - confirmation on which caps to order

i polymodded 2 bp6 for a friend 4 years ago.
i used 820@2.5 on cpu vcore.
560@4 on +3.3 near ram and chipset.
got 2 more sitting that i will do soon.
the quality of the caps in the badcaps store kit is lightyears ahead of the stock bp6 junkcons.
call em double overkill and polys tripple overkill.

[Per Hansson]

Re: ABIT BP6 - confirmation on which caps to order

The point is not having too much speed or those games will be unplayable.

You reminded me of this guy on the StorageReview forum who was spending a fortune building a Pentium Pro system for an upgrade when he could have spent a lot less on something modern and fast.

Haha, I remember that thread
What a guy that was!

I admit I'm one to max out old boards too, but I don't spend more than a couple bucks (like topcat)
Like my first computer, an AST with a P100Mhz, bought the extra CPU cache module for it in like year 2000 just because it's fun
Also have a Proliant 800 server going strong, Dual Pentium Pro 200Mhz and 384MB RAM, use it as a Firewall at my parents place, only the harddrive is the weak link, 2GB SCSI or something