Suitable HC replacements

[mockingbird]

I have a Radeon 9700 XT here and 6 of the caps are busted. The card works perfectly, but I'd feel safer recapping these. I recapped a Radeon 9600 Pro with "Licon" capacitors this week successfully (Replaced them with Panasonic FCs), and I was wondering if the FCs were a suitable replacement for Nichicon HC.

[robert]

Re: Suitable HC replacements

Nichicon HM or Rubycon MCZ should be okay, but id rather use Sanyo 6SEPC470MX (the 6V rating is okay) or some comparable polymer electrolytic type (such as Chemicon PSA, Nichicon LF), the card seems to be hard on capacitors (nichicon HC normally are fairly reliable).
In any case, improve on the cooling, the card looks like it got really hot (and this proboaly blew the HCs).

[c_hegge]

Re: Suitable HC replacements

What happened to the fan? That's probably why the caps failed (as robert said).

[momaka]

Re: Suitable HC replacements

If I remember correctly, Nichicon HC had higher ESR than Nichicon HM, so I think it might also be okay to use Panasonic FM and Rubycon MBZ as replacements.
And yes, those video cards do run somewhat hot, so make sure the fan is working well.

[mockingbird]

Re: Suitable HC replacements

Thanks, yea don't worry about the cooling I pulled this from a computer that was screwed up, the motherboard's caps were busted so prolly it had that chain effect and caused the video card's caps to bust.

Ok, I'm off to Digikey to see what they carry.

BTW, yu guys say these are polys? I believe these are lytics without the plastic sheath because there's a vent on them/

[c_hegge]

Re: Suitable HC replacements

I doubt if bad caps on the motherboard killed the video card. It may put a bit more stress on it, but it wouldn't kill it. I think it's more likely to be heat.

I knew these weren't polymer caps, and the other members probably did also. Just suggesting that you could replace them with polys as they would be more tolerant of heat than electrolytics.

[shadow]

Re: Suitable HC replacements

I agree with c_hegge. Unless some really nasty voltages went to the video card it is unlikely to be caused by the motherboard or power supply. I know these cards run fairly hot. I got an ATI FireGL X1. Basically a business version of the ATI Radeon 9700 Pro. One step lower than what you have. And it runs fairly warm too.

Poly recap would be ideal. However high endurance electrolytic caps would be good too. Poly is probably going to be better for your situation.

Interesting to see that there are some poly caps on the video card (it seems). Even thou the majority are electrolytic.

[mockingbird]

Re: Suitable HC replacements

I agree with c_hegge. Unless some really nasty voltages went to the video card it is unlikely to be caused by the motherboard or power supply. I know these cards run fairly hot. I got an ATI FireGL X1. Basically a business version of the ATI Radeon 9700 Pro. One step lower than what you have. And it runs fairly warm too.

Poly recap would be ideal. However high endurance electrolytic caps would be good too. Poly is probably going to be better for your situation.

Interesting to see that there are some poly caps on the video card (it seems). Even thou the majority are electrolytic.

I believe the black ones are Panasonic polys or NCC polys but I've never been able to get an ID on the "NA" ones. Someone on this board suggested they were "Jamicons".

Yea I've got another 9700Pro in the house, the card runs hot but I've got it in a fairly cramped mATX case with a 250watt mATX FSP PSU with Teapo caps and it runs very stable. I've never had problems with this card in terms of heat.

What I can gather (I'm trying to remember what it looked like when I found it in that old Dell Optiplex from the trash - and the "TX" in the card denotes a Dell 9700Pro OEM. The cap placement you'll notice is different than on the regular 9700 Pros but the cards are nearly identical in terms of spec. The TX has a negligibly lower core or memory speed) is that it came from a house with a poorly vented fireplace. The computer was full of soot and the CPU fan had seized and so had this card's fan. Now that you mention it, the caps on the motherboard weren't bulged, but the motherboard was filthy and ATT I was unaware that I could wash it with simple green as a member of this board had suggested before so I threw it in the trash. Besides, it was a DDR i845 motherboard and I only keep the SDR i845s because I can't spare DDR for computers I give away but SDR I have a dime a dozen.

I'll probably go with lytics. I'm not clear on capacitance calculations for polys. People suggest to halve it but halve what exactly? The microfarads or the voltage? Or both?

And then if I halve it, will the pin diameter be available for the lower spec'd poly.

And if I don't halve it, will the identical spec'd poly work? And if not, why do they spec polys the same way they spec lytics. I'm sort of confused about this.

And besides, lytics are a hell of a lot cheaper :-p

[ratdude747]

Re: Suitable HC replacements

they are cheaper, but sometimes you get what you pay for. poly caps would probably make it run better and make it last longer.

[c_hegge]

Re: Suitable HC replacements

Keep the capacitance and voltage the same for polys on a video card. If your using them on the VRM of a motherboard, then you use half the capacitance, but the voltage stays the same.

[hardwareguy]

Re: Suitable HC replacements

Nichicon HC and its relative, HD are reliable...however on hot graphics cards, nothing beats the performance of polymer.

No fan probably allowed temps to go well above 100C.... replace the fan before the chip is damaged.