Do I need to be worried? GP caps in an FSP power supply.

[acstech]

Hi all! I've been reading this site for quite some time and finally decided to register. Nice site BTW!

Anyway, I've got this Fortron Source 400w OEM power supply. Out of curiosity, I looked inside to see what kind of capacitors it used. They are Teapo SEK series, on the output side. Looking on Teapo's website, those are 105c General Purpose caps! I thought these things needed to be low ESR! I'm sorry I cant get absolute values here, as the thing is going out in a customer build this morning. IIRC some of 'em were 10v 2200uF.

So anyway, do I need to be worried about the longevity of this unit? Maybe do a free inspection every year or so?

[starfury1]

Re: Do I need to be worried? GP caps in an FSP power supply.

There are some post on these supplies around the forum but Off hand not sure how they rate on a scale of 1~10
they will last awhile but sooner or later the caps will probably fail
Ideally if you want max life out of a psu good quality caps are recommended
Since time is your issue here I wouldn't panic
its not going to fall over cause of caps next week

Will depend on conditions how long it gets used etc.

teapo's are used a lot in supplies even expensive ones

I wouldn't panic but if you really want to do yourself a favor ...recap with decent caps
at lest you wont have customers screaming at you in a year or two

err with SW they probably be screaming at you next day LOL not much you can do about that

Others may give you a more informed opinion on this...well I hope they will

Cheers and Welcome

[Sparky]

Re: Do I need to be worried? GP caps in an FSP power supply.

Teapos in a PSU are fine. General purpose makes me wonder, low ESR caps would be better. Most of these FSP PSUs last a long time though, I have one really old 250W Sparkle (FSP built, same thing) that is full of teapos and no problems. Survived a lightning surge that blew the mobo caps. (It had one random Fuhjyyu cap in it as well. It was fine, no problems, but I went ahead and replaced it with a spare nichicon cap I had.)

I wouldn't be too worried about those Teapos in that FSP to be honest

[acstech]

Re: Do I need to be worried? GP caps in an FSP power supply.

Well that makes me feel better. I knew FSP was a good unit, but the General Purpose caps had me worried.

I still think I'll do the yearly inspection though.

[starfury1]

Re: Do I need to be worried? GP caps in an FSP power supply.

well doing a yearly wouldn't hurt on both MB and PSU....
like I said does depend on the environment and how often and long its going to be used.

It appears that the common trick is to use higher voltage GP caps to lower ESR
(in other words a 10 Volt cap is going to have a lower ESR then a 6V3)
So you will find these on 5 Volt and 3V3 lines the other will most probably be 16 Volt

I haven't looked at spec sheets to confirm this, guess some of the more knowledgeable here on psu's might be able to confirm or deny this.

Caps are not the be all and end all of computer problems but they do in the last few years account for a lot of issues.....this should hopefully be clearing up a bit now.

cheers

[tazwegion]

Re: Do I need to be worried? GP caps in an FSP power supply.

Using higher rated units to capitalise on their lower resistance value appears to be almost as common on motherboards as PSU's, offering the 'free 12 monthly' inspection is prudent but could also increase the profitability of your business (in the long haul) primarily relating to customer goodwill & word-of-mouth

It's been my experience people respond well to the avoidance of 'geek speak' when tech's opt for common language (not to be confused with indecent) instead... have you also found this?

[acstech]

Re: Do I need to be worried? GP caps in an FSP power supply.

Yep, I'm going with the free 12 month inspection. If I have to recap it at some point, then so be it. At the first sign of bulging those suckers are coming out of there, and Panasonic FM's are going in!

Sometimes customers want to hear the "geek speak" and get the full technical explanation, while others only want it to be fixed. I find it's best to get to know each customer to figure out which way to go. I have found it beneficial to show the bad capacitor to customers though. It means a lot more when they can actually see the part that went bad, and why it's bad, which is not something that often happens in the computer business!

I suppose I should ask:

What would be a good power supply to get then? What I'm looking for is a good ATX unit, with somewhere around 400-500w of power, for less than $50, with good capacitors. Maybe I'm dreaming and such a unit does not exist. IMHO, Teapo does not qualify, I've seen way too many of those fail in Dell PSU's.

As per environment / usage:

It's a simple home computer. It might be a little warm in their house, and it will be used to run their financial software, internet, and some music stuff. Nothing real intensive.

[gonzo0815]

Re: Do I need to be worried? GP caps in an FSP power supply.

For average systems and mid range gaming systems i think the Seasonic S12 series 330w should meet the requirements.
All caps are either Rubycon or UCC. But from my point of view, those FSp units last fairly long, if not pushed to the max.