Solid Capacitor Motherboards Introduced

jckrbbt writes with news that Gigabyte has introduced solid capacitor motherboards in its Intel 945 chipset products. From the article: "[S]olid capacitors have a higher tolerance for higher temperatures and they also perform better with higher frequencies and higher current than electrolytic capacitors. The superior heat resistance and better electric conductivity will allow PC enthusiasts to tweak the highest levels of performance from their system without fear of excessive capacitor wear or exploding capacitors."

Average

[sporkme]

Solid capacitors also last longer with an average lifetime of 23 years compared to only three for electrolytic capacitors, according to Gigabyte.

I have seen popped caps on motherboards, but 3 years seems a little short as an "average."

Additionally, solid capacitors have a higher tolerance for higher temperatures and they also perform better with higher frequencies and higher current than electrolytic capacitors.

Yay for overclockers and NASA.

Re:Average

[multipartmixed]

I suspect your version of "fail" and "3 years" is different from theirs.

I'm guessing by "fail", they mean that N percent of them are Y percent out of spec, and by "3 years" they mean "3 years run-time", not "3 calendar years".

That said, I seem to recall electrolytic caps on digikey typically being rated for around 2,000 of use.... and their definitions of "fail" are exactly as I've said above.

Caps can (and often do) work in their intended application well after they have ceased to behave as the spec sheet says they should. Sometimes, they are not that critical; other times, the design engineers know how to derate parts to get a reaonable lifetime out of whatever it is they are building.

23 years?

[ScaryMonkey]

Solid capacitors also last longer with an average lifetime of 23 years compared to only three for electrolytic capacitors, according to Gigabyte

I guess a longer lifespan is good, but do I really need a motherboard to last for 23 years? I just might get around to upgrading the processor in that time frame...

Re:finally

[iminplaya]

...more reliable machines.

Don't count on it. Planned obsolescence isn't going away anytime soon. Make the machine "too reliable" and the industry will be crying about lousy sales.

Re:No thanks...

[fabs64]

Conveniently they're also used for a completely different purpose in electronics. :-P

Re:3 YEARS?

[Max Romantschuk]

I'm amazed so many old computers work so well.

Actually, if a computer is old enough that helps too. I use a floppy drive from a 286 due to the fact that it's mechanically bulletproof. I went through 2 floppy drives before gutting an old external floppy enclosure for the drive. Newer hardware isn't built to last.

Also, thee years for a capacitor is probably three years of continuous usage.

Instead add neon lite to PC for better performance

[viking80]

The recipe for the electrolyte in capacitors is kept as a big secret similar to the secret ingredients in the sauce at a restaurant.

Chinese industrial spies stole a fake formula from a Japanese company, and started making capacitors, and the rest is history.

A combination of a smaller solid cap with good HF performance together with a cheap and large electrolyte further away, but with better LF performance will beat the solution in the article.

I use the power supply from a 25 old HP HDD as a lab supply. It has huge electrolytes that still deliver great performance.

You will probably get more performance improvement by adding neon lights to your case.

Article in ieee.org members only
http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/iel5/6/26410/01176509.p df?arnumber=1176509 [ieee.org]

http://www.burtonsys.com/bad_BP6/story1.html [burtonsys.com]

Um, right

[coder111]

When was the last time motherboard manufacturers used quality Japanese parts instead of bootleg Chinese knockoffs? And Gigabyte is guilty of doing this as much as every other motherboard maker.

--Coder

YAWN! Capacitor FUD

[EmbeddedJanitor]

You basically get three major types of caps on motherboards, each of which have different properties:

Ceramics. Small and fast. Typically used for decoupling (small charge storage).

Electrolytic: Larger and slower. They are slower because they are highly inductive. They don't like working at very high frequencies which can make them fail.

Tantalum: Medium/large and fast. They are less inductive than electrolytics. They can dump current far faster than electolytic which can cause undesirable current rushes.

Of course I have not RTFA because that's not the point of /., but I suspect they're swapping tantalums in to replace electrolytics. With proper usage electrolytics will not typically fail, so this is perhaps FUD. Particularly the "overclocker" bit. It sounds like FUD to try generate a new "feature" to sell their motherboards.

Re:Average

[Anonymous Coward]

> I have seen popped caps on motherboards, but 3 years seems a little short as an "average."

Three years is such an absurd statement that it can be only called a lie. Elcos would not be used in /anything/ if they had a 3 year average life.

The story here is why Gigabyte is saying such garbage, not the press release that ExtremeTech "writer" Bryan Gardiner has repeated with his brain turned off.

AFAIK, Gigabyte did not fare notably worse than other MB manufactures during the bad cap epsiode a few years ago, but possibly this nonsense is related to that?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capacitor_plague [wikipedia.org]

I've got gear spanning forty years of electonics addiction here. Excluding the pile of bum parts due to said plague, only one unit has dried-out caps, my Osborne 1. Everything else still works fine. I'm listening to my 30-year-old Technics amp, and have my 21-year-old Amiga 1080 displaying my Atari 2600 and PS1. Three years is complete crock.

Re:YAWN! Capacitor FUD

[AaronLawrence]

That's true but often irrelevant. The difference in size (electroytic gets much more capacitance per size, so after about 1uF they are usually used) and RF behaviour (ie. inductance) of the two is much more important in most cases.