When will I have to replace 10k capacitors? I am guessing I could get 3 years out of them. But I feel that could be pushing it. Will I have to do a resolder of the capacitor’s or will that be covered under my motherboard manufacture warranty?
Uhm, when shit goes boom?
What is the workload?
Do you think I need to have a ups to condition the power to the computer? I know I should. But I am kinda lazy on getting around to it.
o0
… uuuhhh, ok? …
I would specifically recommend the use of a hamster powered computer. That might sound inefficient and I have to admit hamsters don’t burn very well but I think it is the only option. … except squirrels maybe, depends on the workload.
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If you care about your components, get a good power supply (highest 80 plus rating you can afford, all japanese capacitors, good brand like Corsair, EVGA, Seasonic, etc) and put it on a UPS. Make sure it’s a pure sine wave UPS cause otherwise you’re not actually doing any good as far as conditioning the power goes. But if you want the computer to run for a year straight, you probably need a UPS because where I live the power is out at least briefly every few months during storms or whatever.
Is it going to be under heavy load for 1 year straight? I’m no electrical engineer but if caps go bad in your mobo/PSU there’s a fair chance they’ll take other components with them, there’s a low likelihood it’ll be a simple solder-in-new-caps kind of deal (though I have done that in the past after a PSU rail failed, I would not count on it, those were tremendously unusual circumstances and bad odds lol)
Would you recommend against a used ups?
Capacitor endurance is based on the capacitor functioning at maximum rated operating conditions. As an example, a cap rated 500 mA ripple, 105C, and 10K hours will (theoretically) not fall out of spec after operating for 10,000 hours straight in a 105C environment and 500 mA of current flowing through it.
Running below the maximum ratings can drastically improve the lifespan of the component. The general rule of thumb is that a capacitor’s lifespan is increased by a factor of 2 for every 10C drop in temperature. So that 10K cap could last 20K hours if running at 95C, 40K hours at 85C, et cetera.
Some reading if you want to some more info:
https://www.maximintegrated.com/en/app-notes/index.mvp/id/5591
(Starting on page 20, section 2-9-2 ↓↓↓)
EDIT: For some reason you need to use http:// and not https:// for this
Depends on the price and the condition it’s in. There’s a pretty good chance you’ll have to buy a battery for any used UPS, which is not an issue unless you do the math and find out it ultimately costs you more than a comparable new UPS. You’ll just have to do your homework on that.
Bottom line is make sure it’s a pure sine wave UPS. Stepped approximation sine wave UPSes will mess with some PSUs I have heard, and it’s also just not as good for your equipment.
If you really don’t care about unexpected shutdowns due to outages occasionally, and you’re really on a budget, you might could pick up a Furman power conditioner. They’re meant for audio equipment and they have no battery, but they do have really incredible power conditioning stuff inside so they would smooth out the power from the utility company. They’re about $80, but for $150-200 you can get a pure sine wave UPS from CyberPower.
Stupid question: when caps fail, do they usually fail open, or closed, or is it pretty unpredictable?
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My primary work system is a i7 2600k that I used in the past for virtualization. I bought it when the second gen i7 was just coming out and it’s been on 24/7 until about February. I would say your caps will be fine but a PSU is always a good investment.
A used UPS is just fine, I’ve got one protecting my NAS and desktop (well, two separate UPS)
My advice is this: get the UPS and don’t worry about leaving your system on all the time. In fact, some people suggest that leaving a system on is better than shutting it down every night, in terms of cap wear because of the stress of the power surging into the device.
@K4KFH That’s actually a good question that I’m curious about as well.
I think when caps fail closed it is probably from the phenomena of metal whiskers causing a short. A open fault is probably from a over voltage or excess heat.
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It depends. ELNA has a nice chart detailing types of cap failures and their causes:
Oh cool. I was right is seems. I guess that learning how to work on cars in school really paid off.
Not sure you need to worry about it much, as long as you’re getting use out of it.
I have a Gigabyte EX58-UD5 (rev.1) + overclocked i7-920 (C0 stepping) running 24/7 since late 2008. There’s been some downtime during a couple of house/country moves, upgrades and mostly vacations, probably not more than 2-3 months worth in total. It’s been running air cooled at 70-80-90C since forever, inside of the case is pretty warm too (reduced fan noise).
Motherboard caps are shot, (if it’s powered down for a few hours I have trouble turning it on), I decided to swap out the power supply (old 650W Cooler Master I got in 2008), for a new one (Corsair RM850i), and move the old 650W power supply to my other computer, and the i7-920 is still fine.
Let me put this into perspective for you. My first desktop that I built was based on an HP Compaq D510 SFF workstation. Shitty P4 that I swapped out for a chip that demanded double the power, HT hacks were added, RAM max hacks were added, and a 9600PRO, plus 3 IDE HDD’s. That machine stayed on for 2 whole years. The only times it was off was when the power went out.
The mobo and PSU were from 2001. Still going.
Well at lead it has lead solder and not that other crap.
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I replaced all of 2 caps and it has a 150 watt psu.
Wow. That’s good longevity.
So, my point is learn the parts distributors and where shit is and theres nothing to worry about.
I think that you’re overthinking the issue. The caps thing was that the market got flooded with cheap caps and it became a disaster. That’s why all the quality manufacturers of m/b’s and psu’s emphasize Japanese caps in their marketing. As long as you stick with them the caps will last as long as the board will.
Used UPS’s are fine as long as you get the reconditioned ones. You’ll save about 50% and it’ll come with a brand new battery, the circuits will be checked and given an overhaul and cleanup. It’ll last you years and is a wise investment.