On Dec 26, 2010 6:12 AM, "Russell L. Harris" <rlharris@broadcaster.org> wrote:
>
> I am tossing into the dumpster the last two motherboards which I
> purchased -- Asus M3A78-T (AMD64) and Asus P5Q-EM (i386) -- because of
> video problems. I purchased the boards because of the long-life solid
> capacitors. (Motherboard life typically is limited by deterioration
> of conventional electrolytic capacitors with age and heat.)
>
I generally tend to go with supermicro or asus. However, I don't think that brand or manufacturing process are the issue here unless you bought cheap asus boards (they make everything from commodity to server products).
So, assuming a decent board (it doesn't sound like you have a problem spending $200+ usd if you're replacing it because video is starting to fail vs just putting another video card in) then, I wonder about outside factors. First, have you had the machines plugged into a ups? Did you check your RAM before trashing the boards (and probably in another computer that doesn't use shared RAM for graphics as I don't know how memtest86 handles that)? Are you in a real humid or dry setting? Is it real hot all the time? Etc, etc.
As for your issue with electrolytic caps (let me see if I can remember my electronics here). They are more suited for higher voltages and can hold a charge longer than the solid state variants. Personally, I like them better because when they blow, its visually noticeable (mushroom head or electrolyte all over the place). Lastly, I've got stereo cross over circuits with those caps that have been used for 10+ years. Point of all of this is, in most environments, I wouldn't really dwell on the caps one way or the other. Buy what works, treat it well and, in five years or so, you'll end up throwing away an old motherboard with perfectly good caps.
As for specific board recommendations, I can't really give you any as I don't work that way. I either get whatever cheap dell I can get gold support on and then replace it or I get proliant servers. If this is truly a desktop system for you and nothing more, you might opt for the dell with gold support (crap hardware with insurance :) ).