Re: need motherboard recommendation
* shawn wilson <ag4ve.us@gmail.com> [101226 12:28]:
> I don't think that brand or manufacturing process are the issue here
> unless you bought cheap asus boards
Cheap boards generally do not have solid capacitors exclusively.
> > purchased -- Asus M3A78-T (AMD64) and Asus P5Q-EM (i386)
> 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)
How can you trust a board (still in warranty) which has video
problems, even if you use an external video card?
> then, I wonder about outside factors. First, have you had the
> machines plugged into a ups?
UPS and surge arrestor.
> 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)?
Recall that the M3A78-T made three RMA trips to Asus. If the RAM is
defective, Asus should have detected it.
> Are you in a real humid or dry setting? Is it real hot all the time?
Tropical mosquito swamp. Summer is hot and humid. Winter is cool and
humid. There are two nice days a year; one is called "spring" and the
other is called "autumn".
> 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).
I am a graduate engineer with electronic expertise; you obviously do not
understand electrolytic capacitors.
Electrolytics are low-voltage capacitors; they tend to be leaky; they
lose capacity with age; the aging process is accelerated by heat; they
are subject to internal shorting. Even the best of electrolytics have
a rated operating life of about five years. The heat generated by an
internal short causes internal pressure to rise and may cause the case
to burst. Electrolyte from a burst capacitor can ruin a motherboard.
Electrolytic capacitors are widely used because they provide high
capacity in a small volume at a relatively low price.
Ten years or so ago, electrolytic failures gave every motherboard
manufacturer much grief, because after only a three to six months of
service, many of the electrolytics had decreased in capacitance to the
point that the associated circuitry quit working. This problem was
front-page news for months in professional electronic design journals.
It is this problem which has lead to the use of so-called "solid
capacitors" (there is no such thing as a "solid-STATE" capacitor) on
motherboards, despite the higher cost.
> Lastly, I've got stereo cross over circuits with those caps that
> have been used for 10+ years.
And as the electrolytics decrease in capacity, the crossover
frequencies change. But the human ear becomes accustomed to slow
changes. A frequency response curve made with a calibrated microphone
likely would surprise you.
> 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.
Not so. In five years, the typical electrolytic has only a small
fraction of its nominal capacity, so that parameters (such as ripple
and time constants) of the circuit of which the capacitor is a part
are outside of specification. There may be as many as a hundred
capacitors on a motherboard; many of the function as essential
elements of the power supply circuit.
> 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 :) ).
Obviously reliability means nothing to you. You really should not
speak concerning things of which you are ignorant and about which you
are indifferent. All in all, you and a Dell appear to be made for one
another.
RLH
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