Re: need motherboard recommendation
>26/12/2010 21:55, Doug wrote:
>> On 12/26/2010 11:19 AM, Joe wrote:
>> I've had a Giga GA-MA74GM-S2H for a year now. It hasn't died yet, and
>> I can't really say more than that. The most exotic stuff I do is gEDA
>> PCB layout, and I'm not aware of any performance problems. Built-in
>> sound and graphics, using 1440x900/60, running Sid in 2G RAM.
>>
>> I'd have thought MB trouble was rare enough that you won't get
>> statistically useful results. I have run two Asrock (cheap Asus brand)
>> boards for several years with no trouble, and still have them as I
>> don't like throwing things out when they still work normally, I just
>> wanted more power after a few years.
>>
>> As to capacitors: the only ones I would deliberately avoid are the
>> surface-mount aluminium types, the silver ones with the black arc on
>> top to show polarity. I've replaced many hundreds in the last fifteen
>> years or so, repaired the PCBs as necessary, and repaired and tested
>> boards after literally thousands of the little beasts have been
>> replaced by other people. Before they die they distribute electrolyte
>> over the surrounding PCB, and that stuff eats copper, particularly
>> plate-throughs. It's also, rather obviously, conductive, and I've seen
>> a puddle of the stuff draw half an amp from a five-volt rail. I've
>> never seen a wired capacitor do that kind of thing. The wired ones are
>> bigger, but there's not much height restriction on a MB.
>
> Maybe it's time to buy tantalum capacitors. More expensive, slightly
> smaller,
> and (I believe) less likely to blow up. Available with parallel wires or in
> surface mount configurations. Military equipment has been using tantalum
> caps for years, so they must be reliable. (If anybody from a QA
> department is
> on line, maybe you'd comment.)
> --doug
>
Asustek uses what they call "military grade" technology (chokes,
capacitors and mofsets) on some boards (SABERTOOTH's at least), it's not
tantalum but claimed to be at least as reliable.
MSI uses it on some gfx boards, I have a "Twin Frozr" gfx card which
advertises on the box the use of tantalum capacitors. I assumed it was
more marketing hype directed toward teenage gamers, but anyway they both
have been doing well for months under heavy load (video processing and
encoding mainly).
Frankly, I am not sure those technos are worth it on mother/gfx boards
unless you're a keeper, it will probably be replaced long before it
bursts a capacitor, much cheaper boards with whatever capacitors can
last for a couple of years should be good enough for most use. If it
brings some extra peace of mind it's good, but something else could fail
before the capacitors.
Having lost two expensive Samsung screens to crappy (CapXon) capacitors
burst I can use the extra reinsurance ;-).
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