Date: Mon, 6 Mar 2006 19:48:01 +1100 From: Peter Jeremy <peterjeremy@optushome.com.au> To: soralx@cydem.org Cc: g_jin@lbl.gov, freebsd@swaggi.com, me@carrollkong.com, freebsd-hardware@freebsd.org Subject: Re: FreeBSD shutting down unexpectedly Message-ID: <20060306084801.GA826@turion.vk2pj.dyndns.org> In-Reply-To: <200603052341.18723.soralx@cydem.org> References: <1141517664.1407@swaggi.com> <440A9B0A.4050303@rcn.com> <440B87C2.3060704@lbl.gov> <200603052341.18723.soralx@cydem.org>
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On Sun, 2006-Mar-05 23:41:18 -0800, soralx@cydem.org wrote: >or even better: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capacitor_plague Good article. >capacitors recently confirmed (by me personally) to be bad (found in >Thermaltake PSU and a Gigabyte mainboard): G-Luxon, Choyo, Tayeh. I've also been a victim of this. Luckily I noticed fairly early and there was very little leakage (which I managed to clean off) and (AFAIK) no permanent damage. >It cost me ~$30 to get all capacitors > 470uF for a socket478 mainboard >and 2 ATX PSUs (I got high-quality, low ESR Nichicon UPL-series caps). Note that if you don't have the skills to replace the capacitors yourself, you need to add the labour cost for a technician (which will probably be somewhat more than the capacitors cost). Note that it's crucial that any goo be completely cleaned off the MB - it will destory the tracks if it's left. >If more people refused to buy crappy devices (many don't even imagine how >bad, horribly bad, most non-server grade products are), we wouldn't have >manufacturers who try to cut cost by deliberately utilizing >(flawed)|(low quality) components. It's not only low quality components, it's also poor thermal design. Heat is the major enemy of electrolytic capacitors. PSUs typically have all the capacitors crammed (and even glued) together, minimising cooling. My (GigaByte) MB has capacitors wedged between toroid inductors (which get quite hot during operation) and squeezed under the CPU heatsink. I also suspect (based on the unused capacitor pads) that manufacturers skimp on both filtering and bypassing. Even if the boards were designed conservatively, the manufacturer can save money by leaving "unnecessary" components out. > Would you consider spending U$15 (cost >of good capacitors) more on a $320 mainboard and get a reliable, stable >(better overclocking, too) board that will serve you well for many years >(istead of just 0.5 - 3y max)? Yes, but I don't have that choice. I can either buy consumer-grade equipment (which is virtually all of similar quality) or I can buy server-grade hardware - for several times as much. -- Peter Jeremy
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