Doesn't this look kind of strange ?!

[Ωmega]

Hi to everyone out there, this is my 1st posting here,

...soooo...

...have an ASUS P4C800-E Deluxe and I am absolutely happy with it.

...a while ago, I bought another one on the web and I found something kind of weird....


Please, could anyone compare those to pictures and tell me - what is going there ?!?!

 

[Mpegger]

All I can find, is that the component is a N-Channel Power Mosfet. As I am not an electrical engineer, I can't even say what would be it's purpose in the circuit, but just speculate that the new to you board is a later revision and the manufacturer may have felt that component was not needed for proper operation, and wanted to save on cost. The solder joints where the MOSFET would have been do not appear to have had any component in place.

 

[JrClocker]

It's a switching FET...probably part of a DC/DC converter or some sort of crowbar circuit.

I can see an inductor in the left side of the picture and the caps on the bottom, so I would bet DC/DC converter.

Looking at the top picture, it looks like it was removed (you can see the residual solder for the tab mount side, and see the flux residue on the bottom left pin pad).

Can't tell much more without looking at where it is on the board...etc.

Is the part missing on the new one or the old one?

 

[Mr.Scott]

The mosfet was added after the fact, to the board in the bottom pic.
Matter of fact, it looks like all three of those mosfets were changed.