I want to replace some capacators on my board with better ones. What kind do I need?

[Gnufsh]

I want to replace some capacators on my board with better ones. What kind do I need?

An where can I get them. I want to replace the 1500uf caps that help regulate vcore with 3300uf or 4700uf ones. Where can I get some good quality ones? Do I have to use special ones? Also, any advice? This is an MSI KT3 Ultra2-R.

I know there are going to be alot of responses telling me not to, because I'll kill it and all, and I probably will. But I don't care. I want to do it, I think it is possible, but I likely don't have the skills.

 

[Tipycol]

Just curious, what will doing this do for your board?

 

[skahtul]

Just curious, what will doing this do for your board?

Except melt/short it out.

 

[PsycoPhreak]

If your going to change the filter caps on the board, it's not recomended to go up much higher than the original caps. Seeing that they are 1500uF....going up to 2200uF will be the safest bet....using any higher can change the signal characteristics and actually filter out the signals that are suposed to be going through the circuit, this can cause severe stability issues and even keep the board from working properly at all.

I wouldn't suggest it unless the caps are going bad ( like the way abit's boards go dead....heh heh ) but, going up a step can improve stability..( manufacturers usually put the bare minimum required in order to keep the cost of manufacturing down, again....need I mention ABIT?...heh heh... )

 

[Diggrr]

Yeah, I wouldn't recommend changing caps to a higher value, but you can change them for a better manufacturer.

If you insist,HERE

 

[Gnufsh]

My vcore fluctuates more then I would like (alot!) and I want it to be more stable. Some older MSI boards (there's a kt133a one) have 4700uf capsin some places.

 

[6502kid]

Unless you know somebody that solders components onto PCB
boards or something for a living to help you, you might want
to buy a spare MB or 2, and some extra caps.

I tried something similar once a long time ago, and trashed
the first PC, but the 2nd worked, and still boots up if I got
half a day 2 wait.

I was soldering an extra 256K, yes "K" ! of RAM onto an Atari
130xe system. Antique system yes, but similar procedure
to what you want to do.

I see why you want to do this however. 170 is a cranking FSB.
I assume you got a 1/5 divisor that works on that MB.

My MB allegedly has one, but it works sporadically, if at all, so I
am stalled out at 151-158 or so due to PCI speeds.
(Gigabyte 60XET-c it is.....)

 

[bdf24]

I've read of people adding stability to the system's while overclocking by putting higher rated caps on the board's.

 

[Wommalong]

My vcore fluctuates more then I would like (alot!) and I want it to be more stable. Some older MSI boards (there's a kt133a one) have 4700uf capsin some places.

How much? I too have read about it but what i know about it would be DANGEROUS... let us know how it goes

 

[Gnufsh]

Seeing the story on the home page and getting a spare board have renewed my interest in this. It will be about a month until I have time to try.

 

[kevin_bouchard]

Gnufsh are you sure thats its not a higher rated max voltage caps you want to put on there, from what i have read its not the uf rating of the caps that affect the filtering qualities but the voltage(and the company that makes the caps). Personnally i would keep it at the same uf rating, or you'll run into filtering problems like PsycoPhreak stated, and go with a higher voltage rating but dont go crazy. Normally go atleast 1.5 times the voltage you plan on running through it but dont go more that 3 times the amount. This buffer between the actual voltage and the max rating voltage is a way to slow the drying of the caps, which will lead to major system instability if your able to get the pc working. Also a small tip for soldering, make sure your soldering gun/iron is hot enough to melt solder before you make contact to the leads, and dont leave it on too long or the smd components on the other side will unsolder, i learned this the hard way and destroyed a resistor (which i dont know its value) so there goes a motherboard to the trash. Also i noticed that article in the front page about soldering caps, read it, its a good article, except i wouldn't recomment that you do not solder the caps on after and its easier to put caps in while heating the pads of lead(while sliding the cap wires in)

well hope this helps.


Kevin

 

[LittlePiggie]

you know what would be really cool? in sticking with the 1.5 time the voltage thing, make a quick change socket for them. whenever you change you vcore, change the cap to the right one .

 

[Daemonfly]

, from what i have read its not the uf rating of the caps that affect the filtering qualities but the voltage(and the company that makes the caps).

Absolutely Wrong. The voltage rating is just how much volts the cap can take. The uf rating is what directly affects filtering abilities(how fast the cap can charge/discharge).


If you really want to replace the caps, make sure you do the proper ones. Some caps would be just power filters to smooth the fluctuations, but some could be part of an R/C circuit, and changing the cap value with completely change the functioning of those types of circuits.


You also have to keep in mind what caps actually do. In a power-filtering application, they reduce the ripples in DC power. They only work with very short-duration ripples/power-drops - fractions of a second... BIOS readings won't show this. They will have no affect in longer power drops. If your system has fluctuations that are longer, like the rise/fall normally shown in BIOS voltage readings, larger caps will have pretty much no effect at all (unless they're HUGE caps).

 

[kevin_bouchard]

Daemonfly, I know that the voltage rating is how much voltage the caps can take, but i was told that the quality of filtering of a cap is better at around 75% of its max rate voltage, I personnally wouldnt change the uf because it would change the actual function of the circuit, which is exactly what we dont want.
From what i know, changing the max voltage of the caps wouldnt affect the actual function of the circuit and not only prolong the life of these caps(because they arent ran all the time at max voltage, its kind of saying that things run better if they arent at their max) but will enhance the quality of its filtering. Please correct me if I am wrong again, because last thing I want is to pass on wrong information and cause someone to ruin a machine.


Hope this clearifies things


Kevin

 

[cack01]

Before you go all out, you may want to try this: http://www.overclockers.com/tips1027/

 

[four4875]

im going to try that on my P-1 board sometime.