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Regarding PSU caps

post #1 of 10
Thread Starter 
After reading about cheap caps (example like Samxon Caps) in Corsair PSUs and other CWT made PSUs....Are those PSUs safe anymore? Since Corsair is a very reputable PSU manufacturer.
http://forum.corsair.com/v3/showthread.php?t=111363
http://forums.hardwaresecrets.com/not-so-tough/8805?threadid=8805?goto=newpost
Oh, enlighten me about PSU caps and their manufacturers as well if possible. wink.gif
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post #2 of 10
--> http://industrial.panasonic.com/www-data/pdf/ABA0000/ABA0000TE4.pdf

--> http://www.elna.co.jp/en/capacitor/alumi/trust/index.html

Without reading too much into the specifics....

"Good" on a capacitor is very specific to what it is used for. No manufacturer just cranks out bad caps.

Most electrolytic capacitors used in a power supply are for "smoothing" out the electricity coming out the power supply.

Therefore you need a cap that can handle a lot of current and a lot of ripple. Manufacturers make caps specifically for handling these situations (Panasonic has a very good line). If caps are exploding, very likely that a electronic engineer selected a capacitor that wasn't good for the job.

I am a electronic engineer who works in a RMA department for a company. I basically spend all day at work fixing broken circuit boards. X-D These type of problems are 99% of the time an engineer not selecting the right part for the job, and 1% of the time the part manufacturer providing faulty parts.

Corsair is a company that takes their image and reputation very seriously. Once you have a product that keeps failing, you hault the entire assembly line until you get it fixed. Sure, there is probably a few bad PSU's floating around out there, but i feel confident that a company like Corsair would have the problem fixed by now.

On Panasonic's website, they have a lot of good reading on capacitors.
Edited by crimsontears809739 - 11/12/12 at 9:49am
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post #3 of 10
Thread Starter 
Well.... Thanks about that thumb.gif
But the biggest trouble I was trying to pull the trigger on the Rosewill Hive 650W PSU...
Until I saw they use Teapo caps as their secondary caps... Are Hive PSUs reliable enough? Because it is one of the cheapest modular PSUs around.
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post #4 of 10
Hmmm....

To know if the cap is going to be reliable at it's job, in addition to being the correct capacitance it must...

1.) It must be rated to handle the voltage ripple

2.) It must be rated to handle the current

3.) It must be rated to handle the voltage.

4.) It must be the correct ESR.

5.) It must be rated for the correct temperature

5.) It must be rated at the correct number of hours for the lifespan.

If the capacitor in your power supply does not meet those specifications, it might work for a while but fail early in it's lifespan. It is impossible to tell if a cap is good just by naming the manufacturer. To really tell if they used a good capacitor for the job, i would need a blueprint (schematic) of the power supply.

But....I am having a hard time finding Teapo capacitors online. They are not a very well-known brand. Digi-Key doesn't stock them which says something.

The "big names" in capacitors are Panasonic, Vishay, Kemet, Nichion, Murata, EPCOS.
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post #5 of 10
Thread Starter 
I actually read the news that Corsair has already started to cut corners to use cheap capacitors instead of high quality caps. Is it true?
http://www.jonnyguru.com/forums/showthread.php?t=9489&page=2
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post #6 of 10
Teapo are Taiwanese capacitors and work well enough for most applications.

Basically capacitor ratings are something like 420 ohm 480 volt 105 degree C. Roughly that means the capacitor is capable of lasting like 2,000 hours at 480 ohms at 105 degrees C.
At 95 degrees C it would last 4000 hours, at 85 degrees C 8000 hours (or was it 16,000).

BADCAPS.net
http://www.badcaps.net/

A bit fanatical but cover the subject

jonnyguru.com/forums is also very good and informative
http://www.jonnyguru.com/forums/

Best I can tell the internal temperature of the power supply at the lacation of each capacitor determines its life span. Generally Japanese caps are very good to excellent, Taiwanese are fair to very good,
Chinesse can be horrible to adequate to good.

For a well designed all Japanese cap PSU figure to spend $80-100 to start. It is possible designers feel as efficiency goes up temperature goes down internally, and allows "lesser" caps.Speculation.
If it worries you the Rosewill Capstone power supplies are 50 degree C rated from Super Flower, who I believe usually use "all" Japanese caps. Gold rated power supply. Available modular or not.

Rosewill Fortress are Platinum rated at 50 degree C.

Rosewill Hive are Bronze rated at 40 degree C (internally identical to OCZ ZS power supplies.

Corsair CX power supplies have used "other than Japanese" caps always I think.

It is "new" in the "better" Corsair ppower supplies.
post #7 of 10

This makes me worried about my new HTPC build with a CX500V2 PSU. I've had to RMA it once already due to what most likely must have been a bad cap.

Luckily, I'm not putting the HTPC under load anytime (at least, I don't think playing video files will on an i3).

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post #8 of 10
Thread Starter 
Oh, one more thing.... Are FSP PSUs reliable? Especially the Hexa 500W, since they are sold at a dirt cheap price. Oh, the specs do seems to look good as well. Though the problem is there is no reviews on it.
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post #9 of 10
Corsair actually does some R&D and testing, even if they're not manufacturing or designing (at least mostly) the power supplies. Somehow I get the feeling like they have more information on component tolerances than consumers or even most hardware reviewers.

You don't see SamXon capacitors in the power supplies with 5+ years warranties, and the ones you do see are decently specified for the jobs they're doing. Given the cooling and capacitor positioning, type, the fact that most people buying CX series power supplies tend not to push their systems a lot, etc., they're banking on the majority of them lasting at least 3 years. (Most will probably do better than that.)

FSP Hexa is cheap because it's not good. It's not really bad or anything—it's just a bit cheap in price and quality. Some FSP power supplies have been worse, and others are better, some a whole lot better.
post #10 of 10
Corsair CX is one of the best low cost entry level power supplies. I've never had one fail yet, for whatever that is worth. Warranty is legendary.

I have no way to tell what internal temps are in your HTPC. Normally these are low power/low heat.

If you should experience another problem (I believe the warranty runs as new) then maybe replace with a Gold Efficency all Japanese cap psu.

There is no evidence of widespread CX failures, I worry much more about damage from rough handling in shipping than internal quality.
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