Anyone recapped their PSU? (Antec)

[NoxTek]

Any of you PSU gurus bothered recapping an Antec with the infamous leaky caps? I've got a SmartPower 350 here that came from a client's machine that I'm considering recapping for use on a spare file server rig here at my place. The file server machine is an old Dell Pentium III 700 with ... *shudder* a 250w Bestec powering it. I figure a recapped Antec is better than one of those god awful Bestec units any day of the week...

I've got lots of experience recapping motherboards and I've tinkered around with the odd PSU now and then. (replacing fans, making custom wiring harnesses, etc)

 

[[Spectre]]

There is a user by the name of SuperNade at jonnyguru.com and ocforums.com who has doen the exact thing recently. You may want to contact him.

 

[Oklahoma Wolf]

I've done the deed on three CWT based units, one of which was a three year old SL350. The only thing you have to watch out for on that one is cap diameters - I managed to shoehorn 12.5mm caps in there with some difficulty, but the stock ones are 10mm in values hard to obtain in that diameter.

As far as the soldering goes, the SL350 is a single layer PCB which makes that part of it pretty easy. Just replace every cap over 400uF and you should be ok (you can leave the big primary caps alone - they hardly ever need recapping). I used Panasonic FM and FC along with the occasional Chemicon KY for mine and then gave it to my sister for her computer. It's been running pretty steady now on the new caps for well over a year.

 

[NoxTek]

I've done the deed on three CWT based units, one of which was a three year old SL350. The only thing you have to watch out for on that one is cap diameters - I managed to shoehorn 12.5mm caps in there with some difficulty, but the stock ones are 10mm in values hard to obtain in that diameter.

As far as the soldering goes, the SL350 is a single layer PCB which makes that part of it pretty easy. Just replace every cap over 400uF and you should be ok (you can leave the big primary caps alone - they hardly ever need recapping). I used Panasonic FM and FC along with the occasional Chemicon KY for mine and then gave it to my sister for her computer. It's been running pretty steady now on the new caps for well over a year.

Just the person I was hoping to hear from!

Thanks!

 

[NoxTek]

OK well I only saw 2 caps that were bulging, the rest looked to be in pristine condition. The 2 bad caps were 1000uf 10v and once I replaced them the PSU powered up with no problem. Voltages checked with a DMM look fine but I have yet to try it under a load.

There was also a 15 ohm resistor right next to these two caps that looked slightly burned although it could have just been a spot of flux or glue - reguardless it tested good with the DMM - 15ohms spot on.

Hopefully I gave the PSU another year or two of life!

 

[Oklahoma Wolf]

OK well I only saw 2 caps that were bulging, the rest looked to be in pristine condition.

Replace all values greater than 400uF anyway. Many times there will be other bad ones not showing symptoms, or getting ready to go soon. I didn't get them all the first time around on that SL350, and ended up having to recap the one I missed a few months later.

 

[[Spectre]]

Replace all values greater than 400uF anyway. Many times there will be other bad ones not showing symptoms, or getting ready to go soon. I didn't get them all the first time around on that SL350, and ended up having to recap the one I missed a few months later.

Yeah like that Topower