Capacitors: ASUS vs Gigabyte vs Asrock

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Psulover

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For the z87 Pro and Deluxe, ASUS claims to use 5,000k caps measured at 65 c. This suppose to be an improvement from 2,500k.
Does anyone know if these caps are Japanese made?

For z87 igabyte, i hear that Gigabytes uses all JAPANESE caps rated for 10,000k (black caps).

For z87 Asrock, I hear it is "gold plated" caps and Japanese made. Not sure the rating for it.


I wonder why hardocp reviews doesnt go into depths of the quality of these caps?
 
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Actually, we do touch on that information. I rarely make a huge deal about it as the capacitors alone do not make for a good motherboard. On all the top brands they use quality capacitors. At least on the higher end parts. Realistically the 5k-vs 10k debate is actually pretty stupid as the older 5k and 2.5k parts still lasted for several years. 65c is pretty hot. You'll get allot longer life than that as your capacitors probably won't ever hit those temperatures on any kind of regular basis. 65c is 149F after all. 5k vs. 10k and upcoming 12k parts are more of a marketing tool to one up the competition each generation than anything.

On older models the ratings weren't as high as they are now but all the big boys have used Japanese capacitors for some time. Even the 5k rated ones are of Japanese manufacturing. All the major players in the business went to Japanese made capacitors years ago after the capacitor plague. That effected companies like GIGABYTE, ASUS, ABIT, and SOYO. Actually pretty much everyone was effected by it. The ASUS motherboards now use 10k capacitors on all their newer models and some models will be getting 12k capacitors in the near future.

And as for ASRock that's only the high end boards. The lower end of the spectrum uses parts that are nearly impossible to identify. The chokes for example are not terribly well made and lack any markings on their surface.

GIGABYTE has also had models where the power phases have caught fire. Even those with 10k capacitors. I've also seen boards with fairly high levels of vdroop and voltage variance which claim to be made from quality parts. Hell Foxconn built 680i SLI reference motherboards had Japanese capacitors and still had high failure rates due to horrible voltage regulation and what I'd call inept and deceptive BIOS tuning to cover for various quality control problems and poor design. (Which resulted in premature failures.) The moral of the story is capacitors are only one ingredient in building a motherboard. You can build a quality motherboard without solid aluminum electrolytic capacitors but no one in this day and age would dare do so for marketing reasons.
 
Dan_D said:
Actually, we do touch on that information. I rarely make a huge deal about it as the capacitors alone do not make for a good motherboard. On all the top brands they use quality capacitors. At least on the higher end parts. Realistically the 5k-vs 10k debate is actually pretty stupid as the older 5k and 2.5k parts still lasted for several years. 65c is pretty hot. You'll get allot longer life than that as your capacitors probably won't ever hit those temperatures on any kind of regular basis. 65c is 149F after all. 5k vs. 10k and upcoming 12k parts are more of a marketing tool to one up the competition each generation than anything.

On older models the ratings weren't as high as they are now but all the big boys have used Japanese capacitors for some time. Even the 5k rated ones are of Japanese manufacturing. All the major players in the business went to Japanese made capacitors years ago after the capacitor plague. That effected companies like GIGABYTE, ASUS, ABIT, and SOYO. Actually pretty much everyone was effected by it. The ASUS motherboards now use 10k capacitors on all their newer models and some models will be getting 12k capacitors in the near future.

And as for ASRock that's only the high end boards. The lower end of the spectrum uses parts that are nearly impossible to identify. The chokes for example are not terribly well made and lack any markings on their surface.

GIGABYTE has also had models where the power phases have caught fire. Even those with 10k capacitors. I've also seen boards with fairly high levels of vdroop and voltage variance which claim to be made from quality parts. Hell Foxconn built 680i SLI reference motherboards had Japanese capacitors and still had high failure rates due to horrible voltage regulation and what I'd call inept and deceptive BIOS tuning to cover for various quality control problems and poor design. (Which resulted in premature failures.) The moral of the story is capacitors are only one ingredient in building a motherboard. You can build a quality motherboard without solid aluminum electrolytic capacitors but no one in this day and age would dare do so for marketing reasons.
Click to expand...


Thx. So all Major MB now uses Japanese caps at least for the mainstream and upward(200 dollars and above). So the ASUS 5k are using Japanese made caps.

So there should be no fear of bad cap leaking or exploding? I remember Gigabyte accusing ASUS of using cheap Caps that were leaking or not performing at rated temperature.

For Asrock, the caps are gold plated....which brand is it? I can't even see the name on the caps(it just gold!). How long are they rated for?

Lastly, is MSI using good caps? It says "Military grade"...sounds like marketing gimmick. I want it to says JAPANESE made.
 
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Psulover said:
Thx. So all Major MB now uses Japanese caps at least for the mainstream and upward(200 dollars and above).

So there should be no fear of bad cap leaking or exploding? I remember Gigabyte accusing ASUS of using cheap Caps that were leaking or not performing at rated temperature.

For Asrock, the caps are gold plated....which brand is it? I can't even see the name on the caps(it just gold!). How long are they rated for?

Lastly, is MSI using good caps? It says "Military grade"...sounds like marketing gimmick. I want it to says JAPANESE made.
Click to expand...

You'll find the Japanese made capacitors down to the $100 mark or so for MSI, ASUS and GIGABYTE. They may not be 10k capacitors but they'll at least be quality 2.5-5k capacitors. And they should always be solid aluminum capacitors. So no, I wouldn't worry about capacitor failure. Chokes, VRMs, and other components are another matter. I know more about how GIGABYTE, MSI and ASUS build theirs and they are well done. The IR PoweRstage ones that GIGABYTE uses are good quality parts. They are quality but there isn't always sense as to which boards get which ones. Some get 60A chokes and others don't. Some get the 3550 IC's and some don't.

As far as "Military Grade" is concerned, there is an actual military specification for electronics which those capacitors, chokes etc. do actually pass. I thought it was a gimmick too until I did some research on it. Though having said that the standards the MSI boards meet aren't anymore strict than what ASUS' or GIGABYTE boards can do. I know the Sabertooth boards can pass the same tests, along with ROG and WS boards. In fact I'd be surprised if the bulk of the major boards couldn't.

ASRock is a special case. Their higher end motherboards are built fairly well. Though they do cut corners on the PCB. They are thin as hell but that's the trade off they chose to make in order to undercut the other big tier motherboard manufacturers. Their lower end parts use shit I can't even identify.
 
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So the ASUS 5k are using Japanese made caps.
Click to expand...

No.


Interesting read:

http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1798709

As far as "Military Grade" is concerned, there is an actual military specification for electronics which those capacitors, chokes etc. do actually pass.
Click to expand...

Out of curiocity, whose military? The US or Taiwan's? Because MSI is taiwanese... In that case, i have a 30 euro taiwan military class HD5450 GPU... :D

http://www.msi.com/product/vga/R5450MD512H.html

I could swear it looks the same with an XFX and Sapphire 5450 i have, but if they say it's different...
 
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Faethon said:
No.


Interesting read:

http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1798709



Out of curiocity, whose military? The US or Taiwan's? Because MSI is taiwanese... In that case, i have a 30 euro taiwan military class HD5450 GPU... :D

http://www.msi.com/product/vga/R5450MD512H.html

I could swear it looks the same with an XFX and Sapphire 5450 i have, but if they say it's different...
Click to expand...

MSI's hardware is built to the US military MIL-STD810 standards. Having said that, it is largely a marketing ploy though. Being military standard doesn't mean that the hardware in question is necessarily the best available. Allot of companies including ASUS, MSI and GIGABYTE are all building hardware that is designed for "hostile" environments. Some parts of the world have excessive humidity for example and are building their hardware to withstand environments that aren't representative of air conditioned US households or offices and data center type environments. When it comes down to it series like ASUS :TUF" and MSI's Military Class 4, or Ultra-Durable 5 motherboards are all about broader marketing appeal.

And when you really get down to it Intel, ASUS, GIGABYTE, and MSI "build" good hardware for the most part. Anything you get from either of those manufacturers should last you longer than you'd probably want to actually use the hardware for. Of course your mileage may vary.
 
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