D

saturn wrote:

From how I read the manual it's not needed. But I think I'll just make or buy cable.
I also will be using my 650w psu out of my 775 system witch I don't use. I been wainting to part that system anyway.
Right now I have a antec 380w earthwatts witch is not entirely bad, but for this system I should use a better psu. If I recall it was like 25-30amps on the 6v rail. That and it has an 120mm fan witch will help with cooling.

Just because it's the same connector as Dell used it does not mean it uses the same pinout as Dell.
Check your pinout against the one dell used.
.

saturn wrote:

Anyone know the quality of the caps on this board?

gdjacobs wrote:

It's in the era when I would be suspicious. Snap some photos and post them if you like.

Yes an Asus of that era is inclined to have crap caps.
(Checking ebay) Someone went to the trouble to make a cap-kit for the board so it may be an issue.

Thing is Asus (and some others) weren't always consistent back then.
Two same revision boards might have completely different caps. It's hit and miss.
You might end up with all crap-caps or you might luck out and they are all Rubycon or something comparable.
.

D

saturn wrote:

From the looks of the pics the seller had in the listing, the motherboard might have Nichicon caps.
Also the caps in the pic petro posted look like Nichicon caps too.

If they are HN or HM series dated between 2001 and 2004 they are bad due to a manufacturing screw-up.
Nichicon date codes go like (Letter)(YY)(WW).
So A0233 would be the 33rd week in 2002.

saturn wrote:

From the looks of the pics the seller had in the listing, the motherboard might have Nichicon caps.
Also the caps in the pic petro posted look like Nichicon caps too.

I looked via google images and I saw what looked like OST on some and what looked like Rubycon on others.
The pics were not really great for making out what the caps were though, and some may have been recapped already.
.

Correct, the taller caps near the power connectors are Nichicon dated week 21 02. All of the others around the board that are smaller are Rubycons. I may be wrong here, but I thought the bad Nichicon caps were used in Dell systems from 2003-2005? I know a lot of the socket a-era boards suffered from bad caps but I remember them being a different kind. I'll have to do some research...

petro89 wrote:

Correct, the taller caps near the power connectors are Nichicon dated week 21 02. All of the others around the board that are smaller are Rubycons. I may be wrong here, but I thought the bad Nichicon caps were used in Dell systems from 2003-2005? I know a lot of the socket a-era boards suffered from bad caps but I remember them being a different kind. I'll have to do some research...

No. It was ALL Nichicon HN and HM 2001-2004.
Nichicon made a public announcement about it to the press sometime in mid 2004. (So they would not have continued the problem into 2005.)
I used to have the Press Release on file but I couldn't find it last time I looked.
There was a rumored second unrelated problem late in 2004 or early 2005 but that was short duration and only affected one plant.
.
The 2001-2004 issue was that they had screwed up the written procedure to make those series caps, they were putting the wrong amount of electrolyte in.
That procedure was used by all their plants.
The result was the caps would build up too much pressure inside and leak or vent.
[ That was not even remotely related to the bad electrolyte issue that affected some non-Japanese caps during the same time frame. ]
[ Same time frame. Same result. - Completely different cause. ]
.
The later rumored issue was they contaminated one of their electrolyte tanks with some disinfectant or cleaner. That only affected the one plant.
.
.
The bad 2005 HN & HM caps I've seen that were claimed to be because of the later problem (which isn't many) could all be attributed to age, poor cooling or bad PSUs - so I have my doubts.
.

And when you see News articles saying Dells were failing due to the stolen electrolyte formula. - LAUGH AT THEM.
That only affected some non-Japanese cap brands and at that time Dell was using all Japanese caps.
Sorry News people. - The connection is just not there.
.
You will see more wrong articles than correct.
Wikipedia has been wrong for 10+ years because they would rather listen to reporters than to techs.
.

D

saturn wrote:

I work on dells a lot and I mean a lot. I can tell you that not all dells from 2003 to 2005ish have Japanese caps.
I seen them with cheap Chinese caps.
My work place has gotten rid of most of our old dells, but if I every come by one again I'll take a photo.

Ah, Yeah.
Then what you are seeing are cases where some twit replaced the originals with Chinese caps.
There has been a decade + for people to do stupid things like that before you first see it.
.
I was repairing these things DURING the event. - As original they all came with Jap caps.
.
Even when Dell was faced with zillions of RMA's at the same time they did not resort to Ch/Tw caps.
They went to Rubycon, Panasonic and Chemicon.
.

D

saturn wrote:

If that's the case someone at my work must had them replaced without telling me witch dose not happen. That and no one at my company can recap a motherboard but me, or even solder for that matter. The dells have been at my work since we bought them new. I know ware they been, who fixed them, when and how.
When we get a system with bad caps or needs something solder it comes straight to me, most dells with bad caps just get recycled when I get them. Now I wish I made a note of the brand of the caps on the dispose form. I would have model, S/N when it bought and everything that was done it to.
So if what you say is true, then eather someone somewhere made a mistake and used the worng caps or someone at my work was not fallowing the rules. They would have had to seal my keys (we lock are pc's) or picked the locks. I can't see anyone doing that to change caps.

Well, sorry. That vintage of Dell came with all Jap caps from the factory.
Where were you in 2003 when they started going bad?

By 2004/2005 Dell's RMA was so backlogged I was seeing systems come in from local businesses that were still under Dell warranty.
Sometimes by the pallet load.
.

D

^ Plenty enough, overkill in fact for this application. It's made by Delta and sports indy regulation and some Chemicon caps.

http://www.kitguru.net/components/power-suppl … w-green-2011/3/

D

Fun fact is, as overkill as it might be, it still doesn't deliver 180W on the 5V rails.

Actually the 180w is for 3.3v and 5v combined but that PSU only provides 140w there anyway.
This is a common problem when trying to match old-spec systems with newer-spec PSUs.
It's worse when the old-spec system is server class like this one is.
.
As alexanrs said many posts back - your best bet is to first look for PSUs with 30a on +5v
- and then check their combined (3.3v/5v) wattage rating.
.

D

Overkill. With only one of the two Athlon MP drawing from +5V, I doubt that mobo will draw even 20A (100W) from +5V.

Look how little a Barton system draws @ full steam:

http://www.silentpcreview.com/article265-page3.html

To quote again the guy from the Anadtech forum:

... Heck, their dual Athlon board (A7M266-D) had one processor powered from 5V and the other from 12V. Was nice because you could run the system on a 300W power supply.