VOGONS


First post, by BLockOUT

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Im trying to do a motherboard recap that originally used some 4700uf capacitors.
so i bought brand new capacitors, and since i bought on amazon a capacitor reader tool with LCD, i can double check first if the caps are good before soldering.

so all the new caps have 4700uf marking but all of them when i read them are about 10% lower, so that would be like 4300uf instead of 4700.

Is that bad? the capacitors are near the CPU. should i just trash these 5 caps i bought?

Reply 1 of 4, by BLockOUT

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nobody knows?

Reply 2 of 4, by TheMobRules

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It's OK, electrolytics are usually rated with a 20% tolerance and that is taken into account by the engineers who design the circuits. It will be fine, especially if you have chosen a quality brand and the specs closely match the ones you want to replace.

Reply 3 of 4, by Unknown_K

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Generally motherboard capacitors are closer to their rated value when new and drift quite a bit once used which is where the 20% tolerance comes from.

Collector of old computers, hardware, and software

Reply 4 of 4, by majestyk

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The renowned capacitor manufacturers like Rubycon, Panasonic, Nichicon and Nippon Chemicon normally guarantee a tolerance of +/- 20% or better.
Measurments have shown they mostly stay inside an interval of +/- 5% - 10% easily.

Suppliers of cheap caps often allow -20% and less because lower capacity means lower costs.

If a new capacitor from a trusted manufacturer shows a capacity below the tolerance interval this can also happen due to a long stocking period. Electrolytics tend to "de-format" when they are not used. In this case the nominal capacity will recover, after the capacitor has been reformatted by connecting it to DC for some time (days).