VOGONS


First post, by Guld

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Can anyone help identify this capacitor off my Voodoo 3 card? There are actually several on them on the board.

It looks to me like an aluminum organic electrolytic cap. I don't think these go bad as easily as older regular electrolytics do when they leak, but maybe I'm wrong?

Guessing either 10uF 16V or 16uF 10V. Seems kind of high to be 16V?

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Reply 1 of 4, by analog_programmer

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10 uF/16 V.

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Reply 2 of 4, by Postman5

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The voltage at this point is 3.3V, you can put any suitable sized SMD capacitors of 5 uF/6 V and higher

Reply 3 of 4, by shamino

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10uF is a common value for capacitance, 16uF would be extremely odd, especially on PC parts, so definitely 10uF.

The reason it's 16V is simply because 10uF 16V are commonly available. The card manufacturer stocks up on a huge supply of those and can use them almost anywhere, even if they wanted to use some on a 12V line.
As Postman mentioned, the location in the photo is probably on 3.3V for the power to the nearby RAM. Even though that location doesn't need a 16V rating, when the caps are that small, the cost has pretty much bottomed out. There's no money saved by stocking a version with a lower voltage spec than that.

If you are considering replacement with a lower voltage rating and want to confirm the voltages each cap will see, just check it with a meter.

Reply 4 of 4, by Guld

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Thanks everyone!

Yeah, I did measure the voltage and remembered it being a little over 3 volts, so that makes sense.

Are those aluminum organic or just regular electrolytic caps? i.e. do they tend to go bad with age? I thought the organic were pretty robust, but maybe I'm mistaken?