Nonstopmaximum wrote on 2026-04-25, 13:28:
However taking a closer look at the MSI MS-7093 motherboard I spy one bulging KZG 6.3V 1000UF capacitor next to a RAM slot. There's about 6 more KZG ones of differing values (10V 1000UF, 6.3V 1800UF, 16V 1000UF) that don't share the bulging but may be a good idea to replace soon before they bulge and fail in the near future. What are good replacements for these capacitors?
For electrolytic capacitors (no harm in going this way - good quality ones will last the lifetime of the motherboard):
Rubycon ZLQ 6.3V 1200 uF (commonly available on Digikey and Mouser)
Panasonic FR or FS (1000 or 1200 uF @ 6.3V)
United Chemicon KZH or KZM (1000 or 1200 uF @ 6.3V)... and KZE will likely work fine too, though they'd be taller, I think.
Nichicon HW (and I think HE will work fine too.)
You can also go with polymers, but there's not really any need, since except for the CPU VRM and the Northbridge VCC rail, the rest of the regulators on this board are all linear type, meaning you don't really need very low ESR caps.
I suggest you also replace the blue OST caps (RLX series, which are known to be pretty unreliable too.) Can use caps from the same list above.
Alternatively, for polymers, Kemet are pretty OK. Don't halve the capacitance, since most of the board has linear regulators. Can probably drop down 20-30% if needed, though (e.g. as low as 680 uF for the 1000 uF caps will be OK if going with polymers.)
Nonstopmaximum wrote on 2026-04-25, 13:28:
The culprit was the Bestec ATX-300-12E PSU which has 1 bulged capacitor and a record of exploding!
Actually, the ATX-300-12E are pretty decent PSUs once recapped. They don't have the exploding / suicidal 5VSB circuit that the ATX-250-12E does. On that note, even the ATX-250-12Z is OK. So really, only look out for this one:
ATX-250-12E
Most others from Bestec should be OK. I suspect some of their really really old (Pentium III and older?) era stuff might also be affected by the not-so-great 2-transistor 5VSB design... but then even Delta PSUs had those and issues with them too.
