Are the vaunted "solid state" capacitors a real need?

[jimmyj68]

Much has been made of the little silver capacitors as an end all to end all of motherboard failure prevention.

Intel has a well earned reputation of making bulletproof motherboards, yet on their latest board offerings, with the exception of the power regulation circuitry surrounding the CPU, Intel doesn't use the solid state capacitors.

Question - am I really missing something by not purchasing a board with all solid state capacitors?

Early PS - I'm not sure solid state is the correct name for the little aluminum capacitors.

 

[Heidfirst]

No, equivalently specified electrolytic & solid caps should have the same performance - however, the solid caps should last longer.

 

[jimmyj68]

You are right, I've heard that said. But how many Anandtech types keep a motherboard long enough to find out?

 

[Aluvus]

Originally posted by: jimmyj68
You are right, I've heard that said. But how many Anandtech types keep a motherboard long enough to find out?

Ask the people that had the Abit boards with bad caps. For that matter, ask Abit. They were nearly put out of business.

 

[taltamir]

from what I understand that absolutely only point of the solid state capacitors is that they allow you to overclock better... which is why they offer the same board with and without solid state caps

 

[SerpentRoyal]

Originally posted by: Aluvus

Originally posted by: jimmyj68
You are right, I've heard that said. But how many Anandtech types keep a motherboard long enough to find out?

Ask the people that had the Abit boards with bad caps. For that matter, ask Abit. They were nearly put out of business.

Problem was with the use electrolytic caps with inferior formulation. Non of the quality Japanese cap mfrs were affected (Nippon Chemicon, Matsushita/Panasonic, Rubycon, etc). A modern board populated with these caps should be fine.

 

[SerpentRoyal]

Originally posted by: taltamir
from what I understand that absolutely only point of the solid state capacitors is that they allow you to overclock better... which is why they offer the same board with and without solid state caps

Solid caps do not improve overclocking.

 

[Heidfirst]

Originally posted by: Aluvus

Ask the people that had the Abit boards with bad caps. For that matter, ask Abit. They were nearly put out of business.

& while you are at it ask Asus, Dell, ECS, EPoX, Gigabyte, HP, Leadtek, MSI etc. as it affected (& actually still continues to for some) pretty much every mobo manufacturer.
The difference is that abit were open about it whilst the others weren't.

Originally posted by: taltamir
from what I understand that absolutely only point of the solid state capacitors is that they allow you to overclock better... which is why they offer the same board with and without solid state caps

If you compare the Gigabyte mobos the ones with solid caps are DS & the ones without are S - the D stands for durable i.e. longer lived.

 

[Blazer7]

SerpentRoyal is correct. Solid state capacitors do not improve overclocking.
Heidfirst is also correct. Solid state capacitors should last longer.
If you are experiencing power fluctuations in your area and you don?t have a UPS then you should opt for a board with solid caps.