{"id":546,"date":"2008-03-11T16:49:45","date_gmt":"2008-03-11T16:49:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/neosmart.net\/blog\/?p=546"},"modified":"2008-03-11T17:14:55","modified_gmt":"2008-03-11T17:14:55","slug":"gigabytes-solid-core-capacitor-gimmick","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/neosmart.net\/blog\/gigabytes-solid-core-capacitor-gimmick\/","title":{"rendered":"Gigabyte’s Solid-Core Capacitors: A Gimmick?"},"content":{"rendered":"

All the hardware manufacturers currently on the market boast and brag about not using anything other than the latest solid-core capacitors on their high-end motherboards. Perhaps the most notable of these is Gigabyte, which has been touting its “Ultra-Durable” brand<\/a> of capacitors more than any other manufacturer. According to Gigabyte, their capacitors will last up to 18 times longer than standard electrolytic capacitors, and 3 times longer than the solid-core capacitors used in other high-end motherboards:<\/p>\n

\"Gigabyte<\/p>\n

The problem is, these capacitors are also susceptible to internal damage and malfunctions, even if not as often. And when these capacitors do<\/em> fail, it’s not as easy to tell nor as easy to fix.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Having recently purchased a Gigabyte X38-DQ6, I was disappointed to learn that their “Ultra Durable” gimmick didn’t necessarily mean that the motherboard wouldn’t ship with a bad capacitor in the first place. It soon became quite obvious the motherboard was afflicted with an ailment or the other: every time the PC would be improperly shutdown, the X38-DQ6 would begin to boot-cycle and refuse to POST until it was removed from the power for several minutes to an hour. And that period grew progressively longer until about a month later it still wouldn’t boot even after a 24-hour break.<\/p>\n

The only good thing about the Gigabyte X38-DQ6 is the two year warranty – which I used to promptly ship the board back to the dealer and ask for a replacement. A week later, I was told to pick up the board; and upon my arrival I was informed that they had “thoroughly tested” the board and found nothing wrong with it.<\/p>\n

Sure enough, the motherboard worked just fine once I’d re-assembled the machine; but a week later and it was power-cycling indefinitely once more. So I shipped the board back and was told that it was probably a bad capacitor (which I already knew, and tried to explain) and that it wasn’t detected since the GA-X38-DQ6 uses solid-polymer electrolytic capacitors which usually don’t leak or explode when they go bad – they just stop working the way they should without any visible symptoms of damaged\/malfunctioning components.<\/p>\n

Perhaps solid-core capacitors really are “ultra durable”, but companies like Gigabyte had better learn to start testing each individual capacitor on allegedly-damaged boards before declaring them free of defect and shipping them right back to their customers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

All the hardware manufacturers currently on the market boast and brag about not using anything other than the latest solid-core capacitors on their high-end motherboards. Perhaps the most notable of these is Gigabyte, which has been touting its “Ultra-Durable” brand … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":505,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[615,558,19,613,614],"class_list":["post-546","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-software","tag-capacitors","tag-gigabyte","tag-hardware","tag-motherboard","tag-x38-dq6"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t