Hardware Insights Forum

Starting with the best:

1. Panasonic - based on what I've read, something that can kill a Panasonic cap, would kill anything.
2. Rubycon - although they only do aqueous low-ESR caps (unless I've missed something) and there's been news of a bad batch of MBZs prone to silent failure, and at least one Badcaps.net member (severach) doesn't trust MBZ or MCZ.
3. Chemi-con - it bothers me (and undoubtedly others) that they never officially admitted the problem with the KZG and KZJ series, just pulled the datasheets off their site.
4. Nichicon - what bothers me about them is not so much that they messed up the HM and HN series. They fixed that. What bothers me is their marketing that targets audiophools. I've also heard some complaints about the HD series and their general-purpose caps (VR and VZ).

Elna, like Nichicon, targets audiophools. They do have some low ESR caps, including RJF which is equivalent to Panasonic FM, but are rarely seen in computing equipment. I don't know where to put them or Suncon (previously branded Sanyo).

At least this is what I think. How would you rank them (at least the four big ones)???

Panny is my favourite. I've seen them survive Dell SFF Prescott roasting ovens which killed Rubycons.
Ruby is my next favourite, followed by Sanyo/Suncon, followed by Nichicon, followed by NCC

LongRunner wrote:I've also heard some complaints about the HD series and their general-purpose caps (VR and VZ).

I think those are all more heat-related failures.

Panasonic gets my vote to but Nichicon is a close second. Sanyo would have a spotless record would it not be for their WF series. I see failed MCZs (sometimes MBZ too) and KZGs on many an occasion - can't think of a series that fails every which way from Nichicon now adays or Panasonic. That being said, the polymers from Nichicon and NCC are impeccable. I think KZGs were kept in production for so long deliberately.... planned obsolescence. What better way to turn profits than to keep using frequently failing capacitors on motherboards from a supposedly good brand. Faulty series asides they are all worlds better than the crap that keeps on coming out of Taiwan, China, Korea, Malaysia, etc.

Wester547 wrote:Sanyo would have a spotless record would it not be for their WF series.

What WF series???

By the way, the only Japanese polys I've heard of trouble with are the old Fujitsu "bumblebees", which suffered from defective sealing.

I voted Rubycon. Even MCZ can last quite a while. And I love their ZLH/ZLJ caps. Honestly though it's so hard to pick, I respect them all a lot. Although KZG loses some respect from UCC cause I hate those things with a passion

*Off topic*
I'm extremely disappointed with Intel. One of their new 87 chipset motherboards (Which isn't cheap) uses purely CapXon! CapXon on the VRM Are you kidding me Intel? Some are polymer, but still..