Contents
Introduction
The trend for capacitor choices on new PC hardware seems to be to use solid capacitors, also known as polymer capacitors (or “polies” for short). There are several characteristics of polymer capacitors which make them desirable over traditional electrolytic capacitors, such as their longer endurance lifetimes, which enables them to handle heat a lot better, which is especially beneficial for small form-factor and fanless PCs which can run significantly hotter than a standard ATX system. Another characteristic of polymer capacitors is their lower ESR (Equivilant Series Resistance), which, in DC-DC conversion circuits like a motherboard’s CPU VRM (Voltage Regulating Module), allows them to filter more ripple with a lower capacitance (μF) value than traditional electrolytic capacitors.
As many are aware, a lot of PC hardware from a few years ago (and even some new gear), was affected by the ‘capacitor plague’ where a number of capacitor manufacturers used an incomplete electrolyte formula in their capacitors, causing the capacitors to bulge, leak and in some cases explode after a few years in service. Replacing these capacitors with high quality electrolytic made by companies such as Rubycon and Nichicon has proved to be a very effective, yet inexpensive way of reviving affected hardware, and it is something I have done myself hundreds of times with high success rates. There are even some businesses like Badcaps.net which offer it as a service.
With the above information about polymer capacitors in mind, though, it may seem like a good idea to replace these capacitors with polymers, which is commonly known as a poly-mod, short for Polymer Modification (and no, it has nothing to do with parrots). We’re going to find out whether this is really a good idea, by taking 9 devices with electrolytic capacitors and poly-modding them. We will then run some tests to see how well it works. The devices I will be doing this to will be as follows:
3 Motherboards
3 Graphics cards
3 Power supplies
So, let’s take a look at our first victim…
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