Gigabyte GA-6OXT :: caps question

[Foetuss]

Good evening

I recently aquired a rev 1.1 Gigabyte 60XT, and was suprised of the amount of leaking caps for a motherboard of the P3 era. Especially the way the 330µf caps seems like the housing discolored even.
Now, there are some 3300µF 6.3V KZG series around the CPU. Would it be OK to replace them with something like EEUFR1A332 ? (Panasonic FR 3300µF 10V). Or was this board designed around very low ESR caps?

But I was also suprised about the bigger boys, which are 330µF 25V.
Could it be they used 25V caps because they were cheaper / available at that time? I dont have 330µF caps with 5mm spacing, the ones I have a half that size and they would look a bit rediculous. So I'd have to order some anyways.
EEUFR1E331B (Panasonic FR 330µF 25V) would work I presume? The price difference between 25V and for example 10V is minimal, and since I have to order a bit more then I need (spares + price goes down) I tend to buy higher voltage ratings anyways so I can use them for more projects. Is my idea around that valid?

I'll just use this board twice a year or so. But would like to keep it in working order.
I got this board very cheap (and it actually still works), so dont mind spending 20 EUR ordering caps (half of which is shipping costs..).

[Foetuss]

[Per Hansson]

If you're anyway ordering caps you can go slightly better with Rubycon ZLQ 10ZLQ3300MEFC10X25
As for the voltage rating yea anything over 16v is probably for cost or inventory reasons, but you can easily verify that with a multimeter
Oh, and be sure to check that the KZG near the ATX connector isn't actually connected to +12v and so requires to be 16v rated...

[Foetuss]

Thanks for the tips! I'll check out if I can order ZLQ series instead.

[momaka]

Just chiming in here, because I have the same motherboard and could give a bit of (limited) guidance about it.
(and by the way, for correct search query, this motherboard is a GA-60XT <--- the "0" there being a zero, not Alphabet letter "o".)

I recently aquired a rev 1.1 Gigabyte 60XT, and was suprised of the amount of leaking caps for a motherboard of the P3 era. Especially the way the 330µf caps seems like the housing discolored even.

Well, Gigabyte used to use pretty lousy caps before their late socket 462 and socket 478 boards... and IIRC, this board had either Chssi or Tayeh or some other terrible brand of caps for

Now, there are some 3300µF 6.3V KZG series around the CPU. Would it be OK to replace them with something like EEUFR1A332 ? (Panasonic FR 3300µF 10V). Or was this board designed around very low ESR caps?

Panansonic FR should be fine. On my board, being a rev 1.0, I have OST RLX if I remember it correctly (which miraculously are still good.) I've done comparisons before, and OST RLX are not stellar when it comes to low-ESR... so Panasonic FR/FM/FS and the equivalents from the other Japanese brands should all be OK (i.e. Rubycon ZLH, ZL, and ZLQ even, UCC KZH and KZN, and Nichicon HW and HV.)

Worth noting here is that the 4 KZGs on your board are all for the CPU VRM low-side output (i.e. CPU V_core voltage). But if I am not mistaken, there are 3 more free unpopulated cap spots, also 10 mm in diameter (thus for caps with 5 mm lead spacing.) These free spots are, using your picture as a reference:
1) to the right of the northbridge, right below the KZG cap
2) upper left corner, below the KZG cap,
3) upper left corner, right below the CPU fan header... though I'm not 100% sure about this one, so might be a good idea to verify it with a multimeter (should get 0-1 Ohm resistance to the positive lead of any of the other 4 KZG caps.)

The reason I mention these free spots is that, if someone doesn't have access to caps with good low ESR, they can populate these free spots with more caps to bring the overall ESR down.
Or, the free spots can be populated with polymer caps to bring the overall circuit ESR down further... and this is something I actually plan to do with my board eventually (when I get to it.)
Since these caps are on the CPU VRM, even 4V rating for the caps would be fine. In fact, probably even 2.5V would be OK... but it's good to have the extra headroom for the caps' own longevity.

But I was also suprised about the bigger boys, which are 330µF 25V.
Could it be they used 25V caps because they were cheaper / available at that time?

Yes, either that or because the 25V 330 uF caps were physically bigger and had overall lower ESR than, say, caps from the same brand and series, but for a lower voltage.

Unfortunately, I didn't finish making the cap map for my board, so I don't have detailed information about what each of these caps filters. But going from memory here, I don't recall any of these to be filtering the 12V rail... but please DO double-check me on that.

For anything that is not a filter to the 12V rail, you can use either 10V or even 6.3V caps without any harm. And the capacitance doesn't have to be 330 uF either. Anything in the 470 to 1200 uF range should work fine for these caps.

From what I remember, most around the PCI slots were either 3.3V rail or 5V rail filters (mostly 3.3V, though.)
Moving above the AGP slot height... the three right above the inductor to the right of the Northbridge heatsink - these are 5V rail filters for the high side of the CPU VRM. Therefore, you might also want to use good Panasonic FR or Rubycon ZLH caps here. I suggest dropping the voltage rating to a more sane 10V one and at the same time upping the capacitance to 1000 uF or 1200 uF.
Moving to the right, the caps right above the AGP slot and directly below the Northbridge - some of these are for the AGP signaling (3.3V/1.5V) filtering, IIRC, and some were for the Northbridge Vcc filtering.
Then moving further to the right... the one directly to the right of the AGP slot is another for the AGP slot signaling filtering.
Next, moving up along the RAM slots... the caps right next to the slots are for the RAM Vdd and Vtt filtering (except for the brown KZG, obviously, which is CPU V_core filter.)
And that's about as far as my cap map goes. Really need to take out that board and finish this so I can post it, as it seems info about old retro hardware is becoming more sought after these days.

I tend to buy higher voltage ratings anyways so I can use them for more projects. Is my idea around that valid?

Sure is.

I'll just use this board twice a year or so. But would like to keep it in working order.
I got this board very cheap (and it actually still works), so dont mind spending 20 EUR ordering caps (half of which is shipping costs..).

Yeah, it's a worthy investment as these are getting more rare and harder to find.
Actually, as I was told by another member here (ChaosLegionnaire), this board supposedly supports even Tualatin P3 CPUs out of the box (apparently true if the board has a blue socket or if there is a sticker with a "T" near the CPU socket.) I haven't tested this to confirm, though I do have a Tualeron CPU now, so might test it some day as a curiosity. It's a late Intel i815 chipset board from what I gather, so it actually makes sense if it does support Tualatin CPUs.

[Per Hansson]

Just chiming in here, because I have the same motherboard and could give a bit of (limited) guidance about it.
(and by the way, for correct search query, this motherboard is a GA-60XT <--- the "0" there being a zero, not Alphabet letter "o".)

Hi Momaka, long time no see
I changed the title of the thread but now I changed it back because apparently the spelling is with the letter O and not number 0 as can be seen on Gigabytes website / the boards user manual:
https://www.gigabyte.com/Motherboard/GA-6OXT-rev-1x#ov

[momaka]

Hi Momaka, long time no see
I changed the title of the thread but now I changed it back because apparently the spelling is with the letter O and not number 0 as can be seen on Gigabytes website / the boards user manual:
https://www.gigabyte.com/Motherboard/GA-6OXT-rev-1x#ov

Ooops, sorry about that!
Don't know why, but I always thought it was a zero and not an O, and I could swear this is how it was printed on my manual. Now I see that even on my motherboard, Gigabyte used a different symbol for the zero (more narrow and with a diagonal slash) in the revision number (1.0). So yes, you both were right, GA-6OXT is correct. I suppose I have some renaming to do in my files library.

And yeah, it's been a while since I've been here / posted here. Actually, I still checked BCN from time to time, but just very rarely (was busy with moving from US to EU last year, among other stuff.) I was also waiting and silently hoping the new forum software would improve/change over time from what it is now... but I guess not. Either way, good to see some familiar names are still back here .

[Foetuss]

Thanks for all the feedback guys. And the very detailed info momaka!
Yea, the naming scheme was choosen quite poorly.. Maybe another one of the reasons its hard to find 😅.

The caps came in, I ordered Ruby's ZLQ / ZLG & ZLH's - including some spares for other boards. So i'll see if I can recap this weekend succesfully. Ended up spending way too much again

The board does indeed support Tualatin's. I tested it with the 700Mhz CPU it came with, and a 1200-S / 1400-S I have laying around. Worked fine for a quick test at least.
One of the reasons I wanted it was for that late cpu support, and ofcourse for being bright blue with a blue socket for a P3 era board

[momaka]

Awesome! Keep us posted how it goes.

I too, have spent more than I'd like to admit on caps in the last few years... almost as much as I have on various PC hardware... well, some of the hardware anyways.

One of the reasons I wanted it was for that late cpu support, and ofcourse for being bright blue with a blue socket for a P3 era board

Nice!
Yeah, I like Gigabyte's blue PCBs as well. In my case, I have a blue Gigabyte Radeon 9550 GPU waiting to go in that system the next time I open it up for upgrading and some mods to the case. Also have found a few blue PCB LAN cards. Just need a blue PCB sound card and USB 2.0 card to complete the set... though these aren't that much of a priority (the USB 2.0 card is black, and I may just swap the current Yamaha YMF724 card with a black/brown SoundBlaster Live of some sort.) There was also someone selling two FSP Bluestorm units here last summer for not too much. If he comes back to the flea market when it gets warm again, I'll see if he has them. I have a blue-n-yellow "custom" painted case already (wasn't really planned for this system)... so maybe I can fit all of these together for a complete "True Blue" system (though the Radeon is team red, so I might have to swap that for a blue PCB GeForce FX5200.) Then blast Eiffel 65's Blue like it's 1999 again for the complete retro experience!
.
OK, I'm getting a little carried away. But I've started to dig even deeper into my retro PCs hobby. Seems like more people are picking it up.

[ChaosLegionnaire]

Actually, as I was told by another member here (ChaosLegionnaire), this board supposedly supports even Tualatin P3 CPUs out of the box (apparently true if the board has a blue socket or if there is a sticker with a "T" near the CPU socket.)

yes. as i may or may not have mentioned before. the surefire way is to remove the nb heatsink and take a peek at the s-spec number printed on the die. hopefully, it uses thermal paste since the heatsink is attached to the board using push pins. other boards may use thermal epoxy to attach the heatsink so no luck with those...

if its says SL552, its the 815EP A stepping chipset which supports up till coppermine cpus only. a tualatin socket adapter is needed to get tualatin cpus to work on such a board. if it says SL5NR, u're in luck! its the 815EP B stepping chipset which supports tualatin natively. no socket adapters needed and no pin modding fockery necessary!

Ended up spending way too much again

nah its fine! totally worth spending the money to keep those out of the landfill. if it still works, why throw it away? the earth is filling up with waaay too much of our buy-and-throw-away shit these days! so polluted!

its totally worth saving this board because of its excellent component placement. main atx connector is at the edge of the board without overhanging over the board and interfering with and obstructing airflow, particularly around the cpu cooler. dimm slots and agp slot are far enuff apart u dont need to remove the agp card to install/remove/service the ram.

good to know these boards are easily repairable and serviceable so if i find one with busted caps, i will try to buy it to save it from the landfill. so thanks for the info, man!

1400-S I have laying around.

fwah, u have the top tualatin cpu! those are going for the 70-100 dollar range these days! hope u got yours at a non-ripoff price...

[Foetuss]

Yea, already have a small cap collection now .
Actually repaired my Soltek golden board also, which was a real b**** to get caps out off, huge grounding pane or because of that coating layer

fwah, u have the top tualatin cpu! those are going for the 70-100 dollar range these days! hope u got yours at a non-ripoff price...

I actually have 4.. I bought a box of "broken cpu's" for 80 EUR which ended up being around 70x Pentium MMX / 20x Celeron (Mendocino) and 15 P3's / Celeron 3's. Including Tualatin's 1000 / 1133-S / 1266-S / 1400-S.
Spend about 4 weeks correcting pins 🤐. The P3 Celerons (also Tualatins) especially just had the tendency to snap pins like it was their job. Lost 3 1300's that way. Kept them, will try to do pin soldering one day..
All chips work.

In an update, I only replaced the 2 1000µF caps which has the spillage on them. They measured fine, so I presume something actually spilled on them instead of them leaking.
Board works perfectly fine still - always a gamble. I also bought a digital microscope, it does help allot to see in detail close up, which I was not expecting.

I am having a small issue with my ATX > AT adapter. 2 boards tested, short power and PSU shuts down. Could my modern PSU be sensitive to older boards? (Pentium era).

[stj]

you need to use hot air to pre-heat the board before desoldering the caps.