Highest quality caps?

What are the best quality and brands of caps for consoles. All expenses aside, what is the BEST? I love my consoles and even if it's not cost effective, I want the best for them when the time comes for replacement.

 

if you're talking about electrolytic caps, i always buy Panasonic. that is the one brand i have never heard of any failures, anywhere. (i'm sure it has happened but they still seem to be the most reliable money can buy)

after Panasonic, the best brands are Chemi-Con, Nichicon and Rubycon (in that order IMO). Elna is another top brand but they seem to target the high end audio market instead of digital consumer electronics, and i haven't used em much. all these companies are Japanese btw. when you buy electros, buy Japanese.

YMMV of course.

if you really wanna spend serious money, it may be possible to replace smaller electros with more modern solid polymer caps, which are proving to be very reliable since there's no electrolyte to dry out. but they're very expensive in small quantities and selection for thru-hole versions is limited atm. this sort of thing was done by the console makers themselves (my original xbox has solid caps in places where i see liquid caps on other people's boards, for example) so it's something i'd like to experiment with, when the time comes~

 

The Japanese non-ripoffs are great, like Chemicon, Nichicon, and Rubycon. I have seen a failed Panasonic or 2, one was in an alarm clock, one was somewhere else.

 

Get some low ESR high temp ones and I doubt you'll have problems for about 100000000000000000 years haha
Rubycons are apparently good (lots of fakes too)

 

another +1 for Panasonic

 

agreed, always buy 105 degree caps with low ESR (Panasonic "F" series for example)

 

+1

 

Most importantly, once you know what you want, buy it from a genuine, reputable electronics supplier. As mentioned, fakes are everywhere. Everything on eBay for example is fake, basically without exception. Visually you can't tell the difference! That's why you need a trusted supplier.

 

Uh, that isn't true at all. I regularly buy Panasonic caps on eBay. lol

 

Remind me to never buy anything recapped by you.

 

I recapped my HTPC's GTX660 with super high quarity totally not fake caps from ebay

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I don't trust it any more

 

Hey, sorry to revive an old thread...I am about to buy new caps for a Sega Mega Drive and was just wondering whichcaps would be suitable. There are many different Nichicon series (PS, PM, PW, VY, VZ). Does it matter which one? Or is it OK as long as they're 105 degree and the correct rating?

Here are some I am looking at:

PS: http://ie.rs-online.com/web/p/aluminium-capacitors/5194239/

PW: http://ie.rs-online.com/web/p/aluminium-capacitors/7152808/

PM: http://ie.rs-online.com/web/p/aluminium-capacitors/8525096/

VY: http://ie.rs-online.com/web/p/aluminium-capacitors/8624143/

Or if there are suitable Panasonic/Rubycon series any info would help me out a lot!

Panasonic GA series: http://ie.rs-online.com/web/p/aluminium-capacitors/4149143/

 

Here's an overview for the Pana caps: http://industrial.panasonic.com/ww/products/capacitors/aluminum-capacitors/aluminum-cap-lead

The GA aren't good, I'd avoid these. FR are generally well-regarded, but only go down to 18µF. For the smaller capacitance values I use FC. The bigger a cap is in volume/voltage rating, the higher the rated life span usually, but you need to be able to fit it in the first place.

 

Thanks for the reply and info. That's great, I can get the Panasonic FR caps for a lot cheaper than the other ones I linked, and they are 5000 hour, nice!. I think I will go for those.

I managed to find these 10µF FR (http://ie.rs-online.com/web/p/aluminium-capacitors/7660084/) However they are rated 50V and the Mega Drive cap is rated 16V....would that be a no no?

Also, neither FR, FC or FM panasonics go as low as 1µF unfortunately, any suggestions for those?

Thanks again btw!

 

That voltage rating is just what they can tolerate at max, the rule is to use same capacitance and equal or higher voltage as the original cap. And always pay attention to polarity.

FCs definitely do exist at 1µF/50V as I have those myself, but out of those Nichicons you mentioned, PM/PS seem just as fine as they are low ESR types.

 

SMD I always go Panasonic! For radial I stick with Rubycon, or Panasonic as a backup. I don't really have a backup for SMD if Panasonics aren't available - I guess I just haven't had that issue yet!

I don't do Nichicon. Rubycon caps always seem to have a higher life rating than the Nichicons. They seem to cap all their caps at around 2000 hours. Plus look at those Mega Drives from 1991, 25 years on and the general purpose blue Rubycons are still rockin'

 

I don’t often shop for electrolytics, but in those few instances I go Panasonic since they tend to have better declared specs than their competitors, despite being a bit pricier at times.

I mostly buy polymer caps nowadays. They are expensive, I recommend studying them, and not waste money playing "capacitor roulette." I'd recommend, Panasonic, United Chemi-Con, Cornell Dubilier, and Nichicon.

For longevity, I would recommend United Chemi-Con's PSG series of polymer caps, rated for 20,000 (20K) hours at 105C. If operated at half that temp, expect to replace them sometime halfway through next century, unless unexpected failure is sooner.

http://www.digikey.com/en/product-highlight/u/united-chemi-con/psg-series