Replacing caps in ATX PSU, Low ESR or not?

[darko31]

Hi everyone,

I'm trying to fix a PSU which has couple of bulged caps. There are three bulged 10V 2200uF caps and one 16V 3300uF. Since my local electronics store doesn't have low ESR 16V 3300uF caps, is it okay to replace that cap with non low ESR one?

I can't recognize whether the original one was low ESR, there are not any extra markings, and the PSU is low power, Macron MPT-251 , 250W, 13A on 12V rail, so i suppose it could be regular one.

The picture of the cap is in attachment, on the other side it says 0203M which I assume is datecode.

[Rasz]

lowesr, buy over internet

[mariush]

No, it's not OK to replace with regular capacitors. The power supply needs Low ESR capacitors, but don't buy very low esr capacitors like the ones on motherboards (Nichicon HN, HZ, Rubycon MBZ etc), the capacitors on this power supply don't have such low esr to begin with and using such very low esr could cause higher ripple, oscillations etc.

I would look at Nichicon HW, Nippon Chemi Con KZE , maybe Panasonic FM (but these start to be in the very low esr category), Rubycon ZL* ...

If you have paypal and a few dollars , I can mail you some suitable ones from my own personal "stock"... better than buying some fakes from eBay.

[darko31]

Thank you, but it's too expensive to replace those caps with Rubycon, Nichicon, Panasonic or other high quality brands since the PSU itself isn't worth much. It looks like the original caps were regular ones, found some info in this thread, post #32.

http://www.badcaps.net/forum/showthread.php?t=20722&page=2

It's probably the reason why the PSU failed, although the dimensions look non standard, 120mmx86mmx150mm so it's pretty crammed in there and pissant 80mm fan not getting enough airflow.  Otherwise it actually has pretty good build quality.