oh, man... WAS: Re:is my power supply failing?

[phiscock-g851W1bGYuGnS0EtXVNi6w at public.gmane.org]

>
> On the other hand, it shows that the best motherboad brands do not have
> a limit below which they will not stoop. The reason they all bought
> those caps was, of course, low, low price. The difference between them
> and 'good' caps must have been a few pennies. Surely something must have
> been strange to the procurers at the time.
>
> Too cheap to be true ? And yet, someone saved a nickel to lose a dollar
> ... many of the failed boards were mid to high range level and the price
> of the caps was a really minor part of their sales price. Nor is this a
> new or surprising development in the world of counterfeit electronic
> parts, so the excuse of an 'unexpected development' that 'took procurers
> by surprise' does not stand up. Draw your own conclusions.
>
I wouldn't attribute this to simple greed on the part of the
manufacturers. Consumers are quite happy to pay bottom dollar for
motherboards. We're all part of this 'race to the bottom'. It is
astonishing to me that they can sell motherboards for the price that they
do - it's very complex technology. In that business arena, you have to
watch your component costs, and every penny does count.

Some mobo manufacturers 'did the right thing' and replaced the capacitors,
even though it cost them millions of dollars - and the repairs nearly
bankrupted one mobo company.

Mil spec manufacturers have the price margins to test components and
assemblies so that something like this isn't likely to happen. But
consumer good manufacturers generally do not. That said, I'll bet the mobo
manufacturers have some more stringent quality assurance procedures in
place after the capacitor crisis.

Peter
-- 
Peter Hiscocks
Syscomp Electronic Design Limited, Toronto
http://www.syscompdesign.com
USB Oscilloscope and Waveform Generator
647-839-0325

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