Capacitor types in computer hardware?

[Kamjam21xx]

In audio, different types of capacitors can give you different sound that changes over many years. 

 

So im curious... what difference would you get out of the various capacitor types like silver, mylar, ceramic, tantalum, aluminium, electrolytic, noibium, etc. Could there be tiny response time differences, preformance gains, etc? 

 

Is there differences on how difference motherboard store power in the caps? Such as constantly having the power between the plates, and dumping excess as heat? 

 

Really curious

[Theguywhobea]

I think most capacitors in computers are used in filtering circuits, as capacitors can be used to filter out low frequencies. And most of the large capacitors you see (the big battery looking ones) are electrolytic I believe, and the small surface mount ones are ceramic.

[WereCatf]

6 minutes ago, Kamjam21xx said:

Could there be tiny response time differences, preformance gains, etc?

No, the CPU doesn't work like that. The CPU-speed is determined by the crystal oscillators and any internal devices, not by any external caps.

[Kamjam21xx]

Ahh thanks, yeah im not an engineer. But i meet them at craft beer tastings for Dow corning. Always get curious about this stuff from talking to them.

[Kamjam21xx]

2 minutes ago, WereCatf said:

No, the CPU doesn't work like that. The CPU-speed is determined by the crystal oscillators and any internal devices, not by any external caps.

Similar to quartz or something?

[WereCatf]

1 minute ago, Kamjam21xx said:

Similar to quartz or something?

Yeah. In a digital system where hundreds of smaller systems must run in a reasonably tight lockstep relying on capacitor-attributes for synchronization and timing just wouldn't work, so they're mostly just used for decoupling and some filtering. Swapping caps for other caps would only affect stability, not speed. Though, I suppose one could possibly improve the soundcard's output a little by swapping the relevant caps for better ones -- never actually heard of anyone doing that, though.

[porina]

For power smoothing, there are some considerations. Very roughly, bigger works better for lower frequencies. You want some big bulk caps, but they can't feed at higher frequencies. You end up potentially having multiple levels of caps, getting smaller as you get closer to where the power is consumed. You also want to put them close, as track length works like an inductor. Some of the components on the CPU may be for this reason, others are in/under the socket.

 

There is also something called ESR - Equivalent Series Resistance. Imagine it like a resistor in series with the capacitor. For power smoothing, you want this as low as possible, as it will consume come of the power turning it into heat, and generally reduce its performance.

 

All considered, a "bad" cap design compared to a "good" cap design might make a small difference in power consumption, and if really bad, maybe stability.

[Kamjam21xx]

Should throw that sound card idea at Linus. I can see them making a video, doing that.