Question motherboard capacitor lifespan implications

[need2sleep]

On a spec listing for an ASRock Z270 Killer SLI/ac motherboard,
"Supreme 12K black capacitors with lifespans of at least 12,000 hours... ASRock applied Nichicon 12K Black Caps..."

I assume these capacitors cannot be replaced.
Therefore, if I leave my machine running continuously, the caps will fail in about 16 months?
Will I then need to buy a new motherboard?

Thanks,

 

[Remeca]

Theyre just guarenteeing a minimum lifespan, which surpasses most warranties. It could last 50,000 hours, or more. Just not less than 12,000.

 

[need2sleep]

I appreciate your reply, but I needed a bit more info to feel comfortable. So I undertook my own discovery. Here's what I found out:

The referencing url is https://superuser.com/questions/1295722/how-are-capacitor-lifespans-measured-in-hours

What does 12,000h/105°C rated caps really mean?
From what I gather from the above article,12,000 hours is a continuous timeframe at a continuous temperature of 105°C (221°F.) Under those conditions, you'd be able to "cook" these caps for 1.6 years before failure. At lower temperatures they will last longer.

How much longer?
If you used the lifetime estimation from Illinois Capacitors, at 60°C/140°F - still very hot for a mobo - your 12,000h/105°C rated caps would last 200 years.

It stands to reason that if your mobo is running at a still lower temperature, or "most of the time" at a much lower temperature, you can expect even longer lifetimes.

What life expectancy will more standard caps give me?
We've been looking at the very best that industry can sell us in 2019 - a 12,000 hour/105°C cap. A more standard cap would be rated as 2,000 hour/105°C. Yep, the same temperature, but notice they don't last as long - just 2,000 hours. If we use the lifetime estimation from Illinois Capacitors, at 60°C/140°F, these caps will last only about 40 years.

So what level of risk are you comfortable with?

 

[jon96789]

I would not worry about it... IMHO Cap failures are rare in motherboards...

 

[BFG-9000]

Capacitors are actually also rated at maximum rated ripple current, so will last much longer than the rating if fed clean DC from a high quality PSU and if the onboard VRM is good. You can consider the rated lifespan to be a sort of worst-case when both external heat and internally generated heat are maximized simultaneously.

Capacitors degrade following the Arrhenius Equation, which is popularly known to show a doubling of life per 10°C reduction in temperature. By that standard, a 1.6 year lifespan at 105°C means a 25.6 year lifespan at 65°C--a far cry from 200 years but remember this is still under maximum ripple. Note that capacitors are the device on the board with the lowest rated lifespan, so are usually what finally causes failure. Electrolytics can fail rather abruptly from seal failure and then drying up.

Capacitors tend to be through-hole devices on motherboards, making them actually much easier to replace successfully than the surface-mount cans on GPUs which are all-too-easy for the DIY-er to lift a trace on. However the end of the electrolytic capacitor plague was back in 2007, and most quality board manufacturers have long since gone to somewhat overkill polymer caps in their better boards. BTW the story of how the plague came to be is an interesting one involving industrial espionage and stolen trade secrets.