Supermicro AOC-S3008L-L8E - Why caps on it?

Notice: Page may contain affiliate links for which we may earn a small commission through services like Amazon Affiliates or Skimlinks.
N

NablaSquaredG

Layer 1 Magician
Aug 17, 2020
1,338
811
113
Hey,

Probably a stupid question:
Most LSI 9300 OEMs are pretty similar... Except the Supermicro

The Supermicro has huge caps on it:
1643225061683.png

What is the reason? Do the caps make the Supermicro variant better or worse than other OEM variants which do not have such huge caps?

But there's one issue with the Supermicro variant: Standard LSI brackets do not fit... :rolleyes: Probably an intentional design choice to sell their own brackets
 
  • Like
Reactions: Sleyk
E

ericloewe

Active Member
Apr 24, 2017
295
129
43
30
NablaSquaredG said:
Probably an intentional design choice to sell their own brackets
Click to expand...
Do they even sell brackets?
NablaSquaredG said:
The Supermicro has huge caps on it:
Click to expand...
At first glance they seem to have a lot more voltage conversion going on than regular cards... Maybe a shared design with one of the RAID models? Could be if the SAS3008 and SAS3108 are pin-compatible. The Supermicro card has an unpopulated BGA footprint, possibly for DRAM, and an unpopulated header, possibly for a backup battery. It would explain the capacitor close to the SFF-8643 connectors, but I can't imagine they'd leave it populated despite not being connected to anything. That would be too insane.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Sleyk
Fritz

Fritz

Well-Known Member
Apr 6, 2015
3,382
1,385
113
70
Sleyk said:
Haha, I actually agree with OP :.)

I truly cannot find the reason Supermicro decided to go with their proprietary 45mm brackets, as opposed to the normal 54mm brackets.

Its truly a pain :.(

Finding spare brackets for these cards can sometimes be an issue, and you generally have sellers on eBay charging marked-up prices. That being said, I do agree with my bro Fritz, in that I think that Supermicro must have had some sort of reason for those capacitors.

My first thought, is I think it helps smooth out power delivery to the chip. Or perhaps a bit of protection in case of a sudden shock or power failure to the pci-e slot?
Click to expand...
Yea, I hope they serve a useful purpose since they're not really pretty.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Sleyk
E

ericloewe

Active Member
Apr 24, 2017
295
129
43
30
Well, 1.8 V would always need to be locally regulated, but I think it's fair to say that any PSU worth a damn can supply a 3.3 V rail that's more than good enough. And I don't expect Supermicro to be particularly worried about their card working poorly when paired with a Super China Happy Sun PSU, certainly no more so than LSI/Broadcom/Avago and every other customer of theirs...
 
  • Like
Reactions: Fritz
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top Bottom