So I decided to open up my main computer to clean it of dust that I have used for the last 8 years and its has been the most reliable computer I ever owned. Sadly I found a capacitor by a VRM near the DDR2 RAM that is swollen badly and standing 1/3 length higher than the other capacitor next to it of same size and so I realized I needed to pull the plug on this system because when and if that capacitor finally shorts internally it might kill other components and I dont want that blown capacitor smell in my office which I have had happen before and it took 2 weeks to get rid of that fishy smell.
Fortunately I have a number of computers, over 14 of them to pick from with 2 systems far better in performance ( 8-core FX processor 3.3 and 4.0 Ghz beasts vs the Athlon II x4 620 2.6 Ghz) to use but I am trying to decide if I should just junk that motherboard or remove the capacitor and replace it. All other electrolytic capacitors on the board look healthy, and it was totally unexpected to find that swollen capacitor that was starting to blow out its rubber stopper at its base of the can like that. The capacitor plague happened about 4 or 5 years before this board was manufactured and it might have simply failed because electrolytic capacitors dry up and dont last forever. If that's the case that they are all aged then the fate of this motherboard is more grim as for it means that every electrolytic cap should be replaced with same spec/value capacitors and for a Biostar MCP6PB M2+ low cost budget motherboard its then beyond realistic non desperation repair.
Not sure if anyone ever grows attached to a computer similar to a car that has brought you so far and so many miles and then when its the end of the life for that computer or car its kind of bumming. I have had better computers that I could use but was drawn to this system for most of what I do because its been a good work horse for me and paired with the Athlon II x4 2.6Ghz and 4GB DDR2 800Mhz RAM it even has been able to play most of my games that I play with no problems.
Undecided on if I will junk it or not. I might just hold onto the motherboard since it doesnt take up much space and save it in case I ever have a need for a socket AM2+ motherboard for something and swap out that one capacitor, but I dont feel that I can trust that motherboard anymore with as rugged and work horse that it once was because in the back of my mind there is the thought of will something else die on this board and take out other parts like video card, RAM, hard drive, CPU, power supply, etc. So its now a risky board to use for anything important.
The good thing is that since I have been using Google Drive for the last year, I dont have any important data to migrate. I can wipe the SSD drives and use those in another build. I fired up my AMD FX-8300 3.3Ghz 8-core with 8GB 1600Mhz DDR3 and GeForce GTX 780 ti and upon installing Google Drive I then had access to all my important data on the cloud.
I have a AMD FX-8350 4.0Ghz system but I dont like that system because its 125 Watt TDP CPU causes the CPU fan to run full tilt on the stock cooler that is barely adequate for its heat output and the fan is noisy and annoying. The 95 watt TDP AMD FX-8300 3.3Ghz is almost as powerful and runs much cooler and far quieter on stock heatsink that came with it. So thats why I chose the 3.3Ghz vs the 4.0Ghz system as my next main system to use.