Tomshardware are currently running a feature on motherboard capacitors. More specifically, what they do, why they fail, and what you can do to revive a broken motherboard for little more than the cost of a couple Starbucks lattes.

The article suggests using proper cooling, since a 10 degrees celcius drop in temperature doubles the life expectancy of capacitors. After finding a motherboard with a bunch of swollen, leaking capacitors, they set out to bring it back to life by finding suitable replacements. This is itself proved to be somewhat more difficult than they had hoped.

"After a brief research we finally placed our order with a small dealer, selling capacitors at scaled prices. We didn't get the desired capacitors with 6.3 V, but decided to go with 10 V models instead. Pin distance and diameter are the same, though their height amounts 20 mm. Depending on the motherboard you use, 4 mm can cause some trouble. Before you order any replacement please find out how much space there is between the capacitors and expansion cards such as your graphics card, among others. We did not encounter any problems with a 4 mm difference in height. Buying 30 capacitors, we paid 50 Cents each - shipping and handling not included."

In the end, they got the board back up and running for not much more than $15 worth of capacitors. Since most new motherboards now use solid capacitors, they are becoming far less prone to failure, but if your motherboard is more than a year old, chances are it still uses the old liquid capacitor design. Read the full article here.