RAM heatsinks

[Bomby569]

derbauer did it recently on his videos, just look for the videos about the recent disaster in Germany with the water.

 

[Vya Domus]

Completely useless, even if they're overclocked into oblivion you'll fry the memory modules due to voltage long before they die of heat.

 

[sneekypeet]

Here is the way I recall "heat spreader" evolution.

Back in the day, when RAM got to the same speed as cordless phone transmission, there was cross talk. Solution, shield the RAM and the issue went away.
Some liked the clean look, and somewhere along the line manufacturers adopted them and made them pretty.

As someone who used to test aftermarket heat spreaders, at best, I saw a 3*C reduction in temperatures at the same voltage steps. You could gain nearly 10*C with heat spreaders and one of them fancy RAM cooler fans.

As a RAM reviewer, I say they are functional, but just on the normal usage scale, which I would say is up to 1.45-1.50V. Beyond that, active cooling is better than none, and as they touch hot parts, the metal on the sides does indeed spread the heat over a larger area, but without active cooling it can and will still saturate if pushing voltage.

 

[Mussels]

Some heat spreaders are glued on, and glued on such that I have ripped ICs in half despite preheating. Some are just fastened together with clips and use thermal pads and are much easier to deal with.

I have 4 sticks of DJR. I've never run them higher than 1.45v yet, for 3800/16. I might try 1.65v now and see if I can get timings down.

I cant recall if mine are DJR or MJR off the top of my head, but they *hate* low latency - but love high clocks. 4000MHz stable at 1.4V, stock timings... but even 3200C14 crashes hard

 

[WhitetailAni]

My 4x8GB kit of RAM has heatsinks + a fan ziptied on it.
Originally there was no fan, but the RAM started to burn my fingers if I needed to take it out so I added the fan and now that doesn't happen anymore.
It is running at 3333 C16-16-16-32 tRC 48 1.39V though with a mixed kit of 3200 C14-14-14-31 B-die and 3200 C16-18-18-36 Nanya Tech something-or-other.

So I'd say if you think you need heatsinks, you probably need heatsinks. If you think you need a fan, you probably need a fan, because if you're thinking about RAM cooling you most likely know something about RAM overclocking or have a RAM overclock applied.

 

[Shrek]

I should have specified

... for RAM run at normal speeds and voltage

 

[lexluthermiester]

Does RAM really need heatsinks?

All the RAM I have never seems to get very warm.

Some RAM does. It depends on the speeds, voltages and tolerances involved. Generally, if the kit you're buying comes with them, they're needed. If they don't come with heatsinks but you intend to OC and OV the RAM then adding heatsinks to your RAM is a wise idea..

I should have specified

... for RAM run at normal speeds and voltage

In that case, no.

 

[AlwaysHope]

Yes those have very strong sticky thermal pads. The true test will come when I take apart "Corsair Dominator 9136" DDR2 ..You can see each chip is glued direct to the heatsink.

They certainly do it seems even on the lowly Corsair CM2X2048-6400C5 ver5.2 kit I have here. I tried taking off the HS with inspiration from this thread . Although used 150C oven instead (seems it wasn't hot enough even after warming up in hindsight). I mean one side of the HS came off but the other was so stubborn, a little too much force literally ripped the chips of the PCB on that side... not worried though, I got them dirt cheap back in the day & I have plenty of other DDR2 kits to use. I can confirm however, that the chips themselves actually have Corsair stamped on them. Didn't know they made the actual ram chips back in the day. Glad I still have ver 4.3 kit.
Lesson learned!

 

[delshay]

They certainly do it seems even on the lowly Corsair CM2X2048-6400C5 ver5.2 kit I have here. I tried taking off the HS with inspiration from this thread . Although used 150C oven instead (seems it wasn't hot enough even after warming up in hindsight). I mean one side of the HS came off but the other was so stubborn, a little too much force literally ripped the chips of the PCB on that side... not worried though, I got them dirt cheap back in the day & I have plenty of other DDR2 kits to use. I can confirm however, that the chips themselves actually have Corsair stamped on them. Didn't know they made the actual ram chips back in the day. Glad I still have ver 4.3 kit.
Lesson learned!

If you know how to reball you can put the chips back on a new PCB. Keep the broken ram, it can be repaired. All ram chips can take over 215c+, but at this temperature the solder balls will melt. Personally I would keep the temperature just below 190c or before the sticker melts.

You can remove the sticker/label while it's very hot. It will stay in good condition if removed when heatsink is very hot. ...NOTE If temperature is too low it will stay stuck to the heatrsink.

 

[AusWolf]

Here is the way I recall "heat spreader" evolution.

Back in the day, when RAM got to the same speed as cordless phone transmission, there was cross talk. Solution, shield the RAM and the issue went away.
Some liked the clean look, and somewhere along the line manufacturers adopted them and made them pretty.

As someone who used to test aftermarket heat spreaders, at best, I saw a 3*C reduction in temperatures at the same voltage steps. You could gain nearly 10*C with heat spreaders and one of them fancy RAM cooler fans.

As a RAM reviewer, I say they are functional, but just on the normal usage scale, which I would say is up to 1.45-1.50V. Beyond that, active cooling is better than none, and as they touch hot parts, the metal on the sides does indeed spread the heat over a larger area, but without active cooling it can and will still saturate if pushing voltage.

My 4x8GB kit of RAM has heatsinks + a fan ziptied on it.
Originally there was no fan, but the RAM started to burn my fingers if I needed to take it out so I added the fan and now that doesn't happen anymore.
It is running at 3333 C16-16-16-32 tRC 48 1.39V though with a mixed kit of 3200 C14-14-14-31 B-die and 3200 C16-18-18-36 Nanya Tech something-or-other.

So I'd say if you think you need heatsinks, you probably need heatsinks. If you think you need a fan, you probably need a fan, because if you're thinking about RAM cooling you most likely know something about RAM overclocking or have a RAM overclock applied.

My active RAM cooling (link).

 

[tabascosauz]

My active RAM cooling (link).

Great minds think alike in all seriousness though, I reckon your front fans there might be more useful than expected if they ever spin up higher speeds. I initially expected a single fan on the C14S to be able to cool the RAM but not a lot of air makes it through the heatsink even with a 140mm @ screaming 2000rpm. So I added another, not much CPU temp difference, but big difference for RAM.

It's the difference between barely 1.37V, and 1.55V+, both keeping below 50. The dedicated Corsair RAM cooler (CMYAF) I tried couldn't come close to this setup, for all the ridiculous noise it made on its tiny 60mm fan.

 

[maxfly]

They certainly do it seems even on the lowly Corsair CM2X2048-6400C5 ver5.2 kit I have here. I tried taking off the HS with inspiration from this thread . Although used 150C oven instead (seems it wasn't hot enough even after warming up in hindsight). I mean one side of the HS came off but the other was so stubborn, a little too much force literally ripped the chips of the PCB on that side... not worried though, I got them dirt cheap back in the day & I have plenty of other DDR2 kits to use. I can confirm however, that the chips themselves actually have Corsair stamped on them. Didn't know they made the actual ram chips back in the day. Glad I still have ver 4.3 kit.
Lesson learned!

You have to use a heatgun or hair dryer to keep the tape hot or it will solidify. If you use a heatgun be sure to use it on low, keep it 6 inches or more away from the spreader while keeping it moving or you may cook the ics. A hairdryer will likely never get hot enough to do any damage.
Corsair actually just rebadged the ics, they've never made their own. They used to do an excellent job of screening and binning ics for ocing headroom. Ive no idea why they rebadged them but It made it a pain to id d9 ics when they were popular. YellowBeard was pretty good about letting us know (if he could) fortunately. They did start listing what ics they used for each model and revision at some point during that time but i don't remember when exactly. It was very detailed and useful. I have no idea if they continue to list ics today but i doubt it.

 

[AusWolf]

Great minds think alike in all seriousness though, I reckon your front fans there might be more useful than expected if they ever spin up higher speeds. I initially expected a single fan on the C14S to be able to cool the RAM but not a lot of air makes it through the heatsink even with a 140mm @ screaming 2000rpm. So I added another, not much CPU temp difference, but big difference for RAM.

It's the difference between barely 1.37V, and 1.55V+, both keeping below 50. The dedicated Corsair RAM cooler (CMYAF) I tried couldn't come close to this setup, for all the ridiculous noise it made on its tiny 60mm fan.

View attachment 222706

Nice!

As for my front and top fans, I currently use be quiet! Silent Wings 3 and Silent Wings 3 High Speed fans (the picture I linked is a bit old). I'm not sure about RAM temperatures, as the low (normal?) profile Kingston modules don't have temperature sensors. They're a bit warmer to the touch than the Corsair Dom Plats used to be in my AMD rig, but that might also be due to warm air blowing at them from the CPU cooler. I don't think RAM temperature is an issue anyway, unless you're a serious overclocker.

 

[lexluthermiester]

My active RAM cooling (link).

Ah, the down-firing heatsink type. I have one of these, ThermalTake model though. And I like them for that reason, they don't just cool the CPU, but also the whole socket area.

 

[Shrek]

I wonder why they don't turn the fan around so one works with convection and not against it.

 

[cvaldes]

I should have specified

... for RAM run at normal speeds and voltage

Nah, doesn't matter. You can use regular sticks with no heat spreaders.

Hell, you can even rock the old school green PCBs and pretend you're living in the Eighties. Or running a server.

 

[lexluthermiester]

I wonder why they don't turn the fan around so one works with convection and not against it.

Because it really doesn't matter much. The forces at play due to convection are extremely small compared to the forces imparted to airflow by the fan motor and blades..

 

[Shrek]

Makes sense

And maybe because one wants turbulent air to hit the heatsink.

 

[Mussels]

Makes sense

And maybe because one wants turbulent air to hit the heatsink.

thats the one, you need air to chaotically move over the surface area

slow smooth movement doesnt transfer heat as well

 

[Shrek]

What? agreement on this forum? I guess it had to happen sooner or later!

 

[AlwaysHope]

You have to use a heatgun or hair dryer to keep the tape hot or it will solidify. If you use a heatgun be sure to use it on low, keep it 6 inches or more away from the spreader while keeping it moving or you may cook the ics. A hairdryer will likely never get hot enough to do any damage.
Corsair actually just rebadged the ics, they've never made their own. They used to do an excellent job of screening and binning ics for ocing headroom. Ive no idea why they rebadged them but It made it a pain to id d9 ics when they were popular. YellowBeard was pretty good about letting us know (if he could) fortunately. They did start listing what ics they used for each model and revision at some point during that time but i don't remember when exactly. It was very detailed and useful. I have no idea if they continue to list ics today but i doubt it.

So what if one does not have a heat gun in the house? Prying HS of ram is not something I do regularly. But I suppose I could pick up a 2nd hand one from a charity shop one day.

 

[freeagent]

I haven't run ram without spreaders since SDR days

I haven't had any issues running with spreaders. I have my sticks running at 1866 14-14-14-34 1.5v currently and they are sitting at 25-26-25-26, and I try to keep them in the low to mid 30s under load, most of the times its not a problem doing that. I ran them at 1.6v a few times, not much difference from 1.35v or so.

 

[tabascosauz]

I haven't run ram without spreaders since SDR days

I haven't had any issues running with spreaders. I have my sticks running at 1866 14-14-14-34 1.5v currently and they are sitting at 25-26-25-26, and I try to keep them in the low to mid 30s under load, most of the times its not a problem doing that. I ran them at 1.6v a few times, not much difference from 1.35v or so.

That's only because your PC is a 3000rpm windtunnel and it's cold as balls on the prairies but seriously, just goes to show that airflow is still king, unless the sticks are under water.

 

[freeagent]

That's only because your PC is a 3000rpm windtunnel and it's cold as balls on the prairies but seriously, just goes to show that airflow is still king, unless the sticks are under water.

Lol I am moving more air now than when I was running 5x 120x38s, the noise is intense.. me no like. But they are ok if I limit them to around 2200 or so. Of course right now its not limited and the app on my phone is showing in the mid 60s for db standing beside it, and 60 db at my couch

 

[maxfly]

So what if one does not have a heat gun in the house? Prying HS of ram is not something I do regularly. But I suppose I could pick up a 2nd hand one from a charity shop one day.

Use a hair dryer. It will just take longer to heat up. While your prying, keep it pointed at the opposite side of the spreader and they should come off pretty easy but you have to be gentle and go slow. If it feels like the tape is hardening back up stop and heat it back up again. Its a slow process.