Amount of voltage safe?

[hat]

How much voltage is safe to put through DDR2 RAM with no heatspreaders? I've been putting 2v through mine and it's stable at DDR600 4-4-4-12-1T.

 

[btarunr]

Is yours a DDR 533 module? in that case, 2.1 v should be the max safe line, that is if 4-4-4-12-1 are not the stock-timings of your modules.

 

[hat]

I've got Crucial PC2 4300 4-4-4-12-16-1T 1.8v. They're running DDR600 4-4-4-11-15-1T 2v.

They've got some Vantec heatspreaders, and this morning I cracked one of em open and there was thermal materal on the heatspreader for SOME of the chips, not all. I want to just clean em off.

What happens if I get some 70% isopropyl alcohol on the stick? Like at this area? I assume I could just let it dry off, since this stuff evaporates fast... between 1 and 2 hours?

 

[btarunr]

iso-propanol could be dangerous for the components if not used in the right dilution. Make a 60% dilution using distilled water. Use a pin, use its pinhead to gently scrape the residue off the memory banks. Be careful, the banks on your module are not pin-soldered, they're BGA (ball grid array), use a hair-dryer that's not too hot to dry off the modules, fill in the heatspreaders with ceramic thermal compound, replace the spreaders.

 

[hat]

That's not exactly what I wanted to hear... I doubt my parents will approve of me screwing around with the memory, so I need to do this "quietly". 70% isopropyl and Q-tips is all I have access to. I should just be able to clean it off with the 70% isopropyl... people do it on video cards all the time. Just let it dry off. ??

 

[LiveOrDie]

i wouldn't go over 2 V

 

[btarunr]

There are two methods of liquid cleaning: Flow cleaning and dip cleaning.

Flow: Where you flow/splash high conc. iso-propanol on the PCB and let it dry. Or dip cleaning where the whole thing is immersed in to a slightly milder propanol solution (in a bowl or some metal vessel, kept for 15 minutes and blow-dried. Since you're scraping off, you can do it immersed. Your call. But if you're not taking risks, just do a flow, scrape it when dry.

 

[hat]

Thats what I was planning on. Just taking off the big chunks with my fingers, and whatever persistant gunk is left take the lightyl alcohol'd Q-tip to.

 

[trog100]

i think most heat spreaders are more for show than function.. making sure a good flow of air is moving over the chips is probably the best idea..

and if all the chips aint making good contact they are definitely best removed..

feel how how hot they get.. hot to the touch would be bad news.. warm would be okay..

trog

 

[hat]

Yeah not good contact at all.
The removal was a complete success, except for the dream I had that I want to pick up one of the sticks that was drying off and half the pins on the module were broken off somehow. However this is reality, and in reality I did it right.

You've been a great help

 

[hat]

Wow, 2v seems to be fine for these things.
I touched the bare Memory IC's after about an hour of BF1942, about 3 hours of the PC being on & running F@H SMP, and they were barely warm to the touch! When my AC Freezer 64 pro gets here, that should blow air all over the memory too, lets not forget the PWM area...