Does the trend towards AIO cooling have negative effects

[londiste]

With lack of airflow from CPU cooler due to using AIO should we not be more worried about VRM than RAM?

DDR4 is low enough usage to survive without even a heatsink at 1.35-1.4V with pretty hostile case ambient temp. At 1.5V I would start considering the temperatures.

Heatsinks on RAM sticks are for looks. I tore heatsinks off my Ripsaw set and heatsink was in contact only with the 2 chips at either end of the module, with rest not touching the heatsink and chips probably worse off because heatsink was effectively a hotbox for them

 

[Assimilator]

Are we advising right, as a community?.

Yes. There is no need for active RAM cooling on DDR3 or DDR4. There almost certainly isn't even a need for heatsinks on DIMMs either.

Active cooling on DIMMs, like RGB, is a waste of time and money in this day and age. Leave the damn sticks alone.

/thread

 

[TheoneandonlyMrK]

Yes. There is no need for active RAM cooling on DDR3 or DDR4. There almost certainly isn't even a need for heatsinks on DIMMs either.

Active cooling on DIMMs, like RGB, is a waste of time and money in this day and age. Leave the damn sticks alone.

/thread

I have definitely pushed ram so as to need cooling.
Both ddr2 and three , given three more months lockdown I could probably start harrasing ddr4 into requiring direct cooling due to tight timings.

I'm not sure I'm alone , as I said I haven't had to directly recently and accept that's overclocking so none typical.

Your "Almost" has you covered, I agree with you that almost all might be fine, I still think some edge case's could fall foul of the wrong timings heating their memory up to an unstable point due to inadequate testing on burn in, most don't bother to burn in for a start so the odd guy's going to get excited thinking their stable right upto COD goes and C2d.

 

[sneekypeet]

With lack of airflow from CPU cooler due to using AIO should we not be more worried about VRM than RAM?

While slightly off topic, the short answer is no! I have been keeping VRM temps with cooler tests for years. Some AIOs have lower VRM temps than some air coolers, and vice versa. It isn't a hard set correlation as one would assume it to be.

@theoneandonlymrk my advice is this. If you are going to run more than say 1.45 to 1.5V through your DDR4, you might want to start thinking about active cooling in any form. Otherwise, I feel that from what I have seen over the last couple of years, at or less than my above stated voltages, most DDR4 will be just fine.

As to how we advise, I guess it more depends on the member asking giving us all of the details. All we can do is share experiences and guide users to a logical decision.

 

[freeagent]

Another thing about aio cooling is that it hurts caseflow quite a bit unless you spin them fans up. And if you have your fans pushing out, then you are “cooling” your cpu with nice warm air coming off your high end gpu(s). A lot of guys like a quiet pc, or silent.. so they run fans at 500rpm and then wonder why everything is so warm. At that point you might as well just blow on your components yourself as you have just created a blinged out easy bake oven. I like the very top front as an intake specifically to blow on my ram first, second to keep the air from the fronts in the case instead of going straight out, and third to help feed the cpu.
I did have one of those OCZ ram coolers back in the day. It worked ok up to 2.3v or so

 

[EarthDog]

@EarthDog Xmp is still an OC just done on mass by a company who will guarantee to some degree that function but I get your point.

It's overclocking the IMC of the cpu only. The sticks are rated for that speed on the box.... i don't care what IC's are below them.

If we assigned that train of thought to cpus, are all the 10c variants of comet lake s overclocked too? Its the same silicon(IC) right?

Anyhoo.... RAM cooling was more of a marketing thing than needed or helpful. As was said, lower voltages help ddr4, and ddr5 will use less. Unless you're extreme overclocking, its just dressing.

 

[NoJuan999]

As to how we advise, I guess it more depends on the member asking giving us all of the details. All we can do is share experiences and guide users to a logical decision.

This is my thought exactly.
We need to advise users on a case by case basis, because every custom built PC is different based on the components they choose.

 

[Mussels]

On my system the memory going beyond 50°c usually causes a lockup.

Are we advising right, as a community?.

You must have faulty ram, i've never seen RAM cause issues until at least 80C, and i've been running weird shit like DDR1 600 and DDR3 2400

more likely something else on your system is overheating (VRMs)

 

[RealNeil]

This PC uses DDR4-4133MHz. RAM in it. It has fancy color-changing lights on each one of the four sticks.
There doesn't seem to be many open holes in the heat spreaders either.

I don't have any issues at all with RAM temps and my system is rock solid stable too.
I have five Cougar Vortex 140mm fans in the case and the two GTX-1080FE cards in it blow most of their heat out the rear.

I think that superior case airflow is always a great idea that will give good results.

 

[TheoneandonlyMrK]

You must have faulty ram, i've never seen RAM cause issues until at least 80C, and i've been running weird shit like DDR1 600 and DDR3 2400

more likely something else on your system is overheating (VRMs)

Yes sure, it's. About me the guy with no AIO.

Thanks but as I said I have no issues.

@EarthDog we disagree on a tangential point so be it , I won't argue further because it's tangential and not the point.

 

[Vya Domus]

RAM dissipates something along the lines of <5W, they simply do not need a significant amount of cooling. Instability isn't caused by temperature, it's caused by the fact that you're running the chips at frequencies/voltages beyond spec.

Most air coolers with the exception of the flat ones provide precisely zero airflow to that area anyway. If anything when you run an air cooler it heats up the air around the RAM area, usually an AIO is set as exhaust.

 

[freeagent]

Most air coolers with the exception of the flat ones provide precisely zero airflow to that area anyway. If anything when you run an air cooler it heats up the air around the RAM area, usually an AIO is set as exhaust.

If you move a little air, you can get that ram. In my system I only need my 3 front fans, and that flow does make it to the sticks no problem.. makes it to the back of the case and out no problem.. If you run an air cooler, and you are getting a hot pocket around your cpu and ram, you are definately doing it wrong. When I ran an AIO, I got far better results pulling air from the outside vs inside the case.

 

[Vya Domus]

If you run an air cooler, and you are getting a hot pocket around your cpu and ram, you are definately doing it wrong.

How can you not have a hot pocket of air around the CPU and RAM that's literally where the heatsink is. No matter how good the air flow is when you run an air cooler the air around the RAM area is always going to be hotter compared to a situation when you have an AIO set as exhaust. In other words is better to not have heat being dumped in that area in the first place rather than pulling it away.

When I ran an AIO, I got far better results pulling air from the outside vs inside the case.

Of course you did because the air outside the case is at a lower temperature. Most people don't set them up like that.

 

[freeagent]

How can you not have a hot pocket of air around the CPU and RAM that's literally where the heatsink is. No matter how good the air flow is when you run an air cooler the air around the RAM area is always going to be hotter compared to a situation when you have an AIO set as exhaust. In other words is better to not have heat being dumped in that area in the first place rather than pulling it away.



Of course you did because the air outside the case is at a lower temperature. Most people don't set them up like that.

I have big fans and move a lot of air, nothing sits still in my case. Front to back is how I have it set up. My CPU fan covers the face of the heatsink, and extends down close to the mobo, so under the cooler gets a clean sweep, scrubbing the VRMs at the same time. Nothing gets hot in my system the way I have it set up. Between my front fans, and the top front fan over the ram, everything in that area gets scrubbed. I say scrubbed because I move a lot of air. 50cfm will not do. This is not a silence orientated set up.

 

[cucker tarlson]

it's the pump noise,not the vrm or ram temps.not even the loudness,the sound.

Ram speed is not that important today.