# Do RAM heatspreaders do anything?



## Pinchy (Oct 28, 2006)

Title tells all...do RAM heatspreaders actually do anything for the RAM/allow it to OC higher, or are they just there for looks ?

Like, will it be worth spending $7.50 on 1 RAM heatsink?


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## giorgos th. (Oct 28, 2006)

if you have a good airflow inside your case they help...
if you dont you might see worse results with them.


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## Ketxxx (Oct 28, 2006)

its dependent on design, if the spreaders have an area allowing for air to reach the ICs still, then yes they help.


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## Pinchy (Oct 28, 2006)

yes ket ...lawl thanks for the replies...how about this one:

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/HIGH-QUALITY...1QQihZ014QQcategoryZ80149QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

i like em cause they are gold (matches asus mobo) ...but i want something that cools my ram down/get me a better OC 

i also found a copper one, not aluminium...but thats in Hong Kong. id be willing to wait the week or two for them to arrive IF they perform a lot better


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## Ketxxx (Oct 28, 2006)

nah their crap,  look for something which has like a venting system. Similar to what the mushkin redline heatspreaders are like in fact.


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## b1lk1 (Oct 28, 2006)

Heatspreaders are a waste of money and do nothing.


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## Pinchy (Oct 28, 2006)

lmao nice way of putting it frankly


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## DaMulta (Oct 28, 2006)

You can get 7mhz with them, or trap heat and lower yourself a little bit.


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## Ketxxx (Oct 28, 2006)

*points to his last post* heh


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## Pinchy (Oct 28, 2006)

lawl i found a watercooled kit....but i aint spending $46


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## Ketxxx (Oct 28, 2006)

if u want to get creative u could always buy some thin meshing wire (like the stuff u can get to fix rust holes in cars) and some copper spreaders and massacre them with a dremel


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## Pinchy (Oct 28, 2006)

sounds interesting 

lol im in the market for new ram anyways...but wtf is with the DDR prices!!! ket, u know bout ram, any chance of it coming down soon?


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## Ketxxx (Oct 28, 2006)

not likely, the shift to ddr2 since amd adopted it has been mad as is my understanding, so ddr production has started to slow as ddr2 is concentrated on.


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## Chewy (Oct 28, 2006)

acording to Ncix.com prices may still go up do to supplie shortages, the damm shit is to expencive already eh


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## Ketxxx (Oct 28, 2006)

they will, ddr production is slowing.


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## Pinchy (Oct 28, 2006)

dam thats ghey! *slaps forehead*


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## b1lk1 (Oct 28, 2006)

A simple 80MM fan placed over your ram will help.  Making neon gold plated ventilated heatspreaders is a huge waste of time and effort.  Watercooling ram is even more of a waste.  Ram only needs a fan blowing over them.  Period.


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## Ketxxx (Oct 28, 2006)

heatspreaders do help if designed right as i already said.not everybody wants to add more noise to their pc.


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## Chewy (Oct 28, 2006)

I hate noise but good ventilation (eg. a side case fan) and heat spreaders do the trick.


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## Sasqui (Oct 28, 2006)

A plain heatspreader may help, but nothing really noticable.  Ram sinks got me an extra 5 mhz on GTO800 video memory, but that's less than 1%... and I've read reviews confirming roughly the same.

Other than that - they make the ram look nicer


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## b1lk1 (Oct 28, 2006)

Noone can ever convince me that heatspreaders are nothing but a marketing trick.  THey are useless and they hold more heat on the ram than anything.  When running heatspreaders it is even more important to have a fan blowing on the ram when overclocking as they will heat up more.  If youask me, ram companies use them so they can change the types of ramchips without the consumers being able to see what is on their sticks.  Team Group is the ONLY company with the balls to not mount heatspreaders on their ram and that is my next purchase.


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## Ketxxx (Oct 28, 2006)

an odd comment. i'll agree some heatspreaders do suck, but its down to design, if theres a heatspreader that allows airflow to the IC, it will lower temps a bit. combine that with a side intake fan for example,  and your looking at some pretty chilly sticks.


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## C0mrad3 (Oct 28, 2006)

If you're experiencing frequent lockups, then heatspreaders work in cooling down the ram to prevent such lockups.

Vantec copper heatspreaders on newegg look like a good buy.


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## Urlyin (Oct 28, 2006)

b1lk1 said:


> Noone can ever convince me that heatspreaders are nothing but a marketing trick.  THey are useless and they hold more heat on the ram than anything.  When running heatspreaders it is even more important to have a fan blowing on the ram when overclocking as they will heat up more.  If youask me, ram companies use them so they can change the types of ramchips without the consumers being able to see what is on their sticks.  Team Group is the ONLY company with the balls to not mount heatspreaders on their ram and that is my next purchase.



I believe some of what you're are saying but, it's my belief that as Ket says if they are decent heatspeaders they do help in dissappating heat, more so from the days of when oc'ers were shooting 3.3v - 3.6v through their RAM and everyone knows that the cooler a component runs the longer it lives.... given running stock voltages then I can agree they are more than likely useless... I do like some of the heatspeaders which do add to the bling and maybe Ket can dig up how much of the cost of memory is actually the heatspreader?


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## b1lk1 (Oct 28, 2006)

I don't think the cost is much to a ram company.  I'd guess under $5 for a pair.  My point is that if you run a low CFM quiet fan with or without heatspreaders, you'd get the same cooling effect.  I just don't buy that they can do much if anything because the thermal interface is always some form of tape, plus there are usually stickers on the ram chips as well.  The latest open mesh type are not as bad as the solid ones, but I still say that you can cool the ram better with nothing blocking the airflow straight to the ram chips.  It is the same concept as removing the IHS off of a CPU to get better cooling with the core exposed.    I am not picking on any 1 company, and if anything OCZ was the first to really push heatspreaders down our throats.  I just wish more companies gave us the choice like Team Group so that guys that don't want them on can leave them off.  I would rather not have them on my ram but don't want to risk a warranty by removing them.



C0mrad3 said:


> If you're experiencing frequent lockups, then heatspreaders work in cooling down the ram to prevent such lockups.



A cheap 60MM/80MM fan will accomplish the same, as will proper case airflow.


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## DaMulta (Oct 28, 2006)

I want some cool leds on my memory


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## Ketxxx (Oct 28, 2006)

Urlyin said:


> I believe some of what you're are saying but, it's my belief that as Ket says if they are decent heatspeaders they do help in dissappating heat, more so from the days of when oc'ers were shooting 3.3v - 3.6v through their RAM and everyone knows that the cooler a component runs the longer it lives.... given running stock voltages then I can agree they are more than likely useless... I do like some of the heatspeaders which do add to the bling and maybe Ket can dig up how much of the cost of memory is actually the heatspreader?



I think its about $3. I can check if anyone is that curious. bottom line is aluminium is cheap, and effective when its implemented right, for example with the redline xp8000 modules. the heatspreaders totally cover the ICs, but look a little closer  we dont smother the ICs we leave a means of escape for the heat, and in fact you can see the ICs unlike with many other spreaders. last i checked (and if memory serves me right) we also used shin-etsu, not some crap no-name thermal tape stuff.


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## b1lk1 (Oct 28, 2006)

THere is no way that without actual physical proof of tests and demos that I would ever believe that heatspreaders do anything more than naked ram.  You must have access to that kind of stuff, list some tests and show me where there is more of a temp drop when using spreaders VS not using any.  I still say that like having the IHS off of a CPU, a bare ram module will be easier to cool with a fan than one with a spreader.


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## strick94u (Oct 29, 2006)

I have one of the quietest cases you can buy and with the overclocking and running on air it sounds like a window fan in july but my ram is nice and cool and it came with heat spreaders on it


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## pt (Oct 29, 2006)

strick94u said:


> I have one of the quietest cases you can buy and with the overclocking and running on air it sounds like a window fan in july but my ram is nice and cool and it came with heat spreaders on it



my g.skill bringed heatspreaders too, and died recently  , one of them, they we're massivily overclocked but running at low vdimm


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## Pinchy (Oct 29, 2006)

I can set my RAM to 2.85 Volts as max....so is that hot?

lol i really only want the heatspreaders to OC better...im not even sure if they are crashing cus of heat. I can get it up to PC3700, latencies under my name, and thats with the voltage @ 2.65. Ive narrowed it down to heat, lack of voltage or the different timings...or the fact that RAM doenst OC too much (im not sure, im new to OC'ing )

Yeah i didnt put it past 2.65 volts cus i dnt want anything frying 

btw thanks for the replies so far ...greatly appreciated


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## aximbigfan (Oct 29, 2006)

imho, heat spreaders make a very very slight improvment but are more for looks, i mean if you have a windowed case, no one wants to look in and see a stick of ram with has a bunch of plan black chips on it, they want to see a stick of ram with a streamlined colorful heat spreader on it.


chris


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## b1lk1 (Oct 29, 2006)

You don't need heatspreaders for under 3V with DDR ram.  I run my DDR2 ram @ 2.3V and it is barely warm to the touch.  I presonally don't care what my ram looks like, its' performance is much more important.  Besides, you can always put a pretty UV reactive fan over them to hide those plain black chips.

Either way, you can run your DDR ram @ 2.85V all day long with no case fans without worries.


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## Pinchy (Oct 29, 2006)

interesting

imo, my case is pretty cool anyway...at 3.9Ghz my cpu is only 40*C (idle), which i find pretty cool...and X800 @ 520/560 is like 30 idle


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## Pinchy (Oct 30, 2006)

how much is ram meant to OC? Like, is PC3700 (from 3200) any good?


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## jcdenton21 (Dec 20, 2006)

b1lk1 said:


> Heatspreaders are a waste of money and do nothing.


I have 1024MB PQI ddr400
it is not an OC beast and doesn´t go hot but I was wondering what would heatspreader do
it can run at about 420 2,5-3-3-7 and about 440 3-4-4-8 at about 2,75V
more volts doesn´t help (I tried 2,95 but no chnage in clocks or timing, maybe burn in is required)
so would heatspreaders help or it is just a waste o f money?


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## pt (Dec 20, 2006)

jcdenton21 said:


> I have 1024MB PQI ddr400
> it is not an OC beast and doesn´t go hot but I was wondering what would heatspreader do
> it can run at about 420 2,5-3-3-7 and about 440 3-4-4-8 at about 2,75V
> more volts doesn´t help (I tried 2,95 but no chnage in clocks or timing, maybe burn in is required)
> so would heatspreaders help or it is just a waste o f money?



just for looks


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## jcdenton21 (Dec 20, 2006)

Ketxxx said:


> its dependent on design, if the spreaders have an area allowing for air to reach the ICs still, then yes they help.


OK and could you paste links for good design and  bad design heatspreaders?
I can´t believe I is just for look(why would they put it onto for example 500MHz vitesta series???)


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## WarEagleAU (Dec 20, 2006)

ram heatsinks are a mixed bag. Most companies who stock oc their ram put them on their thinking along the same lines as a nb and sb chip heatsink. Really, I think they just wanna charge more. Corsair or OCZ or both have a contraption that sits over your ram, has pretty multi colored lights and blows air down on them or sucks it up, whatever you prefer. Pretty spiffy,check them out.

-The Eagle


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## POGE (Dec 20, 2006)

The question is really in the type of ram, not the heatspreader.


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## cdawall (Dec 20, 2006)

mine came with a heatspreder so i dont care for this arguement i mean they prolly are a marketing scam but i like having them just i case sorta thing i guess


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## Azn Tr14dZ (Dec 20, 2006)

Like Ket said, they might, they might not depending on design and stuff. But, people can easily argue about this.

My GeIL currently has the heatspreaders that it came with, but I don't really know if they help out at all or not.  But, I also have an 80mm 30CFM side panel fan directly over both of my RAM, and it cools it pretty decently paired with the heatspreaders.  It's currently at 3.4v right now, and doing well.  But I'm not sure about exact temps if they lowered or not, but with the fan it wasn't as hot to the touch.


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## pt (Dec 20, 2006)

Azn Tr14dZ said:


> Like Ket said, they might, they might not depending on design and stuff. But, people can easily argue about this.
> 
> My GeIL currently has the heatspreaders that it came with, but I don't really know if they help out at all or not.  But, I also have an 80mm 30CFM side panel fan directly over both of my RAM, and it cools it pretty decently paired with the heatspreaders.  It's currently at 3.4v right now, and doing well.  But I'm not sure about exact temps if they lowered or not, but with the fan it wasn't as hot to the touch.



i think mushkin are good since they let air go into the ram, my adata for example don't  

ps: azn, why isn't your score in the sm2 thread  ???


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## tkpenalty (Dec 20, 2006)

Ketxxx said:


> I think its about $3. I can check if anyone is that curious. bottom line is aluminium is cheap, and effective when its implemented right, for example with the redline xp8000 modules. the heatspreaders totally cover the ICs, but look a little closer  we dont smother the ICs we leave a means of escape for the heat, and in fact you can see the ICs unlike with many other spreaders. last i checked (and if memory serves me right) we also used shin-etsu, not some crap no-name thermal tape stuff.



Shin etsu tape came with my heatspreaders.


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## ThetaSigma (Dec 21, 2006)

The cooler your hardware runs is naturally the more stable it will be and the harder you can push it. The better ramsinks can lower temps a couple of degrees with proper ventilation but even the best sinks aren't going to make a great deal of difference for RAM timings/speeds.

What I don't get is why so many mobo manufacturers place their dual-channel DIMM slots side-by-side. Running 2x 2GB sticks side by side on a 4 DIMM board is naturally going to run hotter, dissipate less heat, and have less air circulating than if the dual-channel DIMMs were staggered


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## Azn Tr14dZ (Dec 21, 2006)

pt said:


> i think mushkin are good since they let air go into the ram, my adata for example don't
> 
> ps: azn, why isn't your score in the sm2 thread  ???



What thread? Science Mark? I haven't had time to download or perform any benchmarks lately...it's Finals Week here, so I'm studying and doing some practice quizzes online, but tomorrow is the last day for Finals, so I'll post in there, don't worry,


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## pt (Dec 21, 2006)

Azn Tr14dZ said:


> What thread? Science Mark? I haven't had time to download or perform any benchmarks lately...it's Finals Week here, so I'm studying and doing some practice quizzes online, but tomorrow is the last day for Finals, so I'll post in there, don't worry,



this thread is runing for almost 5 months now  
http://forums.techpowerup.com/showthread.php?t=14736

just download the programm on 1st page and run it, see alec advise aswell  
and keep studying tonight


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## Azn Tr14dZ (Dec 21, 2006)

I'll join it don't worry.

And the Finals are only for Spanish, so it shouldn't be too hard for me.  The Filipino language has quite a bit of words from Spanish, and I'm pretty decent at Spanish.


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## hat (Dec 21, 2006)

i have a friend who works in computers and he says they're a marketing gimmic. While they do look pretty and keep it like 2F degrees cooler its just a gimmic.


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## tkpenalty (Dec 21, 2006)

ThetaSigma said:


> The cooler your hardware runs is naturally the more stable it will be and the harder you can push it. The better ramsinks can lower temps a couple of degrees with proper ventilation but even the best sinks aren't going to make a great deal of difference for RAM timings/speeds.
> 
> What I don't get is why so many mobo manufacturers place their dual-channel DIMM slots side-by-side. Running 2x 2GB sticks side by side on a 4 DIMM board is naturally going to run hotter, dissipate less heat, and have less air circulating than if the dual-channel DIMMs were staggered



Agreed, they SHOULD allow fin styled heatspreaders for RAM.


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## ktr (Dec 21, 2006)

tkpenalty said:


> Agreed, they SHOULD allow fin styled heatspreaders for RAM.



or ramsinks with heat pipes ...

this is a neat ramsink... http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16835116004

i prefer that over the "clip on" memory fans...


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## Verikon (Dec 21, 2006)

The point of heatspreaders, and any heatsink for that matter, is to increase the surface area of the heat source allowing for more heat to be transfered to the surrounding air. If the heatsink material is more thermally conductive than the silicon, heat will transfer to it. Period. Marketing gimmicks aside, it's just physics. 

The problem is that heatspreaders on RAM add such a small amount of surface area (maybe an additional 100% of surface at most, which compared to a CPU heatsink is nothing), and RAM doesn't get that hot in the first place, so the cooling benefit is a few degrees if not null. 

Now as long as the heatspreader material is more thermally conductive than the silicon (which isn't hard to do, and I doubt RAM companies are dumb enough to insulate the RAM for the sake of looking cool) and the surface area is ANY increase (even 1%), then they wont trap heat. 

End of the day, heatspreaders look nice, but wont do much for cooling. And as was stated before, adding fins would help to increase surface area and therefore cooling.

Edit: And Corsair has made RAM sinks with not only fins, but attached fans. Dominator RAM, how appropriate.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820145043


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