Memory heatspreaders: Heat wicks OR Chip smotherers?

[Cntrlfrk]

I wanted a few opinions about heatspreaders on memory. On the one hand, with VERY few exceptions, every memory manufacturer puts heatspreaders on their performance and high-end memory. One would assume that since they all do it, it must work really well right? BUT is it that a heatspreader is such a really super great way to wick heat away from memory chips OR is it just a really super great way to "dress up" high performance memory so that buyers can, just by looking, see that a particular stick of RAM is high performance because it is wearing a nifty shiny jacket? I wonder this because even manufacterers of midlevel value priced memory are starting to put heatspreaders on their memory too. Is it an attempt to look like the Big Boys or are they just picking up on a good way to cool their chips? It seems to me that without good airflow, a flat slab of metal could actually smother the chips and hold in the heat, but if you do have really good airflow across the chips then you still shouldn't need the heatspreaders because any heat should be disipated by the airflow anyway. Has anyone,including the manufacturers, actually done extensive testing on identical memory both with and without the heatspreaders to see what the difference is with good airflow?

Whats your opinion?

[loc.o]

I think most manufacturers use them to make the dimms look flashy and to hide the actual chips theyve used. I took them of me OCZ VX, not very a big gain in max clock but it will do me 24/7 settings with less volts. No way the spreaders and the tape thats between spreader and dimm will make them run any cooler as with nothing on it.

[Pimmetje]

I think that if you use AS epoxy and ramsinks and a normal fan placed over it, it might actually help a bit, but normal flat heatspreaders that are combined with the tape that comes with them, I doubt it'll help.

[marcopolo]

I suppose it would all depend on whether copper radiated head to air

better than silicon or not. I havn't got a clue.

 

Also the fact that the surface area of the sprerader is greater than that of the chips might mean that more heat is radiated away.

 

Sticking some BGA ramsinks to the spreader may be marginally

beneficial, as long as your DIMMs are far enough apart.

[se7en.hu]

Yea heatspreaders sometimes may increase your temps as they restrict the heat from escaping, they are so gross, I got G.Skill LE's that dont come with anything on them because G.Skill kick butt, they know heatspreaders suck and with most companies you even void warranty by removing them, so G.Skill just dont put it on to begin which is cool, however I didnt like the idea of naked chips so I used some Arctic Silver Epoxy and affixed some Vantec Ieberg BGA RAMSINKS onto each chip so like 16 BGA sinks on each RAM module, yes my RAM may weigh 1kg~ a stick but it sure cools like hell (Y)

 

PICS

http://img35.echo.cx/my.php?image=picture0048ma.jpg

 

 

By the way AS Epoxy is scary as hell to put on, I almost thought I killed my brand new RAM at one stage....

[Cntrlfrk]

bump

[uwackme]

As always it depends on the TIM material.

 

Most use some "alledgedly" thermal conductive tape, but I've always felt this was really a heat blanket, and results from de-nuding KHX3000 BH5 sticks...and a 15Mhz OC increase... tended to verify the hypothesis.

 

Noone has yet to develop a "good" heatspredder, but the best starting point is the Thermaltake copper heatspreaders.... $10/stick @ Newegg. Toss the TIM tape, and instead use a light mix (50/50) of AS3 Ceramique and As3 AluminaEpoxy. Dont use the "clips", instead let the Epoxy do the holding on. The AS3 Cer and AS3 AluminaEpoxy are non-conductive and not a threat to shorting pins on the TSOP chips. The TTake copper spreaders are heavy and solid enough to make good sinks, and provide good level contact across the DIMM.

 

These still leave plenty of room to use 4 sticks in DFI NF4 board as well.

 

Just a suggestion. :nod:

[Sharp]

Hello,

 

I saw this a while ago.

http://www.legitreviews.com/article.php?aid=225

 

[Lifeguard1999]

Take a look at your heat sink on your CPU. See those fins? They increase the surface area and allow the heat to escape better.

 

Take a look at your heatspreader on your memory. See those fins? Oh, there aren't any. It does not look like anyone is serious about moving heat off the memory. Either that or they know that heat is not much of a problem with memory; other things limit the speed of memory more than heat.

 

Therefore, the heat spreaders are window dressing, IMO.