Memory placement for better air flow

[nickdu]

I remember reading that some of the motherboard vendors have come up with a new layout for the memory modules. The new layout has the memory sticks running from from to back on the right side of the motherboard (right side when looking at the front of the motherboard). Supposedly this provides better airflow across the memory. So my question is why would any new motherboards have the memory layed out the old way? Of course I don't expect motherboard manufacturers that have not adopted the new layout to revamp everything, but for motherboard vendors that have adopted this new layout why would they also produce new boards with the old layout?

 

I see many of the DFI motherboards have adopted this new layout. I also see that some of the new DFI motherboards have the old layout. Does this mean that this new layout really doesn't provide better airflow over the memory?

 

Thanks,

Nick

[wevsspot]

Well, it's all a matter of airflow in the end. If you get creative you can get some active cooling just about anywhere. Anytime you can get active airflow across your memory the better off you are. Now whether that's blowing straight down on your sticks or cross ways through them, cooling is cooling.

[nickdu]

Well, it's all a matter of airflow in the end. If you get creative you can get some active cooling just about anywhere. Anytime you can get active airflow across your memory the better off you are. Now whether that's blowing straight down on your sticks or cross ways through them, cooling is cooling.

 

Yeah, but if the airflow is from front to rear (for sure I don't see any airflow from side to side) so having the memory stick perpendicular to the airflow doesn't sound like a good design. So to me the new design sounds like a better one. I just don't see why, if it actually is a better design, a motherboard maker would build new boards with the old design.

 

Nick

[wevsspot]

Well, to some extent I guess that I'm lucky. I'm running the DFI LanParty Ultra-D and the ram slots are located to the top of the CPU. This makes an easy cooling solution (just zip tie a 80-92-120 fan to your hard drive cage to blow across your mosfets and through your RAM) works great by the way. But I'll stretch this topic and assume that his question is relative to the DFI Expert MB with the ram slots located to the left of the CPU near the rear of the computer. In this case you could still blow air directly at the top of the RAM and have it exhausted out of the rear of your case by your rear case fan. Electronic signals still operate by the same physics as any other object that must get from point A to point B. The less distance between points A and B the less time it takes to make a roundtrip. So I'm sure that the DFI engineers have further optimized the length of the traces between the CPU and the memory, thereby resulting in increased speed and increased performance. You also have to realize that a motherboard is a "fixed" piece of real estate. There is only so much room and each of the little houses has to be situated such that the distance between my place and your place is optimal.