RAM: Heatspreaders on or off??

[TheWizzard]

There's a lot of confusion about this and a lot of ways to do it. So. What is the best/what are the best way/ways to pull of the heatspreaders. And, heatspreaders like the mushkin ones make it extra difficult to remove them because of the label put over the clambs which hold the spreaders. So how can you remove the label without tearing it apart.

 

And, also important, what is the gain of pulling of those spreaders/trappers. So maybe give a before and after example.

 

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

Hey Cool! I'm a DFI War Mongerer now...:nod:

[Angry_Games]

if it has heatspreaders, leave them on

 

if it does not have them, leave them off

 

 

no real benefit either way. heatspreaders are mainly there to add 'flash' and make more attractive. They can sometimes create a sort of oven around the modules and actually trap more heat than without spreaders.

 

but

 

dont worry about it

 

removing spreaders = voids your warranty

 

adding spreaders = voids your warranty

 

every good little nerd should have decent to excellent airflow in his case, especially over the RAM/AGP/NB area of the board =)

 

especially if he is overclocking!

[TheWizzard]

Thanks Angry for your honest answer, i'll take this in my dissicion whether í'll do it or not.

 

Here's another way of pealing the heatspreaders off:

hmmmm heat them with a hair drier and then carefully and steadily pull the side up.

 

pull for 5 minutes or so and it will very slowly start to lift up. be very patient.

[Denzil]

Originally posted by Angry_Games

if it has heatspreaders, leave them on

 

if it does not have them, leave them off

 

 

no real benefit either way. heatspreaders are mainly there to add 'flash' and make more attractive. They can sometimes create a sort of oven around the modules and actually trap more heat than without spreaders.

 

but

 

dont worry about it

 

removing spreaders = voids your warranty

 

adding spreaders = voids your warranty

 

 

I couldn't agree more I removed the heatspreaders from Geil Ultra Edition I had and I didn't gain anything from doing so

[stowenrat]

'heat spreaders' not heat dissipaters, they are bs I would have thought. I pulled mine off to make sure I had bh5, I used a knife...eek!

[Guest culinist]

Well luckily for me the PQIs come apart really easily. Taking mine off and puttin a fan over em helped me with another 5 Mhz HTT. But that is just my experience.

[uwackme]

Im a firm "take them off" guy.

 

But actually the Corsair (thermaltake) versions with the thin metal clip, get it in copper and use a thin coat of AS Ceramique on the TSOP chips....no stupid thermal tape ..... and that is actually a USEFUL heatsink for ram. The rest is all flash and more a hurt than a help. Taking the HyperX ones off was worth 5+Mhz for me.

 

heatsinks arent brain surgery, what makes sense for the CPU makes sense on ram chips too. but in the world of tiny pins... DONT use AS3. Ditto for BGA videorams.

[TheWizzard]

Hey uwackme 'The-BurnIn-God' :nod:

 

Can you help me on indeas on how to remove those heatspreaders. I have already a good one, with use of a hair drier. But how to remove the labels which cover the ramclips.

 

Are there any other good ways of doing it? With what one should pay extra attention with?

 

Some extra tips on how to do it people. In this topic we can collect all the great ideas you have on this matter.

[uwackme]

Put them in a plastic bag, put that in the freezer for a couple hours. Take them out and the HS should come off easily. Let it heat up and dry off before trying to plug them in.... just in case of condensation during the work.

 

I use a jewelers screwdriver tip to pry the silver clips off the KHX, being careful not to scratch the blue. But ultimately I said FK it, screw the warrenty, I am not about to RMA BH5 chips, if one failed I'd keep the stick to use the good chips for salvage myself.

[TheWizzard]

That is a good method too. But what about those labels mushkin puts over the ramclips (which hold the heatspreaders in place).

[mrlobber]

10 minutes in a freezer suffice as well (or maybe my freezer is a triple-cascade for food? )

 

As you're taking the heatspreaders off, don't bother about the stickers. After all, all that matters is whether it's BH-5/BH-6 or not.

 

And do not forget to cool the memory with a fan over it as well.

[platdragon]

Most od the time when lables are pealed and purt back the folks doing the checking can tell that the lables have been removed. I use to work for XBox and seen photos of the lables that were removed and voided the warranty on the XBox because someone opened the system up. As far as a good way to remove stickers, in my experiance when the glue is warm / hot the stickes come up easier and I used a razor blade :eek2: Run for the hills :shake: :nod:. I have not tried to do this on my Buffalo windbond chips, but on different items that have had stickers that I wanted to remove it worked fine. Just rember As A_G stated removing spreaders / Stickers = voids your warranty