Crucial ballistix tracer 1066mhz getting hot

[Seanrb]

Is it normal for the above RAM to get hot enough to burn your fingers? The memory isn't overclocked and is being run at the rated volts (2.2v).

 

[Luigi]

how old are they? can you see if there is chips down both sides?

 

[Seanrb]

2 sticks are 3-4 months old now, and the other 2 sticks are about a month old as i had to RMA them. (And i've got errors on another stick now, I *think* it's one of the RMA replacements).

I'm 95% sure they are single sided. I will confirm when i get home though.

 

[Luigi]

Yeah, there is the problem, they're single sided. As they are single sided, the heatspreader doesn't stick properly and the ram overheats and kills itself

You want to get double sided (old style like myn, or 2gb per stick of the new ones) if you want to make sure they stay stable.

 

[Seanrb]

What a pain in the arse.

Think i will RMA it once more, and if i end up with faulty sticks again i will contact Crucial about a refund :/

 

[Luigi]

or... ask for an upgrade for all your troubles

 

[Seanrb]

Looks like i'm going to be RMAing the mobo as well as the memory.

All 4 sticks have got errors on them, they don't even last 5 minutes in memtest and i know for a fact that the oldest 2 sticks were fine a month ago as they were memtested at the same time as the ones i RMAed.

 

[JackyBoy]

Yeah mine ran really hot, but i put the OCZ xtc cooler on them and i could overclock them nicely. but now the "summer" seems to have kicked in i can barely overclock them at all, that and i moved to a new place with a hotter room they do overclock quite well, just as long as you have amazing cooling on them

 

[Luigi]

As I said above, because they are one sided, the heatspreader doesnt work properly... I would just rma the ram, then get some other stuff and test it then

 

[Seanrb]

Yeah, i'm going to email Crucial today explaining that this is the second time i have had to RMA it and i want it replacing with the double sided stuff.

The thing with the mobo is that i have been having some major problems with it, and 4 sticks of memory dying all at once seems more than just an over heating problem to me. I've not got any spare memory to use while the Crucial stuff is RMAed anyway, so it's no more of an inconvenience to RMA the mobo at the same time, even if it comes back as being fine atleast i know then.

 

[Luigi]

Whats the motherboard?

 

[Seanrb]

Asus P5k.

 

[|3ourne]

forget getting a special ram cooler , just ziptie an 80mm silent fan on them. All you really need is air movement over them. Ohh and factory volts are overrated. I bet if you lower the voltage to around 2.0V they will still work fine at stock speeds. Ballistix by nature have always ran hotter than most of the other ram chips.