Do RAM heatspreaders work?

[mithrandir]

I have on order a couple of Crucial value ram and they come naked.

My current ram (Geil) has heatspreader and I was wondering what sort of difference they make and whether they actually spread the heat so the chips themselves don't get burnt.

Has anyone carried out tests measuring the temps with and without heatspreaders?

 

[JN]

Funny enough I'm writing some info about the pitfalls in heatspreaders in a review atm.

Some DO help, but most just trap the heat. Manufacturers generally use them for marketing purposes.

 

[Rastalovich]

The main thing is to control the extra heat u can produce when u up the frequency u run the memory at - as u know

Only test I`ve ever done is with a memory fan mount, with it I could stable some cheapo memory running about 10% faster than std speed. Without the fan memtest had a red listing field day.

Principles are similar, with the fan u`r attempting to cool - or blow air across the chip surfaces to dissopate heat. With the heat sinks u`r giving the heat a bigger area to fill - so if the heat generated is the same, the sinks give it a bigger area to exist in.

Combination of both probably works really well - well of course it does, but I haven`t run any tests on both.

EDIT: application and material counts alot - XMS will no doubt have some findings in those areas once he`s done.

 

[Toxcity]

He a clever one that Rastalovich! I swear nearly every post you make is intellectual!

And XMS I will be looking forward to that write up!

 

[Dav0s]

im sure i saw some stuff on XS about them having an adverse effect on temps

but they sure do look pretty

 

[K404]

I`m with XMS....Team have said (off the record) that heatspreaders dont do much, they just make the product look nice for the customer.

The benefit for me is that heatspreaders make the sticks easier to handle without fear of static

 

[Toxcity]

The benefit for me is that heatspreaders make the sticks easier to handle without fear of static

That is a huge point! Now I have heatspreaders on my ram I feel much better about handleing the chips!

To be honest I don't care weather they work or not..

 

[Ham]

I like mine cos there yellow

seriously. They do sweet fa normaly. Maybe ones like the dominator & FlexxLC help. Also OCZs XTC perhaps?

Nehoo, jims writeup should be quite good, as the product has managed to incorporate the cooling method properly, unlike some other company i cant think of right now.

 

[Bogel]

Just yesterday i was woundering if the heat spreaders worked, so i touched them, i swear to god those were the hottest sticks of ram i have ever felt in my life! there were as hot as my nb, thye are now cold because of the 120mm fan blowing on them now.

 

[JN]

If you think about it, they pretty much do what it says on the tin- spread heat.

It may help temps for a short while, but once the heatspreader is heated, it's just going to become a trap for more heat. All heatspreaders should have been designed with fins to take advantage of any airflow.

 

[FarFarAway]

Ye using the traditional solid heatspreaders makes no difference - evidenced by the nice GSkill memory on DDR1 that used to be nekked and work more than fine at insane speeds