Message boards :
Number crunching :
RAM Cooling : Overrated?
Message board moderation
Author | Message |
---|---|
Luke Send message Joined: 31 Dec 06 Posts: 2546 Credit: 817,560 RAC: 0 |
Okay, some will know I have an upcoming system build scheduled for December. And I do plan on OCing it to the max as far as the CPU is concerned. And I have heard of many people out there using RAM heat spreaders/coolers to supposedly "cool down the memory". Do they actually make that much of a difference in regards to temperature? Can they give you a more stable OC? Or is it all just hot air? (pun not intended) I'd think that standard memory modules (< 1600Mhz) by themselves wouldn't need it as they wouldn't get hot enough anyway and even if they did, the ambient case temperatures would keep it within safe limits. Perhaps modules with outrageous speeds (1800 Mhz, 2000Mhz) might need some form of cooling? So I googled "Do you need RAM cooling?" (and other similar topics) and I skimmed through about 3 pages and so far I've come across quite conflicting opinions. Some trash the idea and others embrace it. So SETI@home. Do you use passive/active RAM cooling installed? Do you notice a difference in the temps, if OC'd or running at stock? Or perhaps it's all for looks in side windows cases. Because if I can get a clear consensus from all you folk, I can make a decision. I would love to get all your views on this. Thanks all. - Luke. - Luke. |
gizbar Send message Joined: 7 Jan 01 Posts: 586 Credit: 21,087,774 RAC: 0 |
Ok, my 2 penneth... Most high quality memory come with heat spreaders already attached, it's only the value versions that don't anymore. I have found that if you have sufficient airflow in the case, then you don't normally need extra cooling for the ram. In fact, I think (and I do stand to be corrected), that only one manufacturer made a ram cooler, and that was corsair for one of it's dominator series. It clipped over the top of the ram and forced air down onto it, via a couple of small fans. <edit> I believe that somebody on the boards here had one at one stage [msattler, was it you? ;-)] but again, I don't know how useful it was. Corsair obviously thought so, to have gone to the trouble to design it and supply it with some of their top-end ram. You could buy it separately as well, at least in the UK. </edit> <edit2> You can still buy it in the UK in the form of a dual channel, and a triple channel version. You can also get the Antec Spotcool, which might help too, if needed. </edit2> What I don't know is if it would fit anything alse apart from the corsair ram, but my guess is that it wouldn't. regards, Gizbar. A proud GPU User Server Donor! |
Mamluk Send message Joined: 10 Sep 09 Posts: 80 Credit: 2,448,048 RAC: 0 |
My 2 pennies as well... Your "need" to cool down your RAM will depend on what you are running and for how long. If you are running S@H apps, the memory usage is very limited, and it should not require cooling. On one of my (non-S@H) rigs, I run some OCZ Blades at 2000MHz, with prolonged and intensive usage. They have not needed any active cooling. Personally I think that RAM coolers are a waste of time for those who do not manufacture/market/sell them. Spend the money on better cooling for your OCed CPU... |
kittyman Send message Joined: 9 Jul 00 Posts: 51469 Credit: 1,018,363,574 RAC: 1,004 |
On the i7 platform, RAM voltage is limited to about 1.65 volts..... And at that voltage, RAM does not run that hot. I do have one of those Corsair coolers, and have it installed on the Frozen Nehi's bank of tri-channel. But I think it is hardly needed. My 920 rig has 2 channels of RAM installed, and the sticks are barely warm to the touch. Now, on the other hand, some of my older rigs are running RAM at voltages upwards of 2.5v......and there you have some amount of heat being generated. In fact, if I recall, the fan setup originally came with the RAM I was running on the Frozen Penny.........which was at the higher voltages. So cooling may be warranted there.....although I have never used anything beyond the heat spreaders supplied with your better grades of RAM, excepting the Corsair setup. And most of the rigs have a case fan blowing in the direction of the RAM to help dissipate what heat there is. Soooooooo....... I would skip it if you are building an i7. Dunno about those AMD folks...... "Freedom is just Chaos, with better lighting." Alan Dean Foster |
spitfire_mk_2 Send message Joined: 14 Apr 00 Posts: 563 Credit: 27,306,885 RAC: 0 |
You overclock until the weakest component fails to boot. That weakest component might be RAM, might be network adapter, might be video card. The notion that you will overclock cpu to the max is erroneous one. |
zoom3+1=4 Send message Joined: 30 Nov 03 Posts: 65773 Credit: 55,293,173 RAC: 49 |
On the i7 platform, RAM voltage is limited to about 1.65 volts..... I agree with what Mark has said here, From what I've read in reviews, i7(DDR3) ram @ 1.65v barely gets warm, Yet DDR2 like LGA775 uses can get heated, I use Patriot Viper ram(DDR2) PC2-8500 and It uses fins and the system works 24/7 without fail. But then that's cause and effect, which some in this world reject... The T1 Trust, PRR T1 Class 4-4-4-4 #5550, 1 of America's First HST's |
Sutaru Tsureku Send message Joined: 6 Apr 07 Posts: 7105 Credit: 147,663,825 RAC: 5 |
I can talk only about DDR2 RAM. I had contact to Corsair - I have their DDR2 800/5-5-5-18 @ 1.8 V / 4-4-4-12 @ 2.1 V. They said, if running @ 2.1 V I need to cool with active RAM cooler. Current I have OCZ 1066/5-5-5-15 @ 2.30 V in the Intel Core2 Extreme QX6700 mobo, which run at 944/5-5-5-15 @ 2.32 V. And OCZ active RAM cooler (selfmade mod without original holder). I have OCZ 1066/5-5-5-15 @ 1.8 V (low voltage RAM) in the AMD Phenom II X4 940 BE mobo. And runnig this without active RAM cooling. But, BTW.. because of OC a CPU. I would OC only to the max. without changing the Vcore. With this you would get a well performance/wattage. If you increase the Vcore this ratio going bad. For best performance/wattage, I would add a (or more) GTX2xx series GPU/s into the PC case. If you have little time, I would wait to the new GTX3xx series GPUs. I guess - same wattage/double performance - than GTX2xx series GPUs. |
Sutaru Tsureku Send message Joined: 6 Apr 07 Posts: 7105 Credit: 147,663,825 RAC: 5 |
Maybe additional.. Every RAM have their own specs. For example.. AFAIK.. DDR2 800 came with 1.8 V . Then the manufacturers solt OC RAMs, DDR2 800/1066 with higher voltage (1.9 - 2.3 V). If you bought them, you needed to cool down. Then after two years or something, they solt DDR2 1066 with 1.8 V. No active RAM cooling needed. So everything over 1.8 V (@ DDR2) -> active RAM cooler. I guess you can take this 'farmers regularly'* also for DDR3 RAM. It's 1.5 V for DDR3? [* "Bauernregel" in german] |
Dena Wiltsie Send message Joined: 19 Apr 01 Posts: 1628 Credit: 24,230,968 RAC: 26 |
I am unable to tell you about RAM cooling because I have never had the problem, but I have a related story. We designed a new board with a processor we never worked with before. The engineer was warning us that we might be facing major melt down without the correct heat sink and special air flow. After we had the board functional, I put my finger on the processor and it was just a little warm to the touch. The verdict was we didn't need to do anything special and we have never lost one of those processors. I would know because they are soldered in and the one time we wanted to remove one, we ended up scrapping the board because we couldn't remove it. |
1mp0£173 Send message Joined: 3 Apr 99 Posts: 8423 Credit: 356,897 RAC: 0 |
In my opinion, this can't be answered with a simple yes or no. Increasing switching rates in the chip (higher frequency operation) means more heat. Lower voltages means less heat. If there is enough airflow in the case, and the environment is cool, the chips may stay safely below the manufacturer's maximum temperature. If they're close to the CPU and the CPU fan blows hot air on them, maybe not. If the manufacturer is conservative, then you can operate outside the recommendations and still be safe. If not, you may need to cool the RAM. Just too many factors for a simple yes or no. |
hiamps Send message Joined: 23 May 99 Posts: 4292 Credit: 72,971,319 RAC: 0 |
Reading other posts I checked it out and with a mild overclock on my I7 machine the memory isn't even warm. My watercooler blows that way but I was shocked and had a couple people feel them. To the touch they heel same temp as any metal in my case. They do look like they have sheilds of some sort. Official Abuser of Boinc Buttons... And no good credit hound! |
DJStarfox Send message Joined: 23 May 01 Posts: 1066 Credit: 1,226,053 RAC: 2 |
I can always recommend passive cooling on all RAM chips. As far as active cooling? I cannot recommend it except in specific cases where airflow is poor and the OC/voltage is high. In general, electronics don't like to change temperature, and the cooler the better in almost all cases. So, that's why I recommend some minor passive cooling for all RAM chips. |
Sutaru Tsureku Send message Joined: 6 Apr 07 Posts: 7105 Credit: 147,663,825 RAC: 5 |
AFAIK, only 'cheap' or old SD-RAM didn't had heatspreader. passive: heatspreader (with or without little holes) directly on the RAM chip. This have nearly all RAMs. active: fan This I meant with my post. If I would go higher as 1.8 V @ DDR2 RAMs I would use an active RAM cooler. |
_heinz Send message Joined: 25 Feb 05 Posts: 744 Credit: 5,539,270 RAC: 0 |
A sample with RAM-cooling is my V8-Xeon it is a must for the quad-channel FB-DIMM's ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Informationsliste Wert Sensor Eigenschaften Sensortyp Dual ADT7490 (SMBus 2Ch, 2Eh) GPU Sensortyp Diode (ATI-Diode) Motherboard Name Intel D5400XS Temperaturen CPU1 58 °C (136 °F) CPU2 63 °C (145 °F) 1. CPU / 1. Kern 55 °C (131 °F) 1. CPU / 2. Kern 44 °C (111 °F) 1. CPU / 3. Kern 51 °C (124 °F) 1. CPU / 4. Kern 50 °C (122 °F) 2. CPU / 1. Kern 44 °C (111 °F) 2. CPU / 2. Kern 41 °C (106 °F) 2. CPU / 3. Kern 43 °C (109 °F) 2. CPU / 4. Kern 43 °C (109 °F) DIMM 78 °C (172 °F) GPU Diode 67 °C (153 °F) Temperatur 1 51 °C (124 °F) Temperatur 2 51 °C (124 °F) Temperatur 3 54 °C (129 °F) FB-DIMM1 84 °C (183 °F) FB-DIMM2 87 °C (189 °F) FB-DIMM3 84 °C (183 °F) FB-DIMM4 78 °C (172 °F) Seagate ST31000340NS 39 °C (102 °F) Seagate ST31000340NS 28 °C (82 °F) Seagate ST31000340NS 29 °C (84 °F) Kühllüfter CPU1 654 RPM CPU2 649 RPM North Bridge 4623 RPM South Bridge 4182 RPM DIMM 3020 RPM Aux 837 RPM Grafikprozessor (GPU) 90% Spannungswerte CPU1 Kern 1.10 V CPU2 Kern 1.11 V +1.5 V 1.54 V +3.3 V 3.35 V +5 V 5.13 V +12 V 12.31 V FSB VTT 1.21 V North Bridge Kern 1.25 V DIMM 1.82 V ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I had have already temps of 100 grd celsius on the RAM's depending on the tasks are running. now are 11 tasks running under BOINC 8 x akv8 2 x astropulse 5.06 Hybrid 1 x collatz 2.06 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ as you can see cpu's are cool fan run still 654 rpm but ram temp increase, with passive cooling they will be overheated in very short time D5400XS V8-Xeon |
Richard Haselgrove Send message Joined: 4 Jul 99 Posts: 14654 Credit: 200,643,578 RAC: 874 |
A sample with RAM-cooling is my V8-Xeon Yes, I remember it being a concern when the FB-DIMMs first came out. My 8-core (Dell Precision 490) likewise has a special fan just for the memory. |
bloodrain Send message Joined: 8 Dec 08 Posts: 231 Credit: 28,112,547 RAC: 1 |
overall no its not needed if you have good airflow in your case. now if you dont or have a lan box type one. then it might be needed. |
zoom3+1=4 Send message Joined: 30 Nov 03 Posts: 65773 Credit: 55,293,173 RAC: 49 |
A sample with RAM-cooling is my V8-Xeon Oh yeah, FB-Dimms make DDR2 look cool by comparison I think. :D The T1 Trust, PRR T1 Class 4-4-4-4 #5550, 1 of America's First HST's |
Luke Send message Joined: 31 Dec 06 Posts: 2546 Credit: 817,560 RAC: 0 |
|
©2024 University of California
SETI@home and Astropulse are funded by grants from the National Science Foundation, NASA, and donations from SETI@home volunteers. AstroPulse is funded in part by the NSF through grant AST-0307956.