Heatspreader?

[Kronix]

Yes or no? If no, how do i remove them safely?

[Aphex_Tom_9]

i think they really dont do anything useful except make the ram look cooler (to some)

[stealthbomber]

If you use good ramsinks, high quality adhesive and active cooling then it might work but the common RAM heatspreader solutions offered does jack if not heat the damn thing up more...

[trans am]

Heatspreaders?


http://mitglied.lycos.de/coolinglimit/Cooling/Ramcooler/Cooler3.jpg

[Aphex_Tom_9]

^now those are heatspreaders that do something.

[dippyskoodlez]

^now those are heatspreaders that do something.

lol.. lil bit, eh? :p:

[SIOUX]

nice ram cooling ther trans am :)

[trans am]

nice ram cooling ther trans am :)

I wish it was mine. lol. Anothere xs member found it on some German forum. I wish I knew who fabricated this so I could give them credit. It's really well done.

[Kanavit]

nice water cooler for ram, trans am. i ripped my blue heatspreaders from my kingston hyperx pc4000, and now my ram can run 232mhz @ 2.5-4-3-8, 1T all day with no artifacts , or errors. indeed heat is the enemy, and all the heatspreader did for my ram was trap it. glad i removed it. before my ram could only do 225mhz max.

just run computer for a few min , playing some games, then cut it off, and slowly remove the heat spreaders when glue is still soft. gently and becareful not to clip any resistors!

[trans am]

I agree, heatspreaders are nothing but bling bling. They are basically heat blankets and just make things worse. I hope ram makers stop using them because taking them off voids the warranty(unless you are careful) Gskill is doing the right thing. I think most ram makers know that heatspreaders are bad but I think the real reason for them is so they can mask the ic's they are using.

[dippyskoodlez]

I agree, heatspreaders are nothing but bling bling. They are basically heat blankets and just make things worse. I hope ram makers stop using them because taking them off voids the warranty(unless you are careful) Gskill is doing the right thing. I think most ram makers know that heatspreaders are bad but I think the real reason for them is so they can mask the ic's they are using.


I doubt that-- a lot of vendors are now putting their name on them (a-data for instance, crucial, etc..) and you could easily find out by removing them. that would be useless.

Its looks!!! :p: (and marketing plus's....)

What ram the average person gonna buy? the lighty-uppie stuff, or the plain green pcb+ic's ram? ;)

[trans am]

heatspreaders have become mainstream. we'll most of the ram companies say removing spreaders voids your warranty. I think there is some reason for that. They don't want average joe to know they are getting the ic's made for them elsewhere. plus heatspreaders are trendy. I think it's cooler to have no spreaders. it's more punk rock.

[Aphex_Tom_9]

it's more punk rock.
lol, true.

[Kronix]

ok, i took my 2x 512 mb Corsair xl pt out and tried taking off the spreaders, but they wouldnt come off. I dont want to use too much force. is there an easy way to get em off?

[dippyskoodlez]

heatspreaders have become mainstream. we'll most of the ram companies say removing spreaders voids your warranty. I think there is some reason for that. They don't want average joe to know they are getting the ic's made for them elsewhere. plus heatspreaders are trendy. I think it's cooler to have no spreaders. it's more punk rock.

I highly doubt that its for warranty reasons--- I can take my a-data ones off and put em back on and you cant even tell.

Dont want the average joe to know the IC's? the average joe doesnt look! :confused:

Found some bh-6 on a seagate xbox hdd today, btw......

Heatspreaders give ya the 1337 speed look. :p:

[shadowing]

I agree. Heatspreaders are just for the bling bling. How much temp. can a RAM tolerate?

[stealthbomber]

I guess around ~65C at stock speed/voltage, of course at those temps they are likely to overclock like crap...

[scottk]

ok, i took my 2x 512 mb Corsair xl pt out and tried taking off the spreaders, but they wouldnt come off. I dont want to use too much force. is there an easy way to get em off?

0. Decide you don't mind voiding your warranty.

1. Max your vdimm and loop memtest86 test 5 to heat up the stick and soften the adhesive.

2. Power off the system and remove stick.

3. Pull off the spring clip that squeezes the heatspreaders against the chips. Slide an old void credit card or similar between the heatspreader and PCB. This is to protect the circuit board and chips from the next step...

4. Use a thin wide blade screwdriver to gently pry off the heatspreader. Slide the screwdriver blade in between the heatspreader and plastic card, then twist gently. Start from one end of the stick and work your way to the other end. Make sure the plastic card is always protecting the pcb and/or ram chips from the screwdriver blade.

If the adhesive does not release, do not force-pry it! Go back to step 1.

If you keep the adhesive on the spreaders clean, it's not too hard to put the spreaders back on later...

[Skip]

heat spreaders at least protect the ram.

[xs64]

My adata pc4800 w/ HS can do memtest loop5 stable bus 285 w/ 2.85v

But when i remove the HS , it takes just 2.6v :toast:

[Zac89]

Just a question: it's difficult/impossible to re-mount the heat spreaders after you remove it?

If I have to RMA some ram, can I re-mount it with no visible difference???

[trans am]

It's very easy, just make sure the stickers that cover the clips for the heatspreaders are in tact. You may want to use an exacto-knife to carefully lift the sticker(if there is one) and curl it over to the side before you take the clips off. and make sure you make a note which side of the spreader goes go to the dimm. notice the notch on the ram gold fingers is slightly to one side. this is a dead give away.

[Zac89]

thx :toast:

[BerT]

So removing the heatspreader and putting fan on the ram is for max cooling ?

[boostdfd3s]

Who here has removed the heatspreaders and attached copper RAMSinks, like the ones thermaltake sells, with thermal tape or AS5 adhesive? I bought a whole set of these to cover my 2x512mb Mushkin BH-5 sticks as well as an OTES-like fan setup to cool them off.

Should i pull the spreaders?

[dutchman.pt]

I just can't remove the heatspreaders of my Kingston HyperX to check the chips...
How do the heatspreaders should be taken off?
(i know it's noob...) :D

[iddqd]

^now those are heatspreaders that do something.
I very much doubt it. It looks like the setup consists of three main pieces:
1) RAM
2) copper plates on the RAM chips
3) waterblock on top of the copper plates

The thing is, in order to have any sort of effective cooling, you have to have good heat transfer from the heat exchanger(s) to the heat source(s). The best heat transfer is within one substance (as all molecules are as close to one another as possible, the electromagnetic force does not prevent the atoms from coming within a useful range for heat transfer to take place. And we have two gaps here, between the copper plates and the RAM, and between the copper playes and the waterblock. So, the waterblock can remove some of the heat rom the copper playes, which can remove then a little heat from the chips themselves; but not much. This isn't taking into account that watercooling RAM is basically useless, unless you chill the water, of course. But nothing aircooling can't achieve.

For example, my setup:
http://img136.exs.cx/img136/6148/img00613sd.jpg
paired with this: (not finished yet, need to install a trimmer on the Sunon Maglev fans)
http://img100.exs.cx/img100/460/img00797yd.jpg
would be at least as effective.

I just can't remove the heatspreaders of my Kingston HyperX to check the chips...
How do the heatspreaders should be taken off?
(i know it's noob...) :D
Use a hobby knife to dig under the clips and take the chromed clips off. Then use a plastic card, and start sliding it between the chips and the double-sided tape. You could go all the way through with the card, or just half way, and then rip the rest off, your choice.

[dutchman.pt]

Use a hobby knife to dig under the clips and take the chromed clips off. Then use a plastic card, and start sliding it between the chips and the double-sided tape. You could go all the way through with the card, or just half way, and then rip the rest off, your choice.

That was what i tought but i was afraid of making some kind of damage to the modules, but now with your advice i tried it out and had performed it well. :)
Tks.

[justwOo]

kudos on the nice ram cooling iddqd, very nice ! :D

[Aleman]

Just for the record:

KHX3200 BH-5 2x256MB Before HS remove: 260Mhz 2-2-2-8-8-14 1T
After remove: 275Mhz 2-2-2-8-7-12 1T :D!

[TEDY]

aleman :liar :D

how you cool them ?

[DeltZ]

i just....undid the clips using 2 Stanley knives to put under both sides (massacre heatsinks in process)

the...i peeled /bent the heatspreaders off from the ends...i didn't soften the glue or anything tbh...and a found a new use for them :)

http://www.aprx21.dsl.pipex.com/crucialruler.jpg

[Magnj]

what kind of Ram fan thingy is that. I want 1

[Aleman]

aleman :liar :D

how you cool them ?

This way :D Its true, no lie ;).

My Ram Cooling System (http://www.ocmexico.com/forum/index.php?act=Attach&type=post&id=2106)

[aka-doc-]

I don't know if I'd stick screwdrivers or knifes onto my chips, but here's what I did with my mushkin blues.
Take the clips off first as people here have already described. Then, I put them on memtest for a bit with high volts one at a time to heat the adhesive up. After getting them good and hot I just took dental floss, a nice long piece, and run it back and forth between the chip and heatspreader. It went through pretty easily. Then they just came apart. It's a very non-evasive, and safe way to get them off. Just make sure you don't have cheapo floss, lol..... although I did use Equate brand with a hint of mint, lol.

[I_Am_ToO_SeXy]

Does anyone have a guide /w some pics on how to remove HS from ram??

i don't want to break my precious gig of EB :(

[EMC2]

Look here (http://xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?p=827731#post827731) for pics on how to remove DIMM spreaders ;)