is there a way to check what IC my sticks have without taking off heat spreaders?

[incogneato]

wondering if its possible to check what IC your sticks have without taking off the heatspreaders?

if not, can you please give a tutorial or link on how to remove heat spreaders? because i have never done it before and i want to be very careful. i also know they have thermal tape or something and i just want to make sure that everything goes back perfectly the way it should after i check my the IC

thanks!

[Eldonko]

Yep, google.

I dont recommend removing spreaders from DDR2, those lil chips pop off very easily.

[kemo]

The easiest thing is to ask first , we dont know then you can test it to know if it is Micron or not

[The Stilt]

You can tell if the chips are made by Micron from the horizontal side of the IC.

[ozzimark]

or you can see how well it clocks, because in the end, THAT is what matters...

[dab420]

You can tell if the chips are made by Micron from the horizontal side of the IC.

Can you elaborate?

[-n7-]

or you can see how well it clocks, because in the end, THAT is what matters...

Listen to this man

[largon]

dab420,
Micron's FBGA chips have a thicker portion in the middle of the IC between the two rows of solder balls.

See the attached pic for reference.

[deeznuts]

This is looking from the bottom, right? And no other IC's have this?

[kenton]

My ProMOS IC looked just like the Micron except for one difference

Say the far left side is "1", the middle is "2" and the far right side is "3"

On the Micron "1" and "3" are identical in the fact that they are not lowered down like "2" (see above pic, the only thing "lowered" is "2", or the middle portion)

On my ProMOS, "1" and "3" were lowered down, and "2" looked CLOSE to the Micron picture above.

In other words, the sides of my ProMOS looked like the middle of the Micron. i.e. LOWERED, LOWERED, LOWERED

Micron = Cut off, LOWERED, Cut off.


I sure hope that makes sense for you guys. BTW: G.skill 6400phu2-2gbHZ

[deeznuts]

So what you're saying is that with the ProMos all 3 sections, left middle and right, have that bump protruding out of the bottom, while Microns only have the middle bump protruding, correct?

[Nephilim]

How interesting, I just got two G.Skill kits I ordered for my parents' PC and my rig.

Both kits look like they have micron IC's judging by that pic! The ones without heatspreaders (F2-5400PHU2-2GBNT) also have the characteristic dot in the same place as micron IC's but the rest is printed with G.Skill's info and the original info is not visible at all.

The other kit (F2-6400CL5D-2GBNQ) look identical from underneath and have red heatspreaders which I won't be removing after I killed a stick of TX D9GMH removing the HS. Even though you couldn't see any damage, I believe one of IC's must've had it's solder balls damaged.

[deeznuts]

That settles it ... I'm not going to take off the heatspreader! Lol, I was just looking at it too, thinking "All it is, is that little clip. Me vs. that little clip, I'll definitely win, where's my tiny flathead!"

[largon]

The HS on TeamGroup sticks is attached with a ~1mm thick layer of brown nasty-looking paste-like tape which is very easy to cut loose from the chips. Warming the sticks with a hairdryer during the surgery makes the hackjob easier.

[dinos22]

or you can see how well it clocks, because in the end, THAT is what matters...

here is a guy that makes a lot of sense

[Nephilim]

Had a closer look and based on kenton's post both of my kits are PROMOS.

2GBNQ (6400 5-5-5) and 2GBNT (5400 5-5-5)

[kenton]

Yes, my Corsair XMS2-800 C4 had bumps on the sides and the middle.

My (supposed) Micron G.Skill only has a bump in the middle like the above picture someone posted (Not Nephilim's picture)

My ProMOS looks identical to Nep's picture

[Nephilim]

Yes, my Corsair XMS2-800 C4 had bumps on the sides and the middle.

So how do those Corsair sticks clock out of curiosity?

[kenton]

Never OC'd them. They didn't run at proper voltage per Corsair. sorry