Thermaltake Active Ram Spreaders, Worth It?

[Virus]

Just woundering if Thermaltake's active spread was worth the extra $10 over just the normal spreader. Thanks.

[azhari]

I saw those a while back and thought they looked pretty cool. But then when I saw the CFM on the fan, I wasn't very impressed. I think a good airflow in the case will do better. Another idea I was toying with was to just get the regular ones and mod them to hold a bigger fan <insert Tim Alen grunt here>

[hunter00]

from what i hear/read the memory spreaders are both pieces of crap. the normal thermaltake looks cool though, so i guess if you are a rich idiot who likes stuff that looks cool you could get those.

[Oni]

I'm pretty sure they just look pretty. Just get better case cooling and you'll be fine.

[urbanski]

Originally posted by hunter00
from what i hear/read the memory spreaders are both pieces of crap. the normal thermaltake looks cool though, so i guess if you are a rich idiot who likes stuff that looks cool you could get those. Guess that's me, since I just bought the active with 2 passive spreaders. Not installed yet.
And I have about 150cfm airflo in and out of my case, 7 fans total, 45C running F@H @ 1640MHz, 2.0VCore. So I have excellent cooling, but I want more, including the 2 new Blorb's I got for my GPU and NB, and the MOSFETs passive heatsinks I'm installing.

[donny_paycheck]

Originally posted by urbanski
Guess that's me, since I just bought the active with 2 passive spreaders. Not installed yet.
And I have about 150cfm airflo in and out of my case, 7 fans total, 45C running F@H @ 1640MHz, 2.0VCore. So I have excellent cooling, but I want more, including the 2 new Blorb's I got for my GPU and NB, and the MOSFETs passive heatsinks I'm installing.

ahh yes...proliferous amounts of blue metal is good!

[Maximus Nickus]

I have 550CFM going through my case!!!!

And a DELTA positioned so its blowing through the 3 sticks of memory!

THats cooling!

[Arkaine23]

The ano-blue is pretty cool. I got mine free with 256 MB OCZ PC2700 DDR. $60 which was the going price for the ram everywhere I checked, and Component Authority tossed it in for free... or was it PCnation...?

I really don't think DDR needs any active cooling.

[Sonny]

After playing around at my friends computer shop with a 8KHA+ & 2 X 256Mb DDR & upping the FSB as far as it'll go the RAM sure did get hot. Hot enough to worry anybody who want their ram to last. I'm not sure if the ThermalTake heatspreaders would be the best choice but active cooling should be considered. We kept pushing the ram & upping the voltage until the HD got FUBARed & had to reinstall the OS. DDR gets hot no doubt about it & now with voltmods for ram being discovered/done/implemented anyone that does not take this into account will be buying new ram every other month. There are at least a few members here that have trashed their sticks.

[Maximus Nickus]

I had my RAM @ 3.2Volts @ 180FSB @ Cas2 and they didn't even get warm but just for the fun of it I now have a Delta on them!

By the way my Ram is now @ 2.5V as 3.2V regardless of temps will shorten your Rams life by a LOT.

[Yodums]

I would get other ram spreaders.. I've read those aren't too good..

And basically all you need is some good air going to that ram.

[The Overclocker]

are they worth it?

not in my system, i have 4 120mm fans.

look at the size of the fan, i dont think a 40mm fan will cover all the ram.

[Maximus Nickus]

Like I said a waste of money, some people have reported that they actually help contain heat sometimes...

My case as of its brilliant design allowed me to fit in (by a MM!!!) a Delta Screamer blowing DOWN through the RAM so all the heat is dispersed.

Be creative and there ya go, even my Southbridge is Active Cooler and soon so will my Power things....

[donny_paycheck]

The spreaders do dissipate a little bit of heat cuz of their surface area and thermal mass both being greater than the chips, but they can hinder cooling if they're not touching all the chips, which is how it is sometimes. The corsair I have came with spreaders. They're not the blue thermaltake ones but they're the same thing, only black w/the corsair logo...no mechanical differences. The RAM gets warm even with 142fsb and they're rated up to 150mhzx2fsb (300mhz chips) so I'm wondering how warm they will get when I turn up the bus in a bit here...

[Maximus Nickus]

Only warm? When there hot to the touch then get worried!