WARNING to all users of Thermaltake Memory Cooling (& HELP!)

[herbal'|']

I had just gotten my brand new Kingmax PC2700 5ns (marked -05) Ram in on Monday. I loved it. Yesterday, my Thermaltake Active Memory Cooling Kit comes in. In my excitement to put it on, I accidently put the blue heatspreader on a little too low and it wouldn't go into the Ram Slot. I then try to take it off and move it higher, but it seems to be stuck on there really well. When I finally get it off, the thermal tape no only pulled of my warrenty sticker BUT ALSO TWO OF THE CHIPS! I screamed in shock. The thermal tape that comes with the Kit is obviously super adhesive. So, here's the moral: Be extra careful that you do it right the first time.

As to my problem, I don't know exactly what to do. I have e-mailed Thermaltake and Kommax (the store I bought it from). I hope that Thermaltake will take responsiblity since they posted no warnings of this kind anywhere. I do not have the funds to replace this with new Ram, and am stuck on a K62 450Mhz until I can replace it :( . If anyone has any suggestions, please tell me!

[Placid]

Wow that sucks :(
I did the same thing when I first got my thermaltake coolers put them on too low.
I pulled them off without a incident other than the stickers came off from the crucial they were on.
Then when I got my kingmax I pulled them off again and put them on the kingmax without the chips coming off.

Guess I better leave them on the kingmax if I change memory and buy a new set of spreaders.

I guess the chips must be not be attached very well on the kingmax.

Thanks for the warning.

You just did this to one stick?

[foxforcefive]

I just tested mine without the tape and with the clips before I put the tape on. Mine worked out nicely....

[herbal'|']

Yes, but from a thermal conductivity viewpoint, with just the clips, all you have is the heatspreader kinda touching the chips, if at all. You need the tape for optimal performance. When (IF) I get my replacement Ram, I am going to use some 3M thermal tape that I have instead of the stuff that came with the cooling kit. I'm sure it will conduct heat better and is not near as permanent.

I'm realizing how boring life is without a computer. All I can do on this POS is surf, no games or anything else. It's very depressing.

[MadMan007]

whoah that sucks dude. One question tho: if you can do 175MHz CAS2, why bother with cooling?? I mean, it may extend the life a tad, but the operating temp on memory is really wide, way more than a CPU. Heh, I guess you had the "moreis better" bug :)

Oh, and good luck getting the "-05" marking again :D I am sure you know about the stresses the rest of us have gone through.

[Taylor]

Herbal, man that's rough. Here I feel bad for you, I'll send you one of the sticks I ordered this morning, as soon as it gets here I'll ship it off to you.

Just kidding!

Ain't I a stinker? hehe

All kidding aside, I can only imagine how frustrateing that must have been, and how bummed-out that would make anyone feel.

Can you pick up a stick of cheap-o ddr ram to tide you over til you can afford the good stuff?

I can only thank you for sharing the experience, esp. because I'm planning on using those spreaders and I could very well have done the same thing. But, since you posted this, quite a few people can benefit from your education!

I can't afford to give you a new stick, of course, but what I can do is invite you to visit San Diego and I'll take you fishing- it's an El Nino year and the albacore/ bluefin/ yellowfin/ bigeye/ dorado/ yellowtail bite should continue to be phenomenal. Hey, I'll help however I can.

[f155mph]

Dude that suck ass!!! So should I even use my heat spreader? Can I put thermal goo on the chips and put the spreader on without the tape? You should glue the chips back and RMA back to Kommax.

Goodluck

[rugby]

Now that's not a very honest thing to do. Why should the company who sold him the ram have to eat the cost of the chip because he broke it modifying it?


Originally posted by f155mph
You should glue the chips back and RMA back to Kommax.

Goodluck

[PCTroll]

Errr, but I can't understand. Why you guys leave the warranty sticker under heats sink. It is not good for cooling. So and as you stick the heat sinks to ram anyway you loose your warranty. Cause there is no person who is going to read again readable text from these stickers. And anyway, if you need to get the ram back to shop cause it is damaged i belive that shop won't replace it:p
Thermaltake has also air cooling kit for ram, why don't you use this? Must mention that I am not a thermaltake products reseller.

[SeigeAkicksass]

if you get soem theremal past that is nt conductive (arctic 2 is ) maybe u could use that buy youmight have to put lots on is soem areas for it to though cso maybe not

[Maximus Nickus]

Don't bother with the kits, use some cable ties and mount a Delta on your memory blowing through it like me!!

3.2V is no problem!!:eek:

[f155mph]

Originally posted by rugby
Now that's not a very honest thing to do. Why should the company who sold him the ram have to eat the cost of the chip because he broke it modifying it?




No is not exactly honest but the chip shouldn't broke off because of some double sided tape. Unless he man handle the thing, I don't see why the manufacture should not fix it or replace it.

[Nate1492]

Sounds kinda bogus to me too, If I were the company I wouldn't refund the money, ram isn't that delicate, I'm guessing some pulling vertical action happend while removing the ram (probably holding the heatsink and ripping upward) instead of the standard removal.. Either way still sucks ;-)

[Jon]

That's no ordinary tape that Tt uses to attach those things with. I can believe it pulled his chips off as I've had to remove them too...had to take a hairdryer on high for about 30 minutes to soften that stuff up. Came off fairly easy after that. If you don't do something to make it a little easier, might as well be superglued on there.

Warranty does not cover something of that nature. Whether or not the chips should have come off is entirely irrelevant...I'm sure you won't find anywhere on their website that they support the use of Tt's heatspreaders on their memory.

I do agree that it sucks, but that's the way it goes. Crushed cores, fried PCI devices, grinding hard drives, BIOS flashes gone bad...I've seen it all and you just chalk it up and let it add to that character thing they talk about.

[Maximus Nickus]

If your going to modify your PC beware to take the consequences of your actions.

[Sonny]

Originally posted by f155mph
No is not exactly honest but the chip shouldn't broke off because of some double sided tape. Unless he man handle the thing, I don't see why the manufacture should not fix it or replace it. Because it was NOT THEIR FAULT.

[herbal'|']

Well, I finally gave up on trying to get it replaced. I e-mailed many people and no one has replied yet.

Anyway, I studied the stick of broken Ram closer and have figured out why these chips broke off so easily. I did not 'man handle' them or try to force the tape off. The truth is, it does not take much pressure at all to pull the Kingmax chips off because they are nothing like regular Ram chips. Regular Ram chips have leads on both sides of the chip which attach it to the stick. The Kingmax chips, however, have leads in the exact middle of the back of the chip, which gives much more leverage to anything pulling on the chips. I'll try to take some pics of it in a few and post them up here to show exactly what I'm talking about. So, I wouldn't really say that it was my 'fault', nor the manufacturer's, nor thermaltake's. I just had no idea of the way the chips were attached to the stick and how delicate they were. I guess I will just chalk this one up to experience.

This experience can be a lesson to all Kingmax owners. BE VERY CAREFUL WHEN HANDLING THE CHIPS IN ANY WAY. They can, and will come off if pulled on.

So, where's the best place to buy the '-05' Kingmax nowadays?

[Sonny]

Originally posted by herbal'|'
I guess I will just chalk this one up to experience.Now that is really admirable:beer:Originally posted by herbal'|'
So, where's the best place to buy the '-05' Kingmax nowadays? I just bought mine at the local PC shop that I frequent. The first shipment were not the right modules but the 2nd shipment were spot on so I picked up 2 X 256Mb & hopefully the right MoBo rev. comes in this week so I can play a little:D $90.00USD converted from my local curency. No shipping charges or taxes to pay so I think I got a fair deal:beer:

[killersushi]

I would not use thermal pads anyway, they don't have the greatest thermal conductivity. Why not use your favorite thermal compound instead, the clips will hold the heatspreaders in place very well, and it will also be easier to remove them. And I agree that you should remove all stickers, be it warranty or gimmick, by all means since this would be about the worst thing for those chips that are covered by it (in terms of heat).

One more thing is on my mind: the kingmax don't like high voltages, so I heard? Why put heatspreaders on them in the first place? For my crucial at my current vdimm, it is important to cool them properly, I felt saver to not only rely on the heatspreaders, but further on a fan on top of it that can transport the heat away.

[herbal'|']

killersushi,
I have alot of comments about the things you siad:

1- Thermal compound would not work because with just the clips, the heatspreader didn't sit flat on the ram, it only made contact at the top of the chips. If that gap were filled with thermal compound, it would be so thick that it actually would hinder thermal transfer. The only possible solution would be Artic Alumina Epoxy, but I didn't want something that permanent.

2- My kingmax LOVED high voltage. That is why I decided to cool it. It would run great at 175 with 2.8v, but with 3.0v, I was hitting 180+, I never really got to test it out, though.

3- I did have the Thermaltake Active Ram Cooling Kit, which has a fan on top of the heatspreaders. I replaced the stock 5cfm fan with a Sunon 10cfm fan. I can't really comment on the performance, I have to wait until I get my new ram.

[killersushi]

I see. Never used Kingmax myself, so I take you on that. I just heard from lots of people that it doesn't like high voltages. Good cooling with that fan there :)

As for the thermal compound, it worked fine for me. I don't see why the heatspreader shouldn't lie flat on the chips, the clips press it down quite firmly I thought. If it was so, what would make it lie flat with the thermal pads? Did you press them together so hard? Then you still couldn't be sure of it, you can't see underneath it.

Maybe that's a kingmax issue with the TinyBGA chips? Are they not only smaller, but also thinner by any chance? That sure would be an explanation. I use Crucial myself, I'd say they are just standard thick.

Oh and by the way: most likely you won't see any performance gain. But it's just means to an end. You make sure your sticks will not die on you. And it's just that save feeling we like to have about our hardware. Though my sticks get quite hot, I even was surprised a bit myself :D

[herbal'|']

Yep, that's it. The tinybga chips are still seated on a full size stick, so that the top half of the stick has no chips on it. This is where the clips apply the pressure, therefore angling the spreader and causing it to raise up a little at the bottom. I've got some good 3M thermal tape which is not as permanent and has pretty decent thermal transfer. I am going to use that to attach them next time.

[herbal'|']

BTW killersushi, nice FSB. I had Crucial PC2100 before my Kingmax and it wouldn't go over 160. You got lucky.

[killersushi]

Thanks. Lots of people can get up that high with their crucial, as long as they have the beloved micron chips on it. I could raise the voltage the whole day it's that fun ;) One more thing to mark is that I use 2 sticks, so the quality of both of them is amazing.

Which brings me to a question or suggestion. Are you going to use 2 sticks? I guess so. Only 1 would be great in terms of cooling, you could put some real heatsinks directly on the chips. But I take it you thought about that already.

[herbal'|']

I've talked with many people whose Crucial wouldn't go that high, maybe they didn't have enough voltage, anyway, yeah, I've considered regular ramsinks. I plan on just using 1 stick, as that's all I can afford right now, but getting another in the near future. I guess I could put sinks on one side of the stick I put in slot 0 and a spreader on the other sider. The sinks might pull of some heat from the other side. But that wouldn't really work with the design of the Tt Active Kit, as the fan is attached directly onto a heatspreader. Oh well, I've still got about a week to think about it anyway.