why use ram heat spreaders?

[Blueboy1986]

i was just wondering... i see alot of topics/talks about heat spreaders. I know they are suppose to help your mem, but how do they work?? Do they make your computer better/faster? They are cheap and all but do they really work?

 

[necromanx13x]

They dont make the computer "better/faster" all they do is help dissipate heat from the ram chips faster.

 

[Nightingale]

The heatspreaders dissapate the heat generated by the chips. Also when you overclock your memory as alot of us overclockers do you usually need to up the voltage going to your ram to make it stable, but when you do that your memory generates more heat.

 

[Blueboy1986]

so is that a must have or does good case fans do the job as well?

 

[koolaid]

I'd say it is a must if you are OCing your system.

 

[necromanx13x]

Most high end ram comes with the heatspreaders already installed for example the high end chips made by OCZ, corsair, Muskin, kingston, and geil just to name a few.

 

[MRip]

Has anyone ever taken off the heatspreader and noticed a drop in performance? I know that cooling vid card memory rarely has much if any impact. Is it the same for system memory?

*edit* Woohoo! 4 stars!

 

[9mmCensor]

My personal belief that it is all for show. Sure the SHinny platnuim color on my RAM looks cool but does it do anything to keep it cool?

 

[archilochus]

Heres a review that should answer the question. THE FANMAN

REVIEW LINK

BETTER REVIEW LINK

 

[340Duster]

A side note... adding ramsinks to my vid card mem removed artifacts that i somehow created from O/Cing my card, which showed up even at stock speeds afterwords.

 

[9mmCensor]

From the Better Review
With a larger surface area, heat can be dissipated more efficiently. If we had a fan blowing onto the heat spreaders I'm sure we would get much lower temperatures. Unfortunately, we don't. In their current state, these RAM heat spreaders don't do a whole lot for cooling. The RAM in testing remained stable both with and without the heat spreaders. The only difference that I noticed from the copper to the aluminum was the added weight. The copper had to weigh at least twice as much as the aluminum spreaders. Both versions provided the same temperature results. I do like the process in which these spreaders are held together. The locking mechanism gives a solid feel, and the chrome locking clip ensures things will not be moving around while putting your RAM back in their slots. If you are one who is looking to add a nice touch to your modded case, these heat spreaders do manage to give your RAM sticks a whole new look.

I win!

 

[9mmCensor]

A side note... adding ramsinks to my vid card mem removed artifacts that i somehow created from O/Cing my card, which showed up even at stock speeds afterwords.

vid card ram is different, you will see a difference by cooling your ram for your vid card.

 

[CrystalMethod]

I win!

You're also looking at pre-made heat spreaders with cheap thermal tape instead of quality thermal adhesive. Cooling your ram is like cooling any other hot/warm component in your system. The less you have contributing to overall case temps the better. 1 or 2 °C for your ram, another 1 or 2 °C for the mosfets on your MB, northbridge, southbridge, soundcard. It all adds up in the end. You can have a ton of air going into and out of your case, but if it's not passing over the right components, you might as well a tube running from the front of your case to the back with a fan on either end.

 

[Jognt]

why?
1: stability
2: looks
they simply remove the heat from your ram faster, thus lowers your RAM temps, which in its turn, increases system/RAM stability