PC Peripherals Do RAM die due to heat?

T

Trajan

Adept
Due to the summer heat, my mobo gets heated a lot... before it used to stay at 40... but now a days it reaches 46 or so.... and my RAM also heats a lot.... One of my RAM has died yesterday.... i doubt whether its due to the heat?... no doubt that RAM wud get to 50 minimium....
 
Dunno my ram is running overvolted since a very long time. Has not gotten fried yet :) Having a bit of airflow around the area certainly helps though.
 
Try RAM heatsinks from Thermaltake available for 400 bucks. Prime is the dealer.

Oh, and for 700 you can get LED RAM heatsinks ! ;)
 
i appologize for going off topic, but i read somewhere that peripherals are allowed a certain treshold of voltage before the warranties become void? Is this true, or is it that the moment you try overclocking it?
Also, whats the maximum safe voltage youve applied to your ram without heatsinks and standard air circulation in the case?
 
Upto 2.9v is safe for ddr333 and above.Anything higher requires active cooling.Ram heatspreaders are a waste btw.Use a fan to blow over or near the ram slots.
 
undertaker said:
Ram heatspreaders are a waste btw.Use a fan to blow over or near the ram slots.
Click to expand...

Yeah, right they are a waste but sometimes they can cool upto 2 or 3 degrees. The TT LED RAM heatsinks look cool, and for that price are great.

I am planning to buy this from Prime :
1.120mm 2000RPM Chassis fan - 550 bucks.
2.TT LED RAM Heatsinks - 700 bucks.

Both sound great deals, do give me your opinions on them.
 
Ramsinks generally are no good for main memory. Only showpiece value :p. They might cool DDR2/DDR3 though as they run at higher temps.
 
Grease Monk said:
i appologize for going off topic, but i read somewhere that peripherals are allowed a certain treshold of voltage before the warranties become void? Is this true, or is it that the moment you try overclocking it?

Also, whats the maximum safe voltage youve applied to your ram without heatsinks and standard air circulation in the case?
Click to expand...

I've only noticed enthusiast Brands like OCZ offering warranties upto certain voltages on their higher-end RAM since those segments are targetted at overclockers and they understand overclockers will push in more volts for higher overclocks. Most of the standard/value offerings arent covered for warranty based on voltages however.

Maximum safe voltages for RAM varies and mostly depends on the chips being used on your RAM.

For example sticks with Winbond CH-5/UTT chips (like OCZ Gold VX) tend to be able to handle high voltages well, and in fact thrive on all the voltage you can feed them. They like voltages all the way upto 3.5V and higher, anything above 3.3v or so is a bit risky though.

Sticks with chips like TCCD on the other hand (like OCZ EL Plat Rev.2) are very sensitive to voltage, and dont need all that much. 2.85v or so should be the safe limit for such sticks.

So understanding what chips are on your memory sticks is crucial before you decide what voltage to pass through it. Something like 3.5v through TCCD chips will kill it instantly. You could always check your RAM sticks and find the part numbers on the chips, then google around to find a manufacturer spec sheet or some other source of info and ascertain what a safe range of voltage for your mem stick would be.

Also the general consensus on heatspreaders on RAM sticks is they rarely serve the purpose of dissipating heat, but more often than not tend to trap heat. So its usually best to avoid them. Reason being, heatspreaders are nothing but flat metal plates with no fins etc to increase surface area, and as with heatsinks the more number of fins (i.e. surface area) the higher the heat dissipation. If you were to fit finned heatsinks onto RAM sticks, perhaps then you'd see an affective improvement, however the space between RAM slots is too minute to allow even heatspreaders to comfortably fit in.

Air flow though is always good for RAM.

P.S: Grease Monk, Your siggie looks very impressive, you might consider entering it into the Siggie of the Month contest :hap2:

http://www.techenclave.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2768
 
Chaos said:
Ramsinks generally are no good for main memory. Only showpiece value :p.
Click to expand...
yeah but cant remove manufacturer provided sinks either since it will void the warranty :(
 
ya but obly corsair is the brand that is available here( that too not in good quantities) that has the ramsinks.
To be honest really, ramsinks are useless.
It decreased my overclock in reality. Removed the ramsinks from my Geil and it went 30Mhz more.
About RAM voltages.
See what chip is on your RAM, there is a code on the chip usually. Search it using google. It should give you chip details.

If its TCCD/TCC4/TCCH then do not exceed 2.85v. 3.0V is a max limit for these chips. Above that and they will cook any time.( tcc4 can handle little more voltage but its not safe)

If its Hynix D43/Winbond UTT/BH-5/BH-6 then these can easily handle upto 3.3V and even more.
 
thanks for the info. Do transends (value ram) have better overclockability that the standard hynixs? Cos i know a guy offering it for a couple 100 extra and was wondering if there was any point to getting them instead.
 
Well, its a tough call. Most people used to recommend the Transcends over the Hynix for better overclocks, better quality & warranty.

However the current Hynix D43 chips seem to be doing extremely well, with most people hitting a minimum average of around 240Mhz. Some even go as high as 260-290Mhz ! Timings tend to be pretty loose though.
Not sure how high the current Transcends will go, as I have no clue what chips they use in them :)
 
Guys before you condemn the ram heatsinks please note the following. i have stated this before too here on TE.
1) The primary function of heatspreaders is to protect the rams from the dangerous static electricity present on the body of the end-users. these "can" reach upto 1500V !!!!!! momentarily on dry winter mornings, or a barefeet walk on the carpet. which will fry most of the chips , and nearly all the extra sensitive memory chips.

infact the most RMA's (Return Merchandise Authorisation) of unprotected ram modules is due to this static damage. and not due to high vDimm's etc....
2) What is the point of getting LED heatspreaders ....????

LED's emit Light but simultaneously they emit heat too. however minute the quantity be. here i see guys spending thouands so that they may get a 3 ~ 5 reduction in case temps so what is the need to introduce more heat inside the case.....????

also the led's emit light at certain frequencies. which means oscillations. now i am not that technically educated or qualified but i do know that oscillations this near the ram chips will or can affect or influence the performance of the high speed rams. (harmonics, octaves are some of the concepts which come to my mind) perhaps someone more qualified would be in a better position to explain all this.
imho, if you have a good air flow around the ram area than it does not matter much if there is a heat spreader present or not.
but considering the "safety" value of the heat spreader i would gladly have one and sacrifice a few gains in mhz speed.
 
how would i see if a hynix stick uses the D43 chip? which part of the chip code would indicate this. for eg. the current hynix stick i have now says:
hynix 307aa a
hy5du56822at-h
 
deejay said:
Guys before you condemn the ram heatsinks please note the following. i have stated this before too here on TE.
1) The primary function of heatspreaders is to protect the rams from the dangerous static electricity present on the body of the end-users. these "can" reach upto 1500V !!!!!!
Click to expand...

Well deejay you are absolutely right about this. But won't an enthusiast already know about this? The first thing in the book to know while assembling systems is to get rid of static before fiddling/touching any components. Heatspreaders generally come on overclocker RAM which I doubt is used by ppl who use their comps for word/excel or web browsing. Obviously then value ram DIMMs have a greater need for heatspreaders than overclocker memory as ppl using those will have a greater chance of screwing them cos of static charge. AFAIK only Geil supplies heat spreaders on value ram. I still maintain that overclocking RAMs shouldn't come with a heat spreader as they serve no useful purpose other than reducing the OC by 10-15MHz.

2) What is the point of getting LED heatspreaders ....????
Click to expand...

Agree with you completely on this... absolutely no point. an led or two is okay in a fan since there's continuous airflow. But putting it on RAM is just crazy. I pity the guy who falls for the bling factor associated with LEDs.
 
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