RAM cooling : looking for best air-cooling

GooD

Hi !

I've been looking for 2 days in some forum for the best "cooling" solution for my next computer. I'll have 1 gig of PC4000 GOLD VX and this ram will run pretty hot... So if i want to push this RAM at constant 3.2v it must be actively cooled (i think). My room temperature is pretty cold (often around 60-65 F) and i'll have a Lian li v2000 case that appear to be one of the best one for stock air-cooling. So maybe you'll want to consider it in you recommandations.

I've see some product like this one (Thermaltake Memory Cooling Kit) Will it do the job ?

EDIT : about Thermaltake Memory Cooling Kit : i doubt it will fit around with my VX, cuz they have already golden heatsink...

I also saw on some forum a lot of "personnal" cooling solution for RAM, people that find a way to get a 92mm fan or two near the top of the RAM. If im looking for the best air-cooling solution, well what are you thiking about those choices, what should i do ?

Thankx

GooD

I also have a XP90C near it with a 92mm panaflow on top fan that throw some air around. But i don't think that's what i can call 'active ram cooling' Maybe some heat will be absord by the copper of the XP90C since it's quite near...

ryko

just lay a 80mm fan on top of the memory modules and find some ghetto way of securing it. i have seen people run a little metal bar from the the back of their cd-rom compartment, flexible wire, and duct tape before...

muddocktor

Some guys at the overclockers.com forums have made some fan mounts with coathanger type wire that clip around the back of the dimm clips on the end of the dimm slots that look pretty neat. They made them to mount 80mm fans directly over their ram.

Mt_Goat

I love the smell of duct tape in the morning.

GooD

Well i finaly recieve my computer !

Lots of work to take it to the top still

For the RAM cooling, well i've try something else. When i saw that the ram was THAT close of the place where the heatsink is going to be i was surprise. I put the XP90 'long side' (not the one with the tube) in a way that it go 'over' the ram. The heatsink and the 92mm Panaflow serve there as a cooling for the cpu and the RAM at the same time for sure. Since my heatsink is in copper i suppose that the portion of it at the top of the ram will do a great job.

Do you think that will be enough ?

muddocktor

I think it should. I have the aluminum XP90 mounted the same way on a DFI NF3 250Gb board and even with 3.1-3.2v vdimm I don't feel the ram to be very warm. I'm using a 80mm TT SmartFan2 instead of the 92mm fan that came with it though.

Preacher

Good,
your other option would be to get an XP-120. As long as you don't have some huge ram, the fan will blow directly over DIMM #3 and #4. DIMMs #1 and #2 also get a significant amount of airflow as well.

Here's a picture..
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=23068

And the thread...
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=50963&highlight=DFI+XP120

Mt_Goat

Just remember that you want your memory in slots #2 and #4 (the orange ones). I have and XP-90 on mine and my dimms never feel more than slightly warm. If you wanted you could put a 120mm fand in your side panel and carefully line it up so as to blow directly on your XP-90 and ram. The other options listed so far with mounting a fan above the dimms works great too. Zallman makes a bracket that works for this.

lemonlime

With my watercooling, the socket area and dimms get very warm. Most of those new 92mm or 120mm thermalright sinks allow a lot of air to get to the socket area. I ghetto mounted a panaflow H1A directly to the rear of my case using twist ties, works well, and keeps the PWM IC down to 35 degrees instead of the ~60 degrees it was at previously. The dimms are cool to the touch now as well. Here I thought my system would be quieter with H2o, all I did was add more fans

GooD

First of all, i won't get a XP-120... I've never like the too-much huge size of it (Personnal choice) and i've read that it cause problem to a bunch of people because of it's size.

So i'll do with my XP-90C , i got my ram on orange slot so there's one a little 'out of range' for the heatsink but it's pretty close... I think i'll just add another silent 92mm fan over there, There's a piece of metal that go down the way on (near) the side-pannel, wich is there mainly to give 'support bracket' for pci slot and all those thing (thanks to Lian li v2000, it makes sure my precious X850 XT will never move ) But i think i'll use this piece of metal and put the additionnal fan on it, it'll be able to place it RIGHT OVER the RAM (in fact, right over the heatsink/fan and the other ram)

The only problem with this solution is that there will be some distance between the ram and the fan... something like 130 mm ... But anyway with the heatsink in the way that is mostly the closer that i can get heh

I think it will do the job , do you think so ?

Mt_Goat

That is a great plan! The distance will be fine because all you really need is a steady air flow more than hitting with a lot of force.

GooD

I think i'll try to put another 92mm fan near the chipset.

I go 29-30C (normal use) / 32C (load) for the cpu but ~40-43C(normal use) / ~47C (load)... I'll try the fan solution and if it does not work i'll remove the mb and use some as5 thermal paste on the chipset (i've read that the thermal paste use on it between the chip & the heatsink is very cheap...) and i should be set for temperature problem ... But i actually think a fan will be more than enough

EDIT : Normal use temp for chipset was wrong : it's start at 39C and go up to 43C stable in normal use... On load it go fast to 47C and seem stable at this temp. Not too hot, but i would like to see it some degree colder