copper or aluminum?

tmh88

I know copper conducts better, but for ram heatsinks would it make much of a difference? I'm buying a watercooling kit and since it includes a GPU block I'm going to get some heatsinks for the ram chips on the card. Anyway between these copper ramsinks http://www.xoxide.com/ramsink1.html , and these aluminum ramsinks http://www.xoxide.com/ramsink.html , would there be much of a difference. Do you think there is a noticible difference between the two? (and no i dont care about the $1 price difference, I'm just wondering just for the hell of it....come on guys im not that cheap :tongue2: )

Nightwolf

I'd go with the copper just b/c it disperses heat better than alluminum. Even though i've never really been able to notice a difference with any heatsinks on the ram chips of a vid card!

tmh88

Yea I just want to be safe, especially since I'm going to be overclocking. I was planning on buying the copper because it seems to be better than aluminum.

Mt_Goat

Copper absorbs heat faster but takes more airflow to get rid of it.
Aluminum disapates heat faster but does not absorb it quite as fast.

In a "passive" situtation it is truely a touch call as to which is best.

lemonlime

mtgoat brings up some good points.. As a general rule of thumb, lower airflow situations seem to favor aluminum a bit, and higher airflow does much better with copper. If there is not going to be a fan over them, it may be best to stick with aluminum.

GHoosdum

I agree with the above statements. Particularly on a ramsink application, aluminum seems to be a better choice for both the lower cost and the lower airflow reasons.

Mt_Goat

This is why through the evolution of CPU heatsinks they have gone from aluminum to copper to a mix with a large copper base connected to a large aluminum finned area via heatpipes. Due to space considerations both VGA ramsinks and DIMM heat-spreaders cannot truely take advantage of the latest in cooling technology. It may also be worth mentioning that neither requires a very high amount of cooling unless there have been mods done to significantly increase the heat levels produced. System memory with under 3.0 volts is just fine in a well ventilated case. VGA memory is fine on all cards without any kind of hardware mods done to them in a case with good airflow. If you notice the key in all situations is good case ventilation and airflow! That said, I feel that unless you are doing it for appearance you will be fine without doing anything other than improving your case air situation.

good day

muddocktor

Another point to ponder is the added weight of copper ramsinks versus aluminum, especially since you are going to watercool the gpu too with a block that is likely heavier than the stock aircooler. Aslo, you might want to measure the length and width of the ram used on your vid card. Both of the ramsinks you linked to look to be a bit big for modern bga ram chips; they are made to fit the older style ram chips. Also, 6 mm isn't very tall and won't give you much in the way of surface area for cooling purposes.

I think that if you want to go copper, then these Swiftech MC14 BGA Memory Ramsinks for around $20 plus shipping would be great. Swiftech is known for their quality products and they have enough surface area to do some good too.

Zuntar

Very good advice given in the ^ posts.

Leonardo

Due to space considerations both VGA ramsinks and DIMM heat-spreaders cannot truely take advantage of the latest in cooling technology. It may also be worth mentioning that neither requires a very high amount of cooling unless there have been mods done to significantly increase the heat levels produced.

There is much conjecture and anecdotal musings concerning RAM chipss' effectiveness on system memory modules. There has been some controlled, systematic testing that shows at most a 3% performance gain can be had with RAM cooled with heatspreaders. I haven't seen any controlled tests concerning RAM chips on the modules.