| CoolIT Systems RAM Fan and PCI Cooling Booster
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Installation and Operation:
I assumed installation would be a breeze and that the testing portion of the review, focused on the decrease in temperature provided to system components thanks to the coolers from CoolIT Systems, would be the part that seemed like work. What wound up being the actual focus of the review was finding a system where I could actually use both of these products. I ran into many obstacles that prevented the use of both coolers, and it became clear that there are numerous factors to consider before purchasing either item.
Starting with the RAM Fan, I found two main issues. The one that would impact most people is the amount of free space available around the memory sockets. In one system I tried (an ABIT AW8D motherboard in a Thermaltake Mozart case), the optical drives overhung the memory slots and there wasn't enough room for installation. In another system (an ASUS K8N-DL motherboard in a Thermaltake Armor case), the memory slots were too close to the processor heatsink (Thermalright Ultra 90) to allow the RAM Fan to be installed. And in a third system (an ECS RC410L motherboard in an In Win BT611 mATX case), the processor, power supply, and drive cage were all too close.
The second issue with the RAM Fan is with the style of the memory heatspreader. You either need to have memory with no heatspreader at all, or a very compact design for normal use. Since all of my DDR2 based systems had been eliminated due to other interference issues, I was down to one last system that happened to use DDR memory, and the only sticks on hand had the oversized Corsair XMS LED heatspreader. The RAM Fan is designed to snap into the notch on the end of the memory, but with this specialty DDR it just doesn't reach. I wound up having to use this memory, and let the RAM Fan grab into one of the notches higher up on the heatspreader. If I stretched the RAM Fan too far down on this memory I either made the fan bottom out on the heatspreader, or the aluminum frame of the RAM Fan flexed so much that the fan warped and made hideous noises while spinning.
The main issue with the PCI Cooling Booster involved the size/format of the case. As the published data states, this is for use only with "any standard 7 slot PCI bay". That means no mATX cases, no cases with braces over the expansion slot area, and pretty much no cases with tool-less expansion slots. One system (with the ASUS K8N-DL motherboard in a Thermaltake Armor case) failed because one processor sits to close to the expansion slot area and the tool-less system wasn't going to be easy to modify. Another system (with the ABIT AW8D motherboard in a Thermaltake Mozart case) failed because a brace runs over the expansion slots to hold the hard drive cage). Any mATX case will fail because you must have seven expansion slots for the PCI Cooling Booster to span. Since the RAM FAN had already reduced my choices to the DDR based system, I was hell bent to make the PCI Cooling Booster work there, too. The case this system was hosed in is a Cooler Master iTower 930 that has both a tool-less expansion slot system and a brace running over the cards that holds a duct to the CPU cooler. The duct would have to be eliminated, and the tool-less system would have to be eliminated on two slots, but it just might work.
The images below show the RAM Fan installed on the system eventually used for testing, where the cooler's frame had to be stretched a bit to get it to grab onto the unique heatspreader of the Corsair DDR.
 
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