Heat Spreaders on DDR... Your Opinion?

**Doctor Feelgood**

What do you think about DDR heatspreaders? In general, I think its a good idea, but not executed properly. That foam tape between the chips and the copper/aluminum has to have some insulative properties, and I almost feel like exposure to the air might be better than tape. If the copper was brought into contact with the chips by some better means, it would be much more effective!!

Also, I know you have some brands that use a heatspreader and sticker saying "warranty void if removed" to hide low grade chips!

I want to know what you think about heatspreaders!!

This all stems from this thread: HERE - Where at least one person is a little to adamant about his mis-information. (can you figure out who I am in that thread... Laughing

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trekrider · Posted: Tue, 14 Oct 2003 13:40:31 Post Subject:

Personaly I thought the "Active" cooling would do OK!

BeerCheeze · Posted: Tue, 14 Oct 2003 13:54:54 Post Subject:

Nice... looks good... but not 100% required. MIGHT add a few Mhz's in a major OC... I wouldn't bet my system on it though.

**Doctor Feelgood** · Posted: Tue, 14 Oct 2003 14:02:49 Post Subject:

Be sure to read that thread where the one guy laughs at me for suggesting its a gimmick to hide poor quality chips, and then he claims I'm wrong about the foam tape because they all mount with "heatsink compound"... He then gives an example, which very obviously uses foam tape, and when I point this out and that no one uses heatsink compound, he says to just change it from tape to heatsink compound yourself... Bang Head

Sad thing is, people are thanking him for his advice over there!!

He has more posts than me, so he MUST be smarter!! Rolling Eyes

Charlie · Posted: Tue, 14 Oct 2003 16:15:52 Post Subject:

Heatspreaders are a waste because you are only adding a piece of aluminum with no fins; that may spread the heat out some but look at the space between/around the chips and you'll see that there isn't much place for the heat to "spread" to. And using HS compound isn't worth a darn as it needs x amount of compression force to operate correctly; the clips used to hold the spreaders on do not exert that type of force. If you feel spreaders are the shnitz, try thermally-conductive epoxy with the proper pressure applied while it's curing but sinks are better. Spot-cooling with a fan works very well, also, as it eliminates dead/hot air pockets.

Dud3! · Posted: Tue, 14 Oct 2003 16:36:15 Post Subject:

I think they're basically worthless. I took the spreader off my *cough*OCZ PC150*cough* and it had not one, but TWO strips of thick tape on each side between the chips and the spreader.

It also had a warranty voiding sticker on it from the place I bought it. The blue anodized spreader faded away to nothing after a month or so, and I doubt it was really OCZ RAM now that I think about it.

As for my Corsair XMS PC2700, I don't know. I haven't removed it. Ideally, I would have really thin heatsinks glued to each chip with AS TA, but alas, I don't have enough matching 'sinks to do it. Since it's running at 200MHz, 5-3-3-2.5, maybe I shouldn't mess with it eh? Laughing

IceNine · Posted: Tue, 14 Oct 2003 17:02:47 Post Subject:

Looks like I unintentionally voted with the majority. I'd have to say the heatspreaders on my old GEIL RAM didn't do anything. It was clocked at 3200, and I only got it to 3500. My old Kingston 2700 was able to hit 3500 no problem.

**JimBowy** · Moderator Joined: 02 Aug 2003 Posts: 1627

i've read reviews comparing ddr with spreaders vs. those without spreaders... and it turned out there was very little performance difference (when OCing)

but, if i get spreaders for the same price as non-spreader DDR you can bet your shorts im getting the spreader... Razz

Charlie · Posted: Tue, 14 Oct 2003 19:04:39 Post Subject:

T-shirt · Posted: Wed, 15 Oct 2003 02:20:41 Post Subject:

Hmm, I think that they have little real world effect even if we assume that the "foam tape is really TIM and they spread the heat out to 3-5 times the surface area (which could be effective, if not for all the "void", brand , and spec labels covering them. What started as a way to help highly factory overclocked chips , now is mostly a marketing gimmick to make them pretty