RAM cooling - is it worth it?

Right I've got 4 x 1Gb Corsair XMS3 pc3-1066 (1333mhz) c9 dhx.

I've put a thermal sensor in between the modules and it reports temp of 33 degrees idle, but as high as 56 during gaming.

Also, due to the configuration of my cpu cooler, the fan is sucking air straight from where the ram is, so in effect sucking hot air from the ram into the cpu heatsink.

First question : Would the corsair fans fit over the dhx modules.
2nd : Would it impinge on the airflow into the cpu heatsink? I don't want it sucking the cold air from the front of the case thats intended for the cpu...

Or, should I use one of those antec spot coolers?

Which is the most effective you guys think?

Antec SpotCool is probably your best option. Fan is larger than other RAM coolers and can be set up to cool other things in the air wash.

yeah, but I don't want it to be too obstructive and large, as I don't want it depriving the cpu fan. And I haven't got anything else to cool.

Think I'll need to post a pic of the insides of the case, I can't explain it in words.

EDIT - also, does the corsair fan cover all slots?

cje said:

- also, does the corsair fan cover all slots?

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I'm waiting for my "CORSAIR DOMINATOR AIRFLOW MEMORY COOLER 3 FANS" to arrive, but yes this one covers all four slots (as I think most do).

cool cool, pardon the pun.

i had the corsair fan with my 2x2gb dominators and it seemed to block a fair bit of my CPU fan so im not using it at the moment. But as i have 2 sticks i have a bit of a gap between ram so they dont heat each other up and 2 sticks uses less volts so would be cooler neway.

if you overclcock the ram yeah, it helps a lot, if not, why bother.?

Apparently the Corsair ram cooler is louder than God's klaxon.

I've been told if you want active RAM cooling, the OCZ one is the way to go (2x60mm fans, not 3x40mm as in the corsair), but in general active ram cooling is not worth it.

Having been convinced of this myself, i'm just going to get some new heatspreaders and leave it like that.

Well I'm sure I have been having probs with the Ram getting too hot, not really overclocked, plus I need extra cooling in the case anyway and they cool the MOBO a bit as well. We'll see when mine finally arrives.

I bought a RAM cooler, only the thing won't fit because of the VGA card and CPU heat sink.

There isn't any room on a board to have RAM cooling, wasted £25.00!

Never Again.

Get Ram with copper heat pipe or other built in cooling on the heatspreader, unless going watercooled.

But any so called RAM FAN, waste of time and money!

1dmf said:

I bought a RAM cooler, only the thing won't fit because of the VGA card and CPU heat sink.

There isn't any room on a board to have RAM cooling, wasted £25.00!

Click to expand...

I bet you work in a planning department.

These days, you often find RAM that needs active cooling at stock - Ballistix of any sort, high spec DDR2 or DDR3 and so on. Usually where the manufacturer is selling an over-volted high performance product.

For boggers RAM, why bother.

And if you think the Corsair 3x40mm fans are loud, try just one Delta 40mm - shifts a roomful of air in about 2 seconds at about 100dB lol.

I like the gentle, constant hum of the fans anyway, sends me into a relaxed trance almost like constant meditation, I'll be a Buddha soon at this rate

The only thing is, when I have my music blasting I can't hear them.

i have the corsair fan with my 4x1gb dominators

removed it as it blocks a fair bit of my CPU fan

pretty useless imo, and the size of those fans is a joke, doesnt really provide any decent cooling, may as well stick an extra 120mm inside the case that would be better option

stone_cold_Jimi said:

These days, you often find RAM that needs active cooling at stock - Ballistix of any sort, high spec DDR2 or DDR3 and so on. Usually where the manufacturer is selling an over-volted high performance product.

Click to expand...

That describes my situation as I have OCZ dual channel DDR2 8500 and the first two have been sent RMA So have a new set in while I wait, so will eventually have four. And I definitely think four of those will need active cooling, even at stock. At the moment I'm having to run them at 666.7mhz (2.1v) as when I set them to 1066 I get occasional BSOD. Not sure exactly why but I'm trying cooling first and work from there.

Btw, my RMA ones can take up to 2.3v but these new ones I bought over the net have the 2.1v sticker on so means I can't overvolt them? Which is a bugger if so.

well I have OCZ dual channel DDR2 9200 Reaper HPC , they are so close to each other in the slots, there is no hope in hell of putting cooling on them, what with the Zalman CPU fan and the GTX260 VGA, i don't see where the fan is supose to fit.

I haven't needed to cool them, they have Heat Pipe Cooling built in and my case has 8 fans in it any way, so I see no need to try an add any more over the memory

8 fans ought to be enough then.

and that 8 wasn't including the Zalman CPU fan or PSU fan

It has 1 fan in top of case, 2 at back below PSU, 4 in the side and 1 in the front for HD drive bays.

I know the NZXT Zero got some bad comments when I asked OC's if I should get it, and yes I cut myself bad when trying to remove the case front to fit the floppy when I built the PC first time round.

But as a case that keeps my stuff cool, i'm very happy indeed Pretty quite all things considered also.

Well, in th end, I bought one. It seriously helped me get my 4gb of corsair XMS3 pc3-1066 c9DHX up to 1556 mhz. I'm pumping 1.9 volts into them, and they're running sweetly there. And, it doesn't make any noise at all, cus I'm using it in conjuction with Q-Fan and a thermal probe, so if my temps starts to rise during heavy gaming, the fans might increase in speed a bit. But with a total of 8 case fans, 2 gpu fans, 2 cpu fans they don't really add much as far as noise is concerned in my rig.

DampCat said:

Apparently the Corsair ram cooler is louder than God's klaxon.

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You're not wrong! Ended up taking mine out and living with the higher temps. If you like your pc nice and quiet, don't bother with these. They do cool very well though if you don't mind the additional noise.