When Rambus memory was used the heatspreaders had a temperature warning on them. Doe's anyone know whether the modern ddr3 actually requires any form of heatsink? Are there any actual wattage figures for ram? Are the heatsinks there just to impress the gullible and make more money for the manufacturers? Do servers use heatsinks to achieve maximum reliability?
For the average user - they are more show tbh.
Pushing a shedload of volts through modules for the common user is not the norm. Even hardcore benchers use only one module at a time.
Servers typically use low profile ECC Ram. When in large banks, every little bit of heat mitigation helps.
They can help to equalize the heat across the DIMM chips, they are called heat spreader for RAM. I have a test bed where no air is blown on the RAM and they get quite hot. I placed a tiny 40mm fan on them and they are fine. Inside a case there will be air from other fans cooling them.
Modern RAM modules do not require a heatsink for operation under normal conditions. Rambus memory (RDRAM) had high performance for it's time and a heatsink was necessary with the existing technology. Much has changed since then.
Depends on the airflow inside the case. If you have a lot of flow then they probably don't do a lot, minimal airflow, then you need all the help you can get to dissipate heat. Some of the new super fast RAM ships with a clip-on RAM cooler, normally 2 or 3 small 40-50mm fans in a aluminum frame.Doe's anyone know whether the modern ddr3 actually requires any form of heatsink?
Most run at 1.50 +/- volts, some will run as high as 1.65 volt.Are there any actual wattage figures for ram?
In my opinion ram heat sinks on todays ram is good as long as the case has good air flow across the motherboard and ram.
I have used ram air coolers and found out they are not need if you have good case air flow. Other than looks.
If I had a system with old Rambus ram I would have a added fan for ram cooling.
The big advantage we have today is a large quantity of quality cases with good air flow. Years ago that wasn't the true.
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