Now on first impression you get a little gasp of breath that leaves you thinking ‘wtf?’ Then as you unpack them from their little cardboard backed packets you get a feeling or something extra special. I didn’t have any ram left to test these on as they all have ram cooling fitted. Taking heatsinks off can be a real pain and I have known some people break ram taking it off.

Time for new ram then!

I wanted to upgrade some ram in one of our web servers, and this was the perfect time to do it. I hunted around for generic ram or value ram, and found really good mid range variants with no heatsinks offering the same specs as higher ones with heatsinks on a four ply board. To be honest it was so cheap if I had not ordered it men in white coats with a funny jacket that goes on back to front would have come for me in the night!

The ram was ordered, arrived the very next day, thank you Aria.co.uk and then the ram sinks were added. I bought dual sided ram, so I needed to opt for the thinner thermal pads to allow the correct spacing. You simply stick them to the ram, then the heatsinks taking care to align the metal plates as they interlock holding the correct distances, all retained by a clip to keep it all together.

We had to have some temperature tests, before the heatsinks went on, and this web server works hard. The server is running SQL, Vmware, FTP and php. Its in constant use and is fairly well loaded from early evening to well into the early hours. Heat varies, I will stress that, and the server load varies, so the relative heat output varies with it. I took random temperature readings every 45-60 minutes, and didn’t do it through the case top. I stopped one of the front feed fans and shot the laser through to the ram from there. Ingenious!! The temperature range was 25 degrees to 43 degrees.

The next thing was the fitting of the heatsinks. I had opted for applying the thermal pads to the ram on the first one, but to be honest on the second opted to apply the pad to the heatsink then add that to the ram. For me it just made it all easier to fit and align so the clips went right on.

Make sure the ram is orientated right so that the fins face outwards away from the heatsink for the CPU. Otherwise you may find it tight to get everything in, especially if you have a larger heatsink on the processor. Also make sure the two fin plates align together, check you know how they go before you stick any thermal pads in place. If its right it will be a really simple process, if you don’t understand how they fit, do NOT stick anything in.

The server after fitting the ram again was booted in and put back online. Closely followed by a barrage of emails asking what happened to the server. :D Sorry folks, I forgot to post a downtime message. It’s all for the benefit of the server, if it helps excuse my actions.

The average heat tests were not done until the server had a good 24 hours running. This puts it back in its typical heat pattern and then testing began at the same evening intervals. The average temperature was taken once again. The lowest heat point was 23 degrees, not much of a difference, but that’s more of an idling speed than a running speed. The top running speed achieved was 36-38 degrees. On standard ram it doesn’t sound like a lot, but on clocked ram that certainly would offer greater stability, better ram cooling and the potential to clock it higher.

If you have single or double sided ram, cheap stuff or top grade ram, the heatsinks with fins makes all the difference, I took the heatsinks off my best ram and got a few extra mhz out of it solely by using the different heatsinks. (We had two sets sent)  The fin design, although unusual certainly does work. Its stylish in design, colour and the simple fitting process makes it so appealing. I like them; I like the whole package you get and its so simple but effective. Top marks and an award for such a great and fascinating product!