Ramsinks yay or nay?

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Budzman

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Jul 9, 2001
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Gonna be setting up my 7800's with DangerDen water blocks. However i'm not sure if I should get some ramsinks for the ram. I don't think they would really help that much but correct me if i'm wrong.
 
Well, ram overclocking is just as big a thing with videocards IMO as the core is. And watercooling won't do anything for the ram. I dropped like $18 on 8 ramsinks
 
Good to hear, I've got 8 arriving tomorrow. Is it a better idea to go 16? I mean both sides of the ram need cooling, but $40 is hard to justify.
 
n64man120 said:
Good to hear, I've got 8 arriving tomorrow. Is it a better idea to go 16? I mean both sides of the ram need cooling, but $40 is hard to justify.
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The last 3 video cards I've seen nekkid all only had 8 chip surfaces you could put sinks on.
pci-e 850xt 4 on each side
pci-e 6800gt all 8 on one side
7800gtx 4 on each side

I just got my OCZ's today for my 850xt
 
BigDaddy85 said:
ocz copper bga, they kick azz.
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in my oppinion theyre the only ones worth a damn...and they are absolutely necessary if your planning on watercooling your video card unless you get a water block that cools the ram as well
 
n64man120 said:
Good to hear, I've got 8 arriving tomorrow. Is it a better idea to go 16? I mean both sides of the ram need cooling, but $40 is hard to justify.
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You probably spent more on the GPU water block. Is the ram not as important?
 
No, I don't think it's as important. I think it's very important, but your talking $40 for some sinks compared to the $50 I dropped on a whole waterblock.
 
n64man120 said:
No, I don't think it's as important. I think it's very important, but your talking $40 for some sinks compared to the $50 I dropped on a whole waterblock.
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thats just cause they dont cost as much...thats like saying a car is more important than gasoline cuz it costs more when in reality they are just as important...
 
Adding a zalman hs to my southbridge got rid of sound clipping issues I had with my NF-7 so going by that logic they could help.
 
Ive read a lot of overclocking reviews and ive never heard someone say that ramsinks have significantany increased any overclock. ive heard a lot of reviewers say 0-15 mhz is what you could expect, although these were not 7800gtx's. Not worth 40$ IMHO
 
Budzman said:
Gonna be setting up my 7800's with DangerDen water blocks. However i'm not sure if I should get some ramsinks for the ram. I don't think they would really help that much but correct me if i'm wrong.
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On the 7800 cards you should run them. The ram gets very very hot even with them on. I would add them to ensure that the ram does not overheat with continued use. On a X850. You don't need them as the ram does not get hot. Both cards being cooled with Maze 4 GPU.

(BTW If you use DD Maze4 GPU Low Profile blocks for SLI you will need to cut down one ram sink per card as it hits on a fitting on the block. Using OCZ ramsinks)
 
AACDIRECT said:
On the 7800 cards you should run them. The ram gets very very hot even with them on. I would add them to ensure that the ram does not overheat with continued use. On a X850. You don't need them as the ram does not get hot. Both cards being cooled with Maze 4 GPU.

(BTW If you use DD Maze4 GPU Low Profile blocks for SLI you will need to cut down one ram sink per card as it hits on a fitting on the block. Using OCZ ramsinks)
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BULLSHIT....not only does my x850xt even when not overclocked require good ramsinks but it has to have good airflow over those ramsinks as well...i have a fan mounted in my side panel that blows directly across the ramsinks and one time i forgot to plug it in after some maintenence and after about 20 min of cs:s the game started artifacting like crazy and this is when the card was not oced....it is a big myth thats modern cards dont require ram cooling
 
CleanSlate said:
These are really good I hear

And $40?? wow. Take those back. 8 ramsinks wouldn't do anything... since all the ram is running at the same speeds. you'd have to have 16.

~Adam
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They' are the OCZ ones from the DangerDen site. All the chips will be cooled with 8, but 16 cools both sides of them.
 
cell_491 said:
BULLSHIT....not only does my x850xt even when not overclocked require good ramsinks but it has to have good airflow over those ramsinks as well...i have a fan mounted in my side panel that blows directly across the ramsinks and one time i forgot to plug it in after some maintenence and after about 20 min of cs:s the game started artifacting like crazy and this is when the card was not oced....it is a big myth thats modern cards dont require ram cooling
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I concur.. I have a 6800 ultra with ram at 1.2 ghz stock. It *will not* run without ram sinks. I had one come off and it would hard lock the computer after just a couple of minutes. I replaced the ram sink and I was back to blissfull stability.
 
dekard said:
I concur.. I have a 6800 ultra with ram at 1.2 ghz stock. It *will not* run without ram sinks. I had one come off and it would hard lock the computer after just a couple of minutes. I replaced the ram sink and I was back to blissfull stability.
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yup i had a 6800gt for awhile that would do the same thing if there was no airflow over the ramsinks
 
ram sinks do help.

but if you have zero airflow going over them, they can actually increase your rams temps.
 
I use Vantec Copper Heatspreaders. I don't know if they really help all that much if any, but what I do like about them is how they make the memory easier to handle during installation or removale. More area that's safe to touch. Plus they are asthetically pleasing.

That's for system ram. For video cards, I am betting there is some value as the OEM's have been installing them on just about every model card for awhile now.
 
From my experience setting up water cooling on my 6800 Ultra I found it to be a big pain in the ass using Vantec Iceberg RAM sinks. These sinks will probably have to be thermal pasted on because the thermal tape on it sucks. I had to buy arctic silver adhesive to get them to stay. Without a 80mm fan blowing cool air on the back of the card they get too hot to touch. If you don't want to add the heat into your loop then get sinks for both sides and a nice fan to blow air. Next time I'm getting a block that cools the ram because it's only a few bucks more and will be just as good if not more effective at cooling.
 
I got good airflow, 2 92mm fans blowing directly onto my cards from the side panel so that should help.

Gonna try the cards without them first then if there are overclocking problems i'll pick some up. I'll post results.
 
Budzman said:
I got good airflow, 2 92mm fans blowing directly onto my cards from the side panel so that should help.

Gonna try the cards without them first then if there are overclocking problems i'll pick some up. I'll post results.
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dude...dont risk it, seriously...do it right and put good ramsinks on your cards
 
Budzman said:
I got good airflow, 2 92mm fans blowing directly onto my cards from the side panel so that should help.

Gonna try the cards without them first then if there are overclocking problems i'll pick some up. I'll post results.
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thats a bad idea.. don't do it..
 
Budzman said:
I got good airflow, 2 92mm fans blowing directly onto my cards from the side panel so that should help.

Gonna try the cards without them first then if there are overclocking problems i'll pick some up. I'll post results.
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Let me be the third to say "have fun frying your cards." Let's put it this way, if the OEM puts heatsinks on a card for STOCK operation, how far do you think you're going to get without them? These people kind of do this for a living. For a lousy $25 you're going to risk burning out two $500+ cards? I'll stop there :rolleyes:
 
old thread, but i have a quick question, is this true?

"(BTW If you use DD Maze4 GPU Low Profile blocks for SLI you will need to cut down one ram sink per card as it hits on a fitting on the block. Using OCZ ramsinks)"

i was going to get these ocz sinks but i have the lp maze4 will they fit? maybe someone that uses the maze4 lp can help me out

thanks
 
xdkimx said:
old thread, but i have a quick question, is this true?

"(BTW If you use DD Maze4 GPU Low Profile blocks for SLI you will need to cut down one ram sink per card as it hits on a fitting on the block. Using OCZ ramsinks)"

i was going to get these ocz sinks but i have the lp maze4 will they fit? maybe someone that uses the maze4 lp can help me out

thanks
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I am the one that posted that. Un-modded they will not fit. One memory module on both X1K and 7800 GTX series are under the fittings. (on 7800 GT it is two per card.) The ramsink will hit the fitting. You will have to take a dremel and cut down the sink for clearance.

The zalman ramsinks come with both low profile and normal profile ramsinks. They fit with no modification.

http://www.aacdirect.com/Itemdesc.asp?ic=FAN+ZMRHS1&tpc=&SR=

They are what I use now. I have seen no difference between them and the copper OCZ sinks in performance. On ATI cards they do not even get warm. On NV cards they are slightly warm but not that bad. (My system ram gets warmer.)

Also make sure that the ram is very clean so the thermal tape will stick. On ATI cards it does not take much to clean them. On NV cards the thermal pads on the stock HSF seems silicon based (Like silicon lube) and tend to cause the tape to not stick well. I use GooGone, then 90% rubbing alcohol twice. However you do it make sure it is very clean as having a ramsink fall off one card onto the other one in SLI would be bad when they are running.

Hope this helps.
 
if you get them dont get vantec ones.

they SUCK.

they made my ram clock WORSE. they have like 2mm tall fins, and the rest is solid copper..

and the adhesive sucks so much, today i fired up ati tool for 3 minutes, and twisted all 8 off, with ease.
 
thanks for your responses, i canceled my ocz ramsink order from newegg and went with the zalmans :)
 
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