News Buckle up! Apacer launches seat belt for RAM sticks — protection for DIMMs from vibration damage

[Admin]

Apacer, a memory and storage manufacturer, has announced a new “seat belt” rugged retention strip to hold DIMM modules in place for “Edge AI” use cases subject to heavy vibrations, including long transit hauls.

Buckle up! Apacer launches seat belt for RAM sticks — protection for DIMMs from vibration damage : Read more

 

[Notton]

Is this a real problem? Because when I look up "ram knocked loose during transport", 100% of the search results are for the pickup truck.

 

[Krieger-San]

Is this a real problem? Because when I look up "ram knocked loose during transport", 100% of the search results are for the pickup truck.

Former systems builder here - no it really isn't.
The only time we'd ever see RAM not fully seated was due to a phenomenon called 'chip creep'. This refers to the 'creepage' of circuit boards that are connected to a motherboard that experience heating and cooling cycles very regularly (more than once a day, for several years). Heating and cooling creates expansion and contraction of the two separated boards at different rates, which creates a microscopic movement between the boards. Over time, they will eventually creep out of the socket.

This is a rare condition, and personally, I feel like this is just a waste of materials. What would make so much more sense to me would be to re-introduce the dual latch DIMM slots again instead of those ultra cheap one-sided latching DIMM slots. The whole point of the dual latch was to prevent chip creep by physically holding the DIMM with a plastic latch perpendicular to the board, creating a physical brace to prevent the board from lifting out of the DIMM slot.

P.S. - You almost always see dual latch DIMM slots on server hardware, where they don't skimp as much.

 

[hotaru251]

the ram lock mechanism is arguably the strognest "hold" in a system outside stuff actually screwed down.

look at the amount of force it takes to seat em and tell me thats coming lose if done properly :|

 

[eichwana]

In the 20 years I’ve built and shipped computers, I’ve never seen RAM come loose during shipping.

Heavy graphics cards and CPU coolers yes, but not RAM.