Ram Slots in Dual Channel and my Cpu Cooler

[Nitrosity]

hey - i just bought an antec 902, and decided to fill it with an i5-750 with a Titan Fenrir V2 cooler, and some G.Skill RipJaw 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C8 1600MHz on a Gigabyte GA-P55A-UD3 Intel P55A DDR3 Motherboard. I didnt get any further than installing before i ran into some problems. I whacked in my ram, and then thumbed in my cpu then set about screwing in this huge cpu cooler on top. My problem was that my heatsink was sitting on top of my ram, and this made it impossible to attach the fan to the heatsink. Now, the way i see it, i have 2 options.
a) move the ram from slots 1 and 3 to slots to slots 2 and 4,
b) rotate the fan 90 degrees.

Thing is i can see problems with both solutions. Even though the motherboard and ram are dual channel, wont moving to slots 2 and 4 sacrafice optimum settings, and im pretty sure a pc wont boot unless theres something in slot 1.
And rotating the fan will disrupt the air flow? and it will be a pain in the butt to refit that heatsink? What direction was this heatsink supposed to be pointing in the first place? cos my heatsink is pointed towards my gpu slot anyway..
i have some pictures i can upload if needed

soz 4 essay thanks for help

 

[delluser1]

wont moving to slots 2 and 4 sacrafice optimum settings

Nope

 

[Nitrosity]

ok then. lol thanks

 

[Nitrosity]

can any1 tell me the best direct to have the fan going - mine is like this:

 

[JackNaylorPE]

If you use RAM with heat sinks, and I'd say do that only if OC'ing above 4 GHz w/ RAM speeds at 1600 or above I'd recommend the low profile ones like Mushkin uses....otherwise, I'd suggest no coolers at all.

Best fan config is front to back.....blowing up is OK assuming you have a top of case exhaust fan.

Page 16 of your manual says: "When enabling dial channel mode with two memory modules, be sure to install them in DDR3_1 and DDR3_3 sockets." These are the 2nd and 4th sockets going left to right from your CPU.

It would seem that you have the RAM in the wrong slots as, if you're hitting the HSF, I would expect it would be hitting in the DDR3_2 socket which is the closest one to the CPU....you don't want the RAM in the 1st and 3rd sockets (again moving left to right) anyway.

Here's some very bad ascii artwork .... bold slots get the RAM
__________
|....................|..........|D|..|D|.......|D|..|D|
|....................|..........|D|..|D|.......|D|..|D|
|....................|..........|R|..|R|.......|R|..|R|
|....................|..........|3|..|3|.......|3|..|3|
|....................|..........|- |..|-|.......|-|..|-|
|__________|..........|2|..|1|.......|4|..|3|

CPU

 

[Crashman]

If you use RAM with heat sinks, and I'd say do that only if OC'ing above 4 GHz w/ RAM speeds at 1600 or above I'd recommend the low profile ones like Mushkin uses....otherwise, I'd suggest no coolers at all.

Best fan config is front to back.....blowing up is OK assuming you have a top of case exhaust fan.

Page 16 of your manual says: "When enabling dial channel mode with two memory modules, be sure to install them in DDR3_1 and DDR3_3 sockets." These are the 2nd and 4th sockets going left to right from your CPU.

It would seem that you have the RAM in the wrong slots as, if you're hitting the HSF, I would expect it would be hitting in the DDR3_2 socket which is the closest one to the CPU....you don't want the RAM in the 1st and 3rd sockets (again moving left to right) anyway.

Here's some very bad ascii artwork .... bold slots get the RAM
__________
|....................|..........|D|..|D|.......|D|..|D|
|....................|..........|D|..|D|.......|D|..|D|
|....................|..........|R|..|R|.......|R|..|R|
|....................|..........|3|..|3|.......|3|..|3|
|....................|..........|- |..|-|.......|-|..|-|
|__________|..........|2|..|1|.......|4|..|3|

CPU

AWESOME ANSWER JACK! I was just about to say the same thing when to my amazement, somebody beat me to it! I just closed out of another thread where a guy was complaining that his motherboard wouldn't boot so he sent it back...and I didn't even bother to respond since he'd already sent it back. Oh boy...

But then Jack steps in and saves everyone!

 

[Nitrosity]

If you use RAM with heat sinks, and I'd say do that only if OC'ing above 4 GHz w/ RAM speeds at 1600 or above I'd recommend the low profile ones like Mushkin uses....otherwise, I'd suggest no coolers at all.

Best fan config is front to back.....blowing up is OK assuming you have a top of case exhaust fan.

Page 16 of your manual says: "When enabling dial channel mode with two memory modules, be sure to install them in DDR3_1 and DDR3_3 sockets." These are the 2nd and 4th sockets going left to right from your CPU.

It would seem that you have the RAM in the wrong slots as, if you're hitting the HSF, I would expect it would be hitting in the DDR3_2 socket which is the closest one to the CPU....you don't want the RAM in the 1st and 3rd sockets (again moving left to right) anyway.

Here's some very bad ascii artwork .... bold slots get the RAM
__________
|....................|..........|D|..|D|.......|D|..|D|
|....................|..........|D|..|D|.......|D|..|D|
|....................|..........|R|..|R|.......|R|..|R|
|....................|..........|3|..|3|.......|3|..|3|
|....................|..........|- |..|-|.......|-|..|-|
|__________|..........|2|..|1|.......|4|..|3|

CPU

im sorry but that just confused the crap out of me. - if u look in this picture :



isn't the ram in the right place?

 

[Crashman]

im sorry but that just confused the crap out of me. - if u look in this picture :

[url]http://img535.imageshack.us/img535/4130/p1010767k.th.jpg[/URL]

isn't the ram in the right place?

Yes, it is, but why do you have the cooler mounted in that direction? It's supposed to have the fan on the RAM side? I don't know why you'd want to suck hot air off the graphics card to cool the CPU.

 

[Nitrosity]

Yes, it is, but why do you have the cooler mounted in that direction? It's supposed to have the fan on the RAM side? I don't know why you'd want to suck hot air off the graphics card to cool the CPU.

i did it that way cos the final picture that it gave for the installation of the titan fenrir had the fan mounted in that direction too - if i have to redo - should i re-apply the heatsink paste? if so what should i use to clean it? (all the paste is the same) - so the preferred direction is out towards the back of the case?

 

[Crashman]

i did it that way cos the final picture that it gave for the installation of the titan fenrir had the fan mounted in that direction too - if i have to redo - should i re-apply the heatsink paste? if so what should i use to clean it? (all the paste is the same) - so the preferred direction is out towards the back of the case?

Yes, that's why most cases have an exhaust fan on the back. If your paste is still fresh you probably don't need to reapply it.

Here's a photo:

 

[Nitrosity]

sorry - my last question - youve been so helpful, how what time period classifies fresh paste?

thanks

 

[Crashman]

sorry - my last question - youve been so helpful, how what time period classifies fresh paste?

thanks

If its still soft and gooey, it's probably fresh enough

 

[Nitrosity]

thanks - since my ram is in the right place ill go rotate my fan... i hope i have enough paste left cos i put the fan opn a few days ago :/

thanks again!

 

[Nitrosity]

ok
new problem. i rotated the heatsink and fan and put them facing the direction shown in crashman's photo - heatsink went on without a hitch but the fan itself is sitting right on top of the ram now, which is in the slots shown in crashmans im age aswell.
at a loss - whats my next step

 

[Crashman]

ok
new problem. i rotated the heatsink and fan and put them facing the direction shown in crashman's photo - heatsink went on without a hitch but the fan itself is sitting right on top of the ram now, which is in the slots shown in crashmans im age aswell.
at a loss - whats my next step

Did you try sliding the fan up so it sits above the RAM without pushing against it?

 

[Nitrosity]

Did you try sliding the fan up so it sits above the RAM without pushing against it?

from what i vcan tell - the fan doesnt displace the ram in anyway - but theres about a half inch gap at the top of the fan where it doesnt meet any heatsink, and if it stays like that the fan wont cover the whole heatsink which will result in worse performance right?

 

[Crashman]

from what i vcan tell - the fan doesnt displace the ram in anyway - but theres about a half inch gap at the top of the fan where it doesnt meet any heatsink, and if it stays like that the fan wont cover the whole heatsink which will result in worse performance right?

Yes, but I think you can tolerate the tiny difference in airflow.

 

[JDFan]

Another option that many people use on those type of RAM modules is to take a dremel to the RAM heatsink and cut off the portion that is in the way -- Figure for the most part RAM heatsinks are just eyecandy and do not really provide that much cooling anyway -- Plus having the CPU fan just above them pulling cool air over the RAM is going to provide sufficient cooling anyway so removing or trimming the heatsink on the RAM module will not effect the temp or performance !! (Of course be sure you are only trimming the Heatsink and not the RAM module itself !!)

 

[Nitrosity]

Another option that many people use on those type of RAM modules is to take a dremel to the RAM heatsink and cut off the portion that is in the way -- Figure for the most part RAM heatsinks are just eyecandy and do not really provide that much cooling anyway -- Plus having the CPU fan just above them pulling cool air over the RAM is going to provide sufficient cooling anyway so removing or trimming the heatsink on the RAM module will not effect the temp or performance !! (Of course be sure you are only trimming the Heatsink and not the RAM module itself !!)

i dont think my ram has a heatsink... not that i can see anyway

and i managed to get the fan on but it still sits on the ram, although i dont think it displaces the ram.. still worried tho :/

 

[JDFan]

i dont think my ram has a heatsink... not that i can see anyway

and i managed to get the fan on but it still sits on the ram, although i dont think it displaces the ram.. still worried tho :/

Meant Heatspreader - the blue portion shown in the Pic is an aluminum heat spreader that is placed on the module to move heat from the RAM chips - the Ripjaws have those fancy Teeth like raised portions for the Look they really serve little purpose and will get in the way of larger CPU coolers -- You can trim them off with a dremel or similar to get them out of the way without effecting the Ram module or the cooling. (In fact Tom's has reported that the heatspreaders overall even actually hurt the cooling and have found better temps on modules without the heatspreader on them - most likely due to the CPU cooler pulling enough cool air over them while pulling in air for the CPU heatsink.)

While other Modules use heatspreaders more like this :

That do not have those protrusions that get in the way !!

 

[Nitrosity]

i see! ill bear that in mind in future.. well ill have to see if it runs as it is first and if not then ill look into it. THANKS!