RAMSinks

[patrickcyr]

Hi,

I plan to watercool my videocard and I would like to know wich kind of RAMSink do you suggest me to buy. I was thinking about the Tweakmonster BGA (http://www.frozencpu.com/ram-07.html) or the Swiftech MC14 Forged Cooper (http://www.frozencpu.com/vid-54.html) But I don't know nothing about RAMSink like if I have to buy it in Aluminium or copper, etc.

 

[waylander]

Hi,

I plan to watercool my videocard and I would like to know wich kind of RAMSink do you suggest me to buy. I was thinking about the Tweakmonster BGA (http://www.frozencpu.com/ram-07.html) or the Swiftech MC14 Forged Cooper (http://www.frozencpu.com/vid-54.html) But I don't know nothing about RAMSink like if I have to buy it in Aluminium or copper, etc.

You could always get a full coverage gpu water block like the Danger Den one, then you don't have to worry about ram sinks. If you don't like that route then any ram sink will be better than none, get copper as they conduct better.

 

[nick_000000]

These are good

 

[Kholonar]

Full coverage water blocks are rubbish.

1st strike they spread their cooling power over the whole of the gpu which is inefficient

2nd strike RAM sinks don't really need cooling

3rd strike whole coverage coolers are usually heavy and put immense stress on the psi express port.

 

[maury73]

You don't need any additional cooling solution for RAMs: they draw few hundreds milliwatt, don't bother about this.

 

[MCMONOPOLY]

Full coverage water blocks are rubbish.

1st strike they spread their cooling power over the whole of the gpu which is inefficient

2nd strike RAM sinks don't really need cooling

3rd strike whole coverage coolers are usually heavy and put immense stress on the psi express port.

This isn't to negate what you posted, but just to discuss some of your arguments:

1-How is that innefficient? Because almost all full cover GPU waterblocks are engineered expressly to be more efficient than normal air cooling solutions.
2-I don't quite get your point there..if you mean RAM modules don't really need cooling on his particular card, i agree, but on some of the higher end GFX card this feature is essential as at full load, RAM can output as much heat as the GPU itself.
3-Well in fact the little screws that are screwed in the case backplate when installing your card inside a case(because if you intend to use a tech's bench to permanantly store your computer, well that's another story) are exactly meant to counter this effect, even more so when you get a dual slot cooling solution as the card itself sports not 1 but 2 screw hole to cover both expansion slots.

 

[Kholonar]

Forgive me for the crudeness of my picture.

1)I would assume it's inefficient because the heat from the RAM that normally would have been thrown into the air enters your water cooling setup. Also, in the picture it seems that by routing it through the RAM you are gonna end up with the water heating up so that some of the GPU cooling will have warm water going over it. Finally, the extra turns needed will introduce extra pumping head required.

2)I cannot add anything more to point 2, it just seems that user experience says that the RAM malfunctions usually before it reaches TDP under high clocks. I suppose it makes sense, after all, you don't use water cooling to maintain your system RAM. Perhaps that's the future, maybe I should patent it.

3)Even with the back plate, water blocks require massive copper heatsinks which are extremely heavy. You could use aluminium but it appears enthusiasts would not accept this sacrifice. By extending the copper heatsink from the small GPU to the surrounding RAM you end up with a copper volume treblin or even quaddroupling. This will put a bending moment on the silicon and we all know silicon is brittle, it cannot handle tensile stress very well. The bending moment will be highest at the base of the card (where the card dimensions get smaller and the stress is concentrated on the connectors).

I base my views on MaxxxRacer's bible to custom water cooling setups:
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=54331

And here's a quote from the VGA section:
"The GPU waterblock is a nice option to have for all of us out there who like to overclock our video cards. There is not much to say on this topic, other than what to stay away from. My suggestion to you is to stay away from the big blocks that cover the GPU and the memory. These blocks are wholly inefficient and ignore the fact that simple ramsinks are more than enough to cool the memory. Generally these coolers run in the 100 dollar range (twice the cost of normal GPU coolers), and have considerable restriction on the system as well as having reduced performance. They are also 3-4x the weight of a standard cooler and provide considerable stress on the PCB of the video card. Overall there is nothing good about them, and should be stayed away from if at all possible."

 

[MCMONOPOLY]

Nice, for once somebody was able to invest in a discussion without getting all pissy about it.. I see your points, as for the pictures, it's way better than what i could've done using paint. Also i just replied to let you know that i'll come back later with some more input to discuss about because right now i have s**t loads of work to finish so thanks again for your input.