[SOLVED] Why did trimming PCB kill ram?

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tony95i

tony95i

Mar 18, 2019
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I trimmed the edge of a stick DDR4 to resolve a clearance issue and the stick seems to be dead. The only thing on the edge was a single gold dot, I didn't think it was important but guess I was wrong. What is the gold dot and what does it do? See far left of image below.
BLS2K8G4D26BFSEK.jpg
 
Solution
Rogue Leader
tony95i said:
No, I would not expect the designer to anticipate someone trimming the PCB, but seems that if they could make ram a little less wide that there might be a market for it. I am sure it is possible, but probably takes a little more thought on their part. The only low profile DDR4 that I have seen is ECC server memory and it is trimmed at that location as well as being very short.

He referred to the PSU as light, how does that speak to quality?

Yes, x264 encoding pushes your CPU to near 100% for extended periods of time and with a mild overclock it does generate a bit of heat. I don't really want to listen to fans running full speed for hours at a time so a custom water loop keeps it check pretty well even with 120mm fans set below...
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13thmonkey said:
PCB's are layered, so there is structure within the thickness. And gold is pricey, so they only put it where they need to. I've no idea what that gold dot does, but I guarantee it won't be there for no reason.
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Odd place for it at the top edge of the PCB. Hope someone has an idea why it would be there and what is its purpose.
 
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It might be one end of a connection that runs through several layers joining them together. If you are thinking about fixing it, i give you no better than a 10% chance of that working.

However the question hasn't been asked yet, why do you have a clearance problem?
 
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13thmonkey said:
It might be one end of a connection that runs through several layers joining them together. If you are thinking about fixing it, i give you no better than a 10% chance of that working.

However the question hasn't been asked yet, why do you have a clearance problem?
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I installed a fan and radiator and it is pushing on the ram slot. I literally need about a millimeter to clear it. Right now it is installed and running fine but there is some pressure on the ram slot. I guess it is going to have to stay that way since I can't seem to find any low profile DDR4 and all sticks seem to have the same or greater width.
 
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13thmonkey said:
Would one lower profile 140/120mm fan do the job? Going to be a nice looking system, a bit light on the PSU side?
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No, low profile fans are noisy and that would defeat my primary objective which is to reduce noise. The PSU is plenty, all I have is a 2700x and a very light GPU, so shouldn't pull 200 watts from the PSU under the most extreme circumstances. CPU is pulling about 110-120 Watts under loads. This PC is used mainly for backups and x264 encoding so no power hungry GPU in there.
 
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13thmonkey said:
Somewhere you need to lose some thickness, it's going to be in the rad, fans, or precisely how the rad is fitted to the case, it's not going to be in the ram.
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I think it is just going to have to stay the way it is. The system is running, I just wanted to relieve the pressure on the slot but I guess it isn't a problem for now. I did unscrew the board and push it down a tiny bit but still pretty tight. I would trim the fan housing but I am afraid the blades will hit. Also, the radiator isn't super thick either, so I wouldn't want to go thinner.
 
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tony95i said:
No, low profile fans are noisy and that would defeat my primary objective which is to reduce noise. The PSU is plenty, all I have is a 2700x and a very light GPU, so shouldn't pull 200 watts from the PSU under the most extreme circumstances. CPU is pulling about 110-120 Watts under loads. This PC is used mainly for backups and x264 encoding so no power hungry GPU in there.
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That gold dot is the end of a connection like 13th monkey said. As for why its there, who knows, probably just convenience, you'd have to ask Crucial who designed it. The do design these things not expecting someone to take a hacksaw to it.

Toss that ram in the trash.

And... custom loop for a PC that does backups and encoding?

His comment was more towards quality, that Thermaltake is not known for it.
 
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Rogue Leader said:
That gold dot is the end of a connection like 13th monkey said. As for why its there, who knows, probably just convenience, you'd have to ask Crucial who designed it. The do design these things not expecting someone to take a hacksaw to it.

Toss that ram in the trash.

And... custom loop for a PC that does backups and encoding?

His comment was more towards quality, that Thermaltake is not known for it.
Click to expand...
No, I would not expect the designer to anticipate someone trimming the PCB, but seems that if they could make ram a little less wide that there might be a market for it. I am sure it is possible, but probably takes a little more thought on their part. The only low profile DDR4 that I have seen is ECC server memory and it is trimmed at that location as well as being very short.

He referred to the PSU as light, how does that speak to quality?

Yes, x264 encoding pushes your CPU to near 100% for extended periods of time and with a mild overclock it does generate a bit of heat. I don't really want to listen to fans running full speed for hours at a time so a custom water loop keeps it check pretty well even with 120mm fans set below 1300 RPM.
 
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tony95i said:
No, I would not expect the designer to anticipate someone trimming the PCB, but seems that if they could make ram a little less wide that there might be a market for it. I am sure it is possible, but probably takes a little more thought on their part. The only low profile DDR4 that I have seen is ECC server memory and it is trimmed at that location as well as being very short.

He referred to the PSU as light, how does that speak to quality?

Yes, x264 encoding pushes your CPU to near 100% for extended periods of time and with a mild overclock it does generate a bit of heat. I don't really want to listen to fans running full speed for hours at a time so a custom water loop keeps it check pretty well even with 120mm fans set below 1300 RPM.
Click to expand...

I've built a lot of systems and have obviously seen a lot of builds and have never run into this issue. I mean the ram is actually a tad shorter than the width of the ram slots, I'm not sure what else you could ever expect. Regular height ram will clear any normal cooler. There really is no market for your issue.

He referred to that both to speak to the quality and that with a CLC like you have we rarely see them in anything but a gaming system, so the expectation would be that you had a bigger GPU to go with it. While not the case, its still a lower quality PSU, but you aren't stressing it much.

I agree with 13th monkey, your issue is the fault of your case's design, not the ram. If I were you to get a mm I would have maybe bent the case before hacksawing the ram.
 
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Solution
13thmonkey said:
I'd suspect that your Case is a little less tall than it really should be to be comfortable with a 480 rad, that's where the problem lies here.
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I have a MicroATX case that is quite a bit shorter and the same width and I have put a larger radiator in that one. The photo below is a custom loop I built, but before that I had a 38mm Cryorig A40 in it. The real problem is that the mounting for the radiator on my new case is too close to the center of the case. My MicroATX case mounting holes are at the far edge of the case so it clears everything fine. I needed a larger case that can hold more hard drives and PC Part Picker lists this one as compatible with 240mm AIOs, but it really isn't. So I have made it work. I think it will be fine for now. I don't like giant cases or windows so my options are limited.

52047659_10216046169161781_1132753175703453696_o.jpg
 
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Rogue Leader said:
I've built a lot of systems and have obviously seen a lot of builds and have never run into this issue. I mean the ram is actually a tad shorter than the width of the ram slots, I'm not sure what else you could ever expect. Regular height ram will clear any normal cooler. There really is no market for your issue.

He referred to that both to speak to the quality and that with a CLC like you have we rarely see them in anything but a gaming system, so the expectation would be that you had a bigger GPU to go with it. While not the case, its still a lower quality PSU, but you aren't stressing it much.

I agree with 13th monkey, your issue is the fault of your case's design, not the ram. If I were you to get a mm I would have maybe bent the case before hacksawing the ram.
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Yeah, PC Part Picker lists this case, the Silverstone RL01B, as compatible with several 240 AIOs, but the mounting holes need to be placed closer to the outer edge to make it work with every board. A MicroATX board with ram slots higher up would not work at all. So, I guess we all agree my case is less than ideal. Drilling out holes closer to the edge might also be an option, but since everything is installed and running I probably won't do that.

I didn't realize the Thermaltake GX1 was low quality, although the only PSU I have had die at my office was a TT but they did replace it without issue. This one does have a 5 year warranty so I should okay for at least that long. I wanted a 80+ gold PSU that was affordable and it met that requirement.
 
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