Cooling Thermal Paste & Ram Cooling

two questions:

1. Is it worth is to get Arctic 5 thermal paste instead of the basic stuff?
2. Do RAM heat spreaders do anything (besides decorate) or are they just a waiste of 10 bucks?

 

Yes, get AS5. Quite a difference over generic goop. If you're not overclocking (or doing system building, etc) then don't worry but if you are it makes a big difference. Heatsinks are rated based on stock thermal paste so keep that in mind.

No. Rampsreaders have been tried and tested and proven that they don't do a single thing for cooling and just make it look pretty. The Corsair Pro series heatsinks (ignoring the LEDs) actually add some surface area so they could help, or tweakmonster sinks, but the flat ones only look nice. I wouldn't call them a waste myself though, I like the look of ram heatspreaders.

 

Supposedly PC3200 gets really hot, especially if you are overclocking. Unfortunately, I remember a little fiasco where, I think it was Kingston, had really crappy heatspreaders. Rather, they were attached with thick thermal pads, and only made contact with about two of the chips, totally worthless.

 

well I was looking at these RAM heat spreaders and I'll probably get them anywho just becasue they look cool

 

Lol,

http://www.thermaltake.com/coolers/memory/cl-c0001TrueLight/cl-c0001truelight.htm

 

heatspreaders on ram make very little difference, unless you're putting more than 3v through the modules. They're there for design/aesthetic purposes the majority of the time.

 

Nice, might get one, as for the pci slots though, I'm completly out on these, all 7 gone, and I want at least 3 more.....

modding