Best VGA RAM Sinks

TheDarkHacker · Post by **TheDarkHacker** » Mon Jul 19, 2004 10:41 pm

I am changing my video card to watercooling now which is going to be overclocked a smigen or 2 and i was wondering what the best vga ram sinks are. i was looking at the FrozenCPU Monster Copper BGA Ramsinks found here. http://www.frozencpu.com/cgi-bin/frozencpu/ram-19.html
they seem to be the best but i was just wondering what was the best

Post by **Rusty075** » Tue Jul 20, 2004 5:21 am

Those are probably as good as any. RAM-sinks of any form are really only marginally successful. Read the reviews, a "good" ram-sink gets you maybe 10mhz extra overclock. (which is probably close to being within the margin of error anyway) With watercooling the GPU they may be somewhat more effective, since there is less airflow swirling about.

In general, you can use the same criteria you'd use for looking at a passive CPU heatsink: Copper is better than aluminum, bigger is better than smaller, wide spaced fins are better than close ones. I wouldn't worry too much about brand-loyalty or reviewer's accolades.

mathias · Post by **mathias** » Tue Jul 20, 2004 8:40 am

I find ramsinks overly expensive for their limited benefits. I would take a cheap larger heatsink and saw it up (but I don't need all my PCI slots).

Splinter · Post by **Splinter** » Tue Jul 20, 2004 8:48 am

I agree with Mathias.

Take a single large heatsink, saw it into small chunks, FILE DOWN THE EDGES, bend the fins out a bit, and lop it on with a bit of thermal adhesive.

mathias · Post by **mathias** » Tue Jul 20, 2004 9:29 am

Bend the fins? I considered that, but assumed it would be dangerous, due to possibility of deforming the base. I suppose it's okay if you try to bend them not at the bottom but closer to the middle. Are you thinking of the typical flat fin designs? Any idea if drilling a few holes through the fins would improve those for passive cooling?

Splinter · Post by **Splinter** » Tue Jul 20, 2004 3:58 pm

If they are triangular fins it wouldnt be a good idea, but for normal flat fins, if you clamp the base and bend each fin carefully with a pair of thin pliers, there should be no problem. Spacing the fins out will give better cooling performance. I dont think drilling holes through them would help at all, it'd just create turblence and reduce the total cooling area, which is a bad thing.

greeef · Post by **greeef** » Wed Jul 21, 2004 5:51 am

What if the diameter of the holes were smaller than the thickness of the material? Then they would increse surface area.

And hasnt turbulent airflow been shown to be better for cooling?

these are innocent questions btw, i'm not trying to flamebait or push facts that arent true.

GLO · Post by **GLO** » Tue Oct 18, 2005 12:16 pm

Im not looking to OC the VGA card, but instead i just want to implement some cooling for the video card ram.

What temps do the ram normally run at?

thanks

~El~Jefe~ · Post by **~El~Jefe~** » Tue Oct 18, 2005 7:35 pm

those sinks are prime stuff.

I might get a bunch of those. thanks for the link.

ram does get hot on vid cards. I use water cooling, it worries me to leave the aluminum ones one. copper always does get a better draw on things, and size is always the best in general. (for many things)