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Tweakmonster System Memory Coolers

Page: 1/1
Manufacturer: Tweakmonster
Product Name: System Memory Coolers
Provider: Tweakmonster.com
Review Date: 08.18.03
Reviewer: ImaginaryForce

Thanks to

For Providing Us With This FINE Product to Review




Your RAM, Random Access Memory, is one of the most critical components in your computer. It can make or break your killer custom-built system. In the words of a wise man, ?If you ain?t got good RAM, you ain?t got sh--!? When it comes to system components, you can always buy the best of the best, but so can everybody else. How do you grab that edge and crush your competitors at LAN parties? Simple; overclock the RAM for all it?s worth. This is easy enough to do, but higher clock frequencies produce more of a certain by-product. This is our most insidious, most dangerous, best-known, and most respected adversary; heat. To effectively combat this enemy, you need weapons, and Tweakmonster is ready to supply them.

If you?re like me, you want certain things from any product that?s supposed to protect such an important component. Primarily, you want it to be effective. Also, since you didn?t design the product yourself, you probably want it to be easy to use. Last, but certainly not least, you want an affordable price. The Tweakmonster System Memory Coolers bring both quality and ease of use at a decent price. This product is a must have for today?s power users and overclockers!



As you can see in this picture, older memory heat sinks are fairly thick, and DIMM slots are too close together now to use them. The size of the Tweakmonster System Memory Coolers allows them to be used in even the tightest spaces. Though they are designed for use on system memory, there are no limits to a good imagination and a Dremel?



Installation is quite simple, but before you start, you need to make sure you have a few key items. You need thermal adhesive, Isopropyl Alcohol, cotton swabs, and something to cover your work surface. A newspaper, rag, or towel should work just fine.

Please note: This is NOT an installation guide and should not be used in place of the Tweakmonster installation guide!

Before attaching the heat sinks, make sure all surfaces involved are clean. The bottom of the heat sinks should be as shiny as mirrors! Also, it?s a good idea to take some extremely fine grade sandpaper and lightly rough up the surface of your memory. This will improve the performance of the thermal adhesive. Be very careful with this, as it would be easy to do damage to the memory. Once you this is done, use cotton swabs and alcohol to clean the dirt and fine grit off the memory. Keep using the cotton swabs on all of the memory chips until you no longer see any dirt on the swabs after a thorough cleaning of every chip. With this complete, you?re ready to attach the heat sinks. Mix up your thermal adhesive quickly; it sets and dries quickly. Apply a small amount of adhesive in a thin, even strip down the center of each of your memory chips. Make sure it doesn?t extend off the chip onto wires, connectors, or any other metal object. Once the adhesive is applied, place your RAM sinks and give them each a firm push to secure them. If you want to make sure they?re all straight, place a ruler against all of the sinks. This will help make sure they?re going to line up correctly, so that it looks nice once the adhesive dries. When the placement is complete, find a place to put your memory sticks for about twelve hours. DO NOT touch them during this time; you want to make absolutely sure that the adhesive is dry before you touch or use them.

Now it?s a good idea to test those sinks out; make sure they?re dry first though! When they?re ready, put them into a test system without any other RAM present. If there is a memory error, you?ll know which stick it is. Make sure the system goes through POST, and then make sure you can boot. Run a few programs to be sure your ram works. Once you have verified this, you can precede with your overclocking!



On to my results! Once installation and testing were complete, I went into the BIOS and raised voltages and FSB ratios. My video card RAM?s factory clock speed is 333 MHz, and I managed to push this up more than thirty MHz; a pretty hefty performance increase! Unfortunately, I didn?t have the opportunity to test stability at that memory speed. The Tweakmonster RAM sinks keep my memory about 8 Fahrenheit** cooler than it was before at 333 MHz.

These sinks are absolutely amazing. I recommend them highly to anybody! They are of high quality construction, and they add a very nice look to a custom system! You can also apply them to each side of your RAM without having adjacent DIMMs interfere with each other.

In conclusion, I would say that Tweakmonster has given us another great weapon in the war against heat. The Tweakmonster System Memory Coolers provide better looks, better quality, and better performance than other products. The improvements from the old style 1CM tall heat sinks have been made by leaps and bounds. We?ve come a long way, and I?m extremely satisfied with every aspect of this product.

**Editors Note: This was a TYPO - Previously this sentence stated that the System Coolers dropped temperatures by 8 Celcius which was later changed to Fahrenheit. (August 19, 2003 7:23pm PST)



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