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Community => The Lounge => Hardware/Software => Topic started by: Spanky on Thursday, December 03, 2009, 21:50:30 PM

Title: Memory Cooler
Post by: Spanky on Thursday, December 03, 2009, 21:50:30 PM

First off, I have a hard time paying for things, especially if there just isn't selection enough to choose something quality and that will last a while. Ever since I felt my ram hot to the touch, I knew something needed to be done. There's the popular Corsair Dominator fan that clips onto memory. I researched it and a lot of people said the fans whine/die. After I learned about fan bearings (http://www.frostytech.com/articleview.cfm?articleid=193&page=1) I thought that there's gotta be a better and cheaper way. So I made my own. I have several misc fans hanging around from power supplies and old P2/AMD K6 type processors and a bunch of PCI slot covers. Some bending, drilling and zip-tieing and here's what I get:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/464376/website/computer/v5/DSC04552.JPG
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/464376/website/computer/v5/DSC04557.JPG

I used the end of the PCI bracket that you screw in to screw onto one of the motherboard mounts. Now there's several things you need to consider before trying this out for yourself. You need to look at your motherboard and make sure there aren't little SMD capacitors/resistors or anything else. On my motherboard the only thing that is around that mount are traces from the memory to the CPU. Because of this I did not just screw the PCI bracket to the motherboard surface, that would risk scratching the traces and seriously damaging my motherboard. Instead, I put layers of electrical tape and foam tape onto where the bracket would touch the motherboard. (If you do not have foam tape, 5 oversized pieces of electrical tape should do the job) This made it soft and not conductive, but a side effect was that the whole setup isn't firm but that's ok, it still floats above the ram and blows air onto the slots. You also have to beware of clearance, mine barely fit but there are thousands of configurations out there so it may not work for you.

Title: Re: Memory Cooler
Post by: Spanky on Monday, March 08, 2010, 02:06:36 AM

I cleaned out and re-built my computer the other day and +1'd myself on this. I soldered another fan onto one of the existing fan's PCB and came up with this:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/464376/website/computer/v6/DSC05590.JPG

I don't think it's too bad for crap that's just layin around :)