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2 sticks v 4 sticks (heat)

Forum Motherboards & Memory : Memory - 2 sticks v 4 sticks (heat)

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I currently have 4 1gb ocz platinum pc2 6400, they work fine and are fast enough for my processor and what I do. I've read that getting 2 2gb sticks has less heat though. I was curious if this is true, and when people say less heat does that mean that there's the same amount of heat but it dissipates easier from your case or is there really less heat that is generated by the 2 sticks, because 2 is more efficient than 4, and if so, roughly how much less heat do they generate?

Message edited by scippy4848 on 09-13-2009 at 07:45:07 PM

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Heat is a product of the Watts or the power used by the module - or any electrical device. A 12 volt cube for a phone that runs at 2 Amps is generally going to be hotter than one running at .5 Amps - and certainly the battery it charges will get hotter. A 100W lightbulb puts off more heat than a 25W of the same design.

4 devices requiring the same voltage and amps use more power than 2 devices. And I doubt the amps drawn by 2GB modules is much more than 1GB - but not totally sure.

Look at this Power Supply Calculator. I set up a very basic system and compared 2 sticks DDR2 to 4 sticks - it draws 9 more Watts.

This also means 4 sticks uses more Amps than 2 sticks. More power consumption.

As for how much heat? In degrees tranferred to the case? Like having a 9W bulb burning in the case all the time. It's significant or the modules wouldn't have heat fins on them or fans designed to blow off the heat. If you were trying to reduce your case temps, this is one way to do it. But in the grand scheme of things, I'd say it amounts to much to do about nothing!

Reply to mongox

Forgot the link!

http://extreme.outervision.com/PSUEngine

Reply to mongox

wow, that was very helpful, but approximately how many watts does the ram use, i'm guessing like 100 to 200

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Message edited by scippy4848 on 09-13-2009 at 07:44:39 PM

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The calc program says 2 more sticks use 9 Watts - call it 10 and would mean each stick used 5 Watts. Avg volts for modules we'll call 2 Volts... so the Amps used is 2.5 Amps. 2V x 2.5A = 5W

You said... how many Watts does the ram use? You mean the system? Judge by the Power Supplies folks use - but I'd say no more than 350W-400W for pretty high-end systems. The 2 extra RAM modules use ~10W - certainly less than 3% of the total - likely more around 5% on avg systems.

Reply to mongox

scippy4848 wrote :

wow, that was very helpful, but approximately how many watts does the ram use, i'm guessing like 100 to 200

The RAM will only use about 6-7W MAX. That is SUCH a low amount of power it's almost insignificant.

Message edited by Shadow703793 on 09-13-2009 at 08:04:41 PM

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2 sticks v 4 sticks (heat)

Forum Motherboards & Memory : Memory - 2 sticks v 4 sticks (heat)