Heatspreader on RAM

[Thor-axe the Impaler]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&IsNodeId=1&Description=ddr2%20800&bop=And&Order=PRICE&PageSize=20

Is it worth the extra money to buy RAM with heatspreader? How much does it really help? Also, what latency should I aim for if my two stock sticks run 5-5-5-15-20-1T PC2-6400?

I NEED PC2-6400 (DDR2 800) so I can push my processor from 3 Ghz to 3.2. I accidentally bought PC2-5300 and it can't keep up when I go past the 333Mhz mark.

 

[Lmeow]

Heatspreaders help cool the RAM, although if you have cool RAM chips then it doesn't really matter. For latencies, the lower the better, just try and get the lowest ones possible.

 

[darkguset]

Unless you plan on overclocking your memory, then it probably does not matter at all. There was even one web site where they performed some tests with a heatspreader on and without and found that the sticks without overclocked just a little bit better. But to tell you the truth i am not really confident in their testing... anyway, there could be an explanation, but who cares. Matter of fact is that for most memory sticks cooler is better, especially when you plan on overclocking.

 

[Thor-axe the Impaler]

If I'm overclocking my CPU but not my memory I should be ok heat wise then right?

 

[Lmeow]

It should be, although overclocking the CPU might increase the memory speed, but not enough to make much of a difference.

 

[Thor-axe the Impaler]

Yeah I'm only going up to 3.2 GHz for now, which as I understand is within the limits of DDR2-800, so it's capable of that speed. I'm not really worried, but better to play it safe ;P

Thanks for your help guys.

 

[darkguset]

Unless you up the voltage on the RAM it is ok.