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    How hot is your RAM when gaming?

    Discussion in 'Hardware Components and Aftermarket Upgrades' started by Steven87, Apr 10, 2008.

  1. Steven87

    Steven87 Notebook Consultant

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    The AMD Turion X2 TL-56 runs PC5300 DDR2 RAM at 300mhz (600mhz effective). When you overclock the CPU, the RAM speed increases with the FSB so I have overclocked my Turion X2 from 1.8ghz to 2.0ghz, which puts the RAM speed to 333mhz, which is the speed PC5300 RAM is rated for. So I haven't overclocked the RAM but I do notice that it gets quite hot to the left of the touch pad when gaming (which is where the RAM is).

    Without the overclock it gets very warm, but the RAM it is noticably hotter when overclocked. The CPU is fine; I have a Zalman cooling pad and it rarely goes over 65 degrees, which is the same as when not overclock but without the cooling pad. It barely heats up with general use, but it's the hottest part on laptop when gaming. Is this normal? Is RAM very sensitive to heat?
    Thanks.
     
    Steven87, Apr 10, 2008
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  2. D3X

    D3X the robo know it all

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    Personally I don't think it's the RAM that's causing the additional heat, infact I believe it could be the processor that inducing more heat, the only reason why the CPU isn't rising in temperature is because the cooling device is dissipating the heat to other areas of the notebook (ie; left touch pad).

    RAM generally don't emit a lot of heat in general, especially notebook ram and most are rated for higher clockspeeds(just downclocked to 533 etc).
     
    D3X, Apr 10, 2008
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  3. Steven87

    Steven87 Notebook Consultant

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    I guess that is possible, though there is only a few small vents in the middle of the base. I think most of the cool air gets sucked through the fan in the top left. The only other possibility I can think of is that there is a heat pipe that goes close to the plastic to the left of the touch pad, but there is the expansion slot on the left side at the front, so I'm not sure.
     
    Steven87, Apr 10, 2008
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  4. D3X

    D3X the robo know it all

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    Well if your daring enough, do an experiment and touch the ram modules while doing 3D benchmarks...of course touch something metal before so that you're not sending a death static charge.

    I've done that before on my systems, and the RAM is only warm to touch...
     
    D3X, Apr 10, 2008
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  5. Steven87

    Steven87 Notebook Consultant

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    I believe you :D . I had just assumed it was the RAM, but thinking about it, the RAM sticks are fairly small and they are accessible from underneath the laptop, so they would have to produce a lot of heat to warm up the plastic left of the touchpad. And the plastic underneath the laptop where the RAM is only gets mildly warm. Thanks for your help.
     
    Steven87, Apr 10, 2008
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