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heatpipes & Z77 boards/RAM

Posted: Sun May 20, 2012 9:57 pm
by meanfriend
I will be putting together an Ivy Bridge system on a (probably) MSI Z77 board. I'd like to use a heatpipe cooler (ie Corsair A70 or Coolermaster Hyper 212) but I've heard that they can sometimes have problems with overlapping the RAM chips, especially those with tall heatsinks. A few questions:

1) Is the interference generally avoided by using regular profile memory? 4x4Gb appears to be cheaper than 2x8GB and more options are available for bargain hunters like myself.

2) If there is a physical conflict with tall RAM heatsinks, is it usually limited to just the first first RAM slot? If I need to get 2x8GB to avoid problems, I will.

3) Is the interference usually just due the 120mm fan? If so, then I can just run a single fan config and just get whatever good RAM is on sale at the time and not worry about it?

Re: heatpipes & Z77 boards/RAM

Posted: Sun May 20, 2012 10:15 pm
by NarwhaleAu
I can only comment on what I found with the Asus Z77 board. The 812 cooler blocked the first 2 slots and my ram with heatsink was too tall. End result: I had to purchase additional standard (non-heatsink) ram to go into the first two slots. In my case, the interference was due to the fins, not just the fan.

With standard ram, you should be fine (mine hasn't arrived yet, but it looks like there is space for it...).

Re: heatpipes & Z77 boards/RAM

Posted: Sun May 20, 2012 10:31 pm
by JustAnEngineer
Just avoid memory with ridiculously-tall heatsink fins.

I bought a set of these for my most recent build. I used these for my previous build. Something like this or this would also work.

These DIMMs are made especially for low-profile applications.

Re: heatpipes & Z77 boards/RAM

Posted: Mon May 21, 2012 1:13 am
by WarBastard
How about a Corsair H100.

Re: heatpipes & Z77 boards/RAM

Posted: Mon May 21, 2012 2:55 am
by AustinW
May I recommend this RAM? The advertised timings aren't that great, but it's Samsung's relatively new 30nm DDR3 and it's getting rave reviews for its low price and impressive overclocking headroom. And it's low-profile, too!

Re: heatpipes & Z77 boards/RAM

Posted: Mon May 21, 2012 4:53 am
by Steel
meanfriend wrote:
I will be putting together an Ivy Bridge system on a (probably) MSI Z77 board. I'd like to use a heatpipe cooler (ie Corsair A70 or Coolermaster Hyper 212) but I've heard that they can sometimes have problems with overlapping the RAM chips, especially those with tall heatsinks. A few questions:

1) Is the interference generally avoided by using regular profile memory? 4x4Gb appears to be cheaper than 2x8GB and more options are available for bargain hunters like myself.

Yes.

meanfriend wrote:
2) If there is a physical conflict with tall RAM heatsinks, is it usually limited to just the first first RAM slot? If I need to get 2x8GB to avoid problems, I will.

The Coolermaster Hyper 212 only interferes with the first DIMM slot on the motherboards I have but I've been able to avoid the problem by moving the fan to the back of the heatsink. The way the fan clips on, you can also just position it higher on the heatsink to avoid the RAM.

meanfriend wrote:
3) Is the interference usually just due the 120mm fan? If so, then I can just run a single fan config and just get whatever good RAM is on sale at the time and not worry about it?

Yep, pretty much.

Re: heatpipes & Z77 boards/RAM

Posted: Tue May 22, 2012 12:18 pm
by meanfriend
Good info all around.

I went ahead and ordered the Coolermaster Hyper 212 Evo. It seems narrower than the Corsair A70 and reviews seem to have them both perform somewhat comparably.

Going to use it with an MSI Z77A-GD55 and 4x4GB of regular profile memory. Will report back if there are any problems.

Re: heatpipes & Z77 boards/RAM

Posted: Sat Jun 02, 2012 11:59 am
by meanfriend
In case anyone stumbles onto this thread and wants a clearer answer I used:

MSI Z77A-GD55
Coolermaster Hyper 212 Evo
4x4GB of Crucial Ballistix (regular profile )

The fan on the Hyper 212 Evo just barely overlaps with the first DIMM, but there is just over 1cm of clearance with regular ram so there is still plenty of room to accommodate memory with heatsink/fins that are not stupidly long.

Nice cooler for <$30. Seems to be be very quiet so far and and Ivy Bridge 3570K idling at 31C (17-18 ambient).

Re: heatpipes & Z77 boards/RAM

Posted: Mon Jun 04, 2012 3:11 pm
by td1353l
and you can also twist the hyper 212 so that its lined up front to back(i had it pointing up and down for the top fan in my antec 900). i have a cheap micro atx board that had issues with big ram sinks, turned my hyper 212 90 degreez, viola.