Mac Ram Cooler Author: faceless105 -- Posted: 2008-02-22
With the demands of cooling growing larger and larger we find ourselves cooling our components with high end cooling products and even starting to cool our other components that in the past we'd have just left alone. Today I'll be reviewing the Mac Series Memory Cooler by Xigmatek.
In the box, all of the components are pretty self explanatory, you have the cooler itself, a 3 to 4 pin power adapter, silicon strips to put between the cooler and the ram, and finally, the clips to hold the cooler onto the ram.
The installation is very easy and the cooler will work universally with any series of ram. The first thing you do is separate the two pieces of the ram cooler. Then you add the silicon strip across each side of the ram cooler. Place the ram on the cooler, reattach the other side, then add the clips, locking the cooler into place.
The cooler works through a small fan mounted on the top of the cooler. The design of the cooler makes it easy to install next to other sticks of ram and would only be a problem with there were multiple coolers placed next to each other as ventilation may become an issue. Aside from that, the cooler itself doesn't take up any more room then just using heat sinks on your ram, which is becoming a very common practice.
Now for the first hand experience... The cooler does install incredibly easily. Attaching it to the ram wasn't a problem at all and it didn't make it any more difficult to lock into the DIMM slots. The cooling also showed some nice performance as well. To test the ram I used a PC that is more prone to heat then any other in our house. We have a kitchen PC that is used for storing recipes, address book information, and general media, such as music. This PC is exposed to how conditions while food is being prepared, and as I imagine in most houses, the kitchen is always the hottest in the summer while food is being prepared. I decided to take temperature readings while no one was cooking, just as a precaution of something getting spilt into the case, and I used the temperature gun (click here for information on how we test our hardware).
While performing regular operations, the ram had an average temperature of 87 degrees Fahrenheit. After applying the MAC Ram cooler, the temperatures were lowered to 79 degrees Fahrenheit. This is a pretty significant temperature decrease and will make for improved performance and best of all an increased product life. Furthermore, I went to take a noise reading, but the fan was so silent, it was well below the level that I could accurately measure, and from a personal perspective, it was barley audible, and once inside the case, I couldn't hear it at all.
Here are some of the fine print details on this Ram Cooler...
* Fan Speed: 7200 RPM
* Airflow: 25cfm
* Noise Level: 20 dBA
* Weight: 45g (w/fan)
* Material: Aluminum
I'd like to thank Xigmatek for giving me the opportunity to review their Mac Ram Cooler. I've been very impressed with the cooling performance as well as the ease of use I found installing it. This cooler has proven it's ability to cool, but it also runs nearly silent and it doesn't prevent you from being able to install sticks of ram next to it. If any of you are looking into cooling your ram I'd recommend checking out the Mac Ram Cooler by Xigmatek.
If any of you have any questions or comments, I'd love to hear them!
