As of late, there seems to be a distinct split in the water cooling field. One half consists of those trying to hit the absolute maximum overclock while the other half is trying to achieve an ultra-silent cooling system with excellent temperatures. I was recently given the opportunity to review a cooling component that could very well be used for either heavy overclocking or building the quietest system possible, the AkwaFlo RAM Cooler.
While water cooling is by no means a new cooling method, some system components seem to be left out of the water cooling equation on a regular basis for one reason or another. RAM is a perfect example of a component that is often not water cooled despite its importance in the overall performance of any system. Angel Eye Technologies has addressed this by producing what is, so far as I can locate, the only currently available waterblocks to cool RAM.
The AkwaFlo Ram Cooler is packaged in a somewhat basic box with a small black and white label that lists very minimal information about the contents inside the box other than stating that it is “The world’s best water cooling solution for RAM.” The label also has contact information for the company, a small picture of the RAM block and a line to indicate the color of the block’s base plate. Inside the box, there is one memory cooler and a layer of cotton-like padding to protect the surface of the base plate on the block. There are no instructions included or any other hardware
As the box was relativity lacking in the information department, I promptly went to Angel Eye Technologies’ website and found the following:
Features:
• Type 2 Anodized Aluminum finish available in Blue, Black, or Silver
• 1/8” aluminum base, CNC machined for a truly flat surface
• Anodized Aluminum inner turbulators for added performance
• 100% Cast Acrylic
• UV Reactive Barbs
• O-Ring Seal provides barrier against leaks
• Highest quality machined channel and barbs
• LED holes give unique and stylish look
• Allows users to max out RAM performance
• Available in ½’’ and 3/8’’ Barbs Specifications
• 4.80in (L) x .880in (W) x .800in (H)
• ¼’’ NPT thread
• 1/8” 6061 Aluminum base
• Attach using thermal adhesive or the thermal tape. We recommend arctic Silver Adhesive or 3m 9885 thermal tape.
Notes:
• Always leak-test Watercooling equipment for at least 24 hours before installing in case.
• Please ensure there is space between the ram slots and any large components on motherboard before purchasing.
Recommended Thermal Adhesive: arctic Silver Thermal Adhesive.
The memory blocks that I received were the blue colored versions. The cast acrylic body of the block is approximately 122mm (L) x 22mm (H) x 17mm (D) and had a few minor rough spots on the corners of each of the waterblocks. There is a single 1/2″ channel cut lengthwise through the acrylic body for water flow. On either end of the acrylic body, there is a small 3mm wide x 3mm hole drilled for inserting and LED so that lighting may be added to the block. The UV-reactive, barbed fittings are synthetic 1/2″ barb x 1/4″ NPT thread.
The fittings are threaded into the top of the acrylic block on each end of the flow channel and are locked in place with some type of clear adhesive sealant which appears to be extremely strong. The base, as stated in the specifications, is made from Type 2 Anodized Aluminum. While a copper base would have been nicer, it also would have increased the cost and the weight of the blocks which might cause some issues as the blocks are mounted with thermal epoxy or thermal tape to the RAM.
Upon disassembling the block, I discovered that the “turbulator” lays loose inside the block’s channel as it came out easily. To seal the acrylic body to the base plate, there is a channel cut in the acrylic to house a rubber o-ring like many of the CPU waterblocks that are now on the market. The body of the block attaches to the base plate with 4 Phillips head machine screws which are inserted from the back of the base plate and are screwed into the acrylic. While this attachment method is effective, once the blocks are attached to RAM with thermal epoxy disassembly of the blocks for cleaning would be impossible without removing them from the RAM and then remounting them.
As there are no instructions included in the box and the above is about all you will find on Angel Eye Technologies’ website, there is not much guidance in how the blocks should be installed on to your RAM. I suspect the lack of instructions is in part due to the fact that this is not exactly a product aimed at the novice computer cooling enthusiast.
Before attaching the waterblocks to the RAM, I checked the motherboard I intended to use to make sure that the blocks would clear any obstacles on the motherboard. It appeared that a couple of capacitors would be make for a very close fit but it after placing a block on the RAM and checking it very closely, it appeared that the block would just clear the capacitors. I did not have any of the recommended thermal tape on hand but I did have a nice supply of thermal epoxies from arctic Silver so I went with that option for mounting the waterblock to the RAM. Additionally, I had just received some arctiClean and this was a good opportunity to test it as well. Even though the water blocks were new and had not previously been installed, I had handled them enough to make pre-cleaning of the mounting surface necessary. arctiClean is a two-step cleaning and surface preparation product that gets rid of any contaminants that could interfere with heat conduction between the cooling solution and the heat source. It does an excellent job without putting off a strong chemical odor like most other methods used for surface preparation.
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I began by cleaning each chip on the stick of RAM and then cleaning the base of the RAM waterblocks with arctiClean according the to instructions on the arctiClean bottles. Once everything was clean, I mixed a small amount of arctic Alumina thermal epoxy, applied a small amount to each chip on the RAM and then evened out the epoxy layer as much as possible. The thermal epoxy will thicken and harden around 5 minutes after it is mixed so you have to work rather quickly during this step.
Once the epoxy was applied, I placed the waterblock onto the RAM and pressed it in place with a little pressure. I then held it in place for a couple of minutes to give the epoxy a chance to get a good grab onto the memory. After inspecting the mounting, placed a small block of wood on the backside of the RAM and used a c-clamp with very light pressure to hold everything in place while the epoxy fully cured and hardened. I left everything clamped in place for about an hour and a half while I prepped the rest of the system for testing.
After the epoxy had adequately cured on the first block, I repeated the process on the second RAM block. I used two of the blocks so the cooling effect could be tested on a dual channel system. While the second block cured, I double checked the spacing on the motherboard with the finished RAM/waterblock. When placed in the outermost DIMM slot of the EPoX 8RDA+, the waterblock totally blocked the middle DIMM slot. The DIMM slot closest to the CPU socket that caused me a bit of concern earlier due to the capacitors right next to it turned out to be fine. Fortunately, the waterblock would just clear it when mounted in that DIMM slot so the blocks could be used in dual channel mode. Definitely check your motherboard before using the epoxy to attach the blocks to your RAM as they will not be easy to get off once the epoxy sets.
Since everything had enough clearance, I carefully installed both sticks of RAM into the first and last DIMM slots and routed the tubing so that it would place as little pressure as possible on the RAM blocks. I was not concerned about the blocks coming off so much as the possibility that too much lateral pressure would cause poor contact between the pins in the DIMM slot and the pins on the RAM. After a little tube twisting and flexing, I managed to get the tubing in place well enough and decided to move on to testing.
I had just finished testing the Danger Den RBX so that system took just a little effort to get ready for a trial of the RAM blocks. The components in this system were as follows:
• EPoX 8RDA+ motherboard with a Thermalright SK6 converted into a north bridge cooler.
• AMD XP2100 overclocked to 2.2ghz as a starting point.
• Danger Den RBX with the #4 accelerator nozzle.
• 2 x 256mb sticks of Buffalo Technology PC3200 with Winbond BH-5 chips
• ATi RADEON 9800 Pro
• An Original Rainbow Lifeguard Quiet One water pump (1140gph at 0 feet).
• 3 feet of 1/2″ ID Clearflex tubing.
• Weapon 302 Core and Shroud.
• Two San Ace 120mm x 38mm fans were used on the shroud to move air through the 302 core (fan model # 109R1212H1011 – approximately 103 CFM each at 12v).
Watercooled RAM!
Note: Single block and single RAM stick installed for picture clarity.
Since I had a waterblock with two outlets, setting up the RAM blocks was fairly easy as the dual memory waterblocks were inserted immediately after the CPU block with a short section of 1/2″ ID Clearflex running from the outlets on the RBX to the inlets on the memory waterblocks. I then ran a short piece of Clearflex from the outlets on the memory waterblocks into the wye fitting that came with the RBX to one piece of clearflex that ran back to the inlet of the pump. The final routing of the loop was Rainbow Pump to Weapon Dual 120 Heatercore to RBX to memory waterblocks to wye fitting to T-Line and then back to the Rainbow pump. I used a T-Line setup as I wanted to keep as much flow as possible but a reservoir setup would have been much easier from a fill and bleed perspective with the amount of time I had to get all of the components setup.
From my initial pre-testing of this system and RAM, I determined that at stock memory voltages, the RAM would stay very close to ambient temperatures with a fan blowing almost any amount of air across them. Without the fan, the RAM would be only very slightly above ambient with stock voltages so it appeared that little in terms of cooling would be gained from watercooling the RAM provided voltage was left at stock. Of course, the fan could be removed from the RAM with watercooling so there was an advantage as far as noise was concerned.
Since stock voltages were not going to prove much on the overclocking side of the equation, I promptly started turning up the voltage to the RAM and cranking up the MHz. With a fan aiming air at the RAM, I had previously been able to get the Buffalo Technology DDR to run MemTest86 without errors up to 220mhz with settings of 2-2-2-11 with the multiplier set to 11 and memory voltage set to 2.90v. This is not amazing performance from Winbond BH-5 chips which have an appetite for higher voltages and tend to perform much better with voltages over 3.0v.
I proceeded to do a voltage modification to the motherboard and tune the memory voltage up to 3.2 volts for further testing at higher voltages. At this voltage, the memory was noticeably warmer but more stable as it would now run MemTest86 up to 224 MHz without errors. At 224 MHz and 3.2 volts, the RAM was running at approximately 1.5 degrees Celsius over ambient temperatures with the fan cooling method with some of the chips on the RAM running 1 degree Celsius hotter which indicated that the airflow over the RAM was uneven or certain chips on the memory were working a bit harder than the rest. At this speed and voltage, the watercooling blocks did have an ever-so-slight advantage in performance as they would hold the RAM to ambient temps while more evenly cooling all of the chips on each stick of RAM. The improved cooling resulted in a modest gain of 6 MHz for a final error-free MemTest86 run at 230mhz with 3.2v and settings of 2-2-2-11. Not mind-boggling results for certain but it also is not too bad for RAM sticks that are only rated to run CAS2.5 up to 200mhz. In any event, there was a slight gain in both performance and silence as a bit more speed was had while still removing a fan from the system.
Conclusion
The AkwaFlo RAM Cooler from Angel Eye Technologies are interesting waterblocks that allow for watercooling of yet another system component. RAM watercooling was not a readily available option for most in the past unless they resorted to DIY fabrication.
The AkwaFlo Ram Cooler allows for quiet cooling of RAM without having to sacrifice performance. The RAM blocks also allow for the use of higher voltages. However, a copper-based version would be a little nicer (although undoubtedly more expensive) and improved acrylic processing or handling could produce a bit smoother final product as the edges on the acrylic pieces were slightly rough.
Overall, I give them 8 out of 10 for the lack of installation instructions and the slight roughness on the acrylic finishing. I would like to thank Directron for making this review possible.
Pros:
- Good RAM cooling performance
- Quiet
- Reasonable price
- Improved cooling for heavily overvolted and overclocked RAM
- Available in different colors with different fitting sizes
Cons:
- Aluminum base instead of copper
- Acrylic body on blocks was a little rough
- No mounting instructions
- Hard to remove or disassemble for cleaning once mounted to RAM