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shardey

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jan 28, 2010
725
48
Colorado
I have been researching this and I have came up with no answer. There are note book heat spreaders available http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835207003 and I was wondering if it will fit in an iMac. Yes I have looked to see how cramped up it is in the memory slot, but I found on the sunbeamtech website that the thickness of the total heat spreader is only .2" at the opposite side where the memory plugs in at. Also I found out the the thickness of the copper on the heat spreader is only .4mm thick which is very very minimal. I have just purchased one of these to test out with the 8GB ram I just purchased for $120 from newegg with a $20 mail in rebate!!!
 
Well if these things fit, what is it going to hurt dropping a few degrees?

back in the day I used to actually take the heat spreaders off my ram for better cooling. Though I was feeding my BH-5 chips 3.5volts 24/7. I would say the heatspreaders in an iMac would be a waste.
 
With all the replies I get not one of you answered my question. I really didn't ask if its going to be cost effective or anything, just simply asking if it will fit. I don't care to waste 5 minutes of my life trying to get something like this achieved nor do I mind wasting $10 bucks when I can use these in my other laptop. Also how does one know it will be a waste if it fits? What if it keeps it cooler and provides less heat to be pushed out of my entire mac therefore dropping the temperature overall down?
 
Try running your iMac hard for a few hours then turn it off and immediately take out the memory. I would be surprised if the memory sticks were more than a few degrees above room temperature.

But no, I don't think it will fit. Apple specifies RAM without heat spreaders let alone aftermarket spreaders which are bound to be thicker than OEM.
 
With all the replies I get not one of you answered my question. I really didn't ask if its going to be cost effective or anything, just simply asking if it will fit. I don't care to waste 5 minutes of my life trying to get something like this achieved nor do I mind wasting $10 bucks when I can use these in my other laptop. Also how does one know it will be a waste if it fits? What if it keeps it cooler and provides less heat to be pushed out of my entire mac therefore dropping the temperature overall down?

It would be a waste of time, effort, and money. You might damage your computer. That computer was designed for optimum cooling. Nothing short of sitting it inside your refrigerator and using remote desktop will cool it down any more.

What are you hoping to see? A 1-2 degree F decrease in heat? Thats nothing. Unless something offered 15+ cooler operation I wouldn't waste two seconds looking at it.

Keep your home at a comfortable temp, your computer is designed to run at much higher temps than you are ;)
 
Well you see people everyday taking their entire systems apart just to change thermal paste to only see a few degrees drop as well. Surprisingly the memory does get warmer than you think it would, as I thought of the idea of heat spreaders right after I pulled the ram out to vacuum the slot along with the intake spots at the bottom. Like I said, I do not care about wasting the money, as I already did purchase it and will use it in my iMac if it works or in another laptop.

I can already see heating issues with my iMac since I do play 3d intensive games via bootcamp on windows 7 enterprise. I say I have issues cause there appear to be "burn" marks behind the glass where on the flip side is the exhaust vent. So instead of everyone hating on my idea, why don't I see any support, heck I paid $2426 for the computer with applecare, and now adding more memory for $120 more, what is $10 to spare on heat spreaders going to matter?

Like I stated in my first post, The copper on the heat spreaders have a thickness of .4 mm, which is very very thin. I guess we will see if it will work or not later this week/early next week.
 
good luck , i personally would be more concerned about a heat spreader for the harddrive , but that just me , ram is not a vital part and cheap to replace, data isn't ;)
 
Well you see people everyday taking their entire systems apart just to change thermal paste to only see a few degrees drop as well.

Surely you're getting muddled between Macs and PCs?! Where have you learned of people taking their Macs apart to change thermal pate etc etc? :)
 
Surely you're getting muddled between Macs and PCs?! Where have you learned of people taking their Macs apart to change thermal pate etc etc? :)

Well I have a quad g5 that I am contemplating about swapping out the paste cause I have to buy a new dual core cpu. Obviously I had the intention of trying the ram heatspreader cause I was curious to see if it will work. Not one person had a positive comment about it.
 
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