Thermalright HR-07 Memory Cooler Review

Cooling/VGA & Other Cooling by thorgal @ 2007-01-27

Thermalright is known as a very competent and successful manufacturer of aftermarket cooling gear. Today, we take a look at their latest gem, the HR-07 Memory Module Cooler. This passive cooler is made to cool your ram beyond any stock heatsink or heat spreader. Have a look and see if it surpasses its daring intentions...

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Introduction

Introduction

To start off with a cliché: the PC world is always changing. One of the things that changed most in recent years, in my opinion anyway, is the way we (have to) look at cooling for our personal computers. Actually, we got forced to think and rethink all of our cooling designs, in order to get the new cpu and gpu designs to work, and make our rigs go faster and faster. Right now, more and more components of our PC have to be cooled in order to work properly: northbridge, Southbridge, mosfets, and also our memory. Today we take a look at the latest Thermalright offering : a brand new memory cooling solution, the HR-07.

Madshrimps (c)
the thermalright box : well designed, clean and simple


For those that are not familiar with Thermalright:
Thermalright specializes in the design and manufacture of a wide array of cooling systems and modules for the information communication technology (ICT) industries. Our CPU cooler line of products is designed with a diverse group of end users in mind; as such, our products are suitable in a variety of distribution channels. Thermalright employees the top-notch designers and uses advance testing equipment and process that meet the stringent testing specifications of Intel and AMD. Our people and our process are ISO-9000 certified. We work only with the leading component vendors of the world to ensure the best quality to our customers.

Thermalright is a Taiwanese company that has been at the forefront of the cooling business for quite some time now. They have specialized themselves in the aftermarket cooling business, with their main product lineup being CPU coolers for all sockets. Thermalright also offers passive VGA coolers, passive northbridge coolers, and from today onwards, passive memory cooling solutions.


Look and feel

When Thermalright asked to review their upcoming memory cooling solution, we didn't hesitate for a moment, but to be honest: we actually didn't know what was going to show up, as no information or even picture was available at that time. In the time that it took to write this review (quite a bit longer than expected, honestly), Thermalright updated their website with the specifics of the ram cooler, and this is what they say:

Features:
  • Double heatpipes to double heatsinks for fast and efficient cooling
  • Proprietary through holes on every fin for efficient ventilation in passive mode
  • Vast compatibility across multiple types of memories
  • No tools needed for an easy installation
  • Optional fan installation for even better cooling results
  • Supports Dual Channel Memory setup

    So have a look at them in all their glory:

    Madshrimps (c)


    As you can see, the HR-07 is a new type of cooler, based upon the principles of Heatpipe cooling. Heatpipes have been very popular the last couple of years when it comes to CPU and GPU cooling, but for ram cooling, this has not been done before. The coolers have a shiny silver finish, and can, besides the cooling effect, make your rig in a windowed case look that little bit more "extreme" as well. The finish of the cooler is extraordinary: I could not detect one sharp edge or unfinished metal fin on the entire cooler. Thermalright made sure the quality is up there with the very best.

    Every cooler has a double heatpipe system, which leads heat away from the heat spreader plate which is in contact with the ram chips, towards the multitude of small metal plates, or fins if you like, which sit on top of the heatpipes. All of these fins are in fact small "radiators", spaced closely together. The air inside your case can move between them, and heat can be moved away by a convective airflow between the fins. Furthermore, small holes are made into the fins to allow air to circulate even better and allow for better ventilation in passive mode. In addition to the passive mode, Thermalright has built in the possibility of active cooling when you're using dual ram coolers, in dual channel operation. The fans can be directly attached to the coolers, and can provide active airflow to offer even better convective heat dissipation.

    Here are the technical specs for the cooler :
  • Dimension: L150 x W27 x H86 mm (Heatsink Only)
  • Weight: 150g (Heatsink Only)
  • Recommended Fan: 70mm ,80mm ,92mm Fan
  • Compatibility: DDR1 DDR2 Single Sided Memory Module&Duble Sided Memory Module

    As you can see, these are large coolers: with a height of 86mm they are sure to catch the eye. Also, compatibility is very broad: they can be applied to all but the most exotic memory modules. Notable exception is for example the Corsair dominator memory module, as it has a higher PCB than other memory modules. Below are some more views of the ram cooler (click to open).

    Madshrimps (c) Madshrimps (c) Madshrimps (c)

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    Comment from Rutar @ 2007/01/27
    once again stock heatspreaders are tested to be worthless


    What was the voltage you have been using?

    50° isn't a temperature that I think is capable of limiting overclocks on memory but should change if you give the memory the 2.4+ extreme people use.
    Comment from thorgal @ 2007/01/27
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Rutar View Post
    once again stock heatspreaders are tested to be worthless

    What was the voltage you have been using?

    50° isn't a temperature that I think is capable of limiting overclocks on memory but should change if you give the memory the 2.4+ extreme people use.
    The voltage used for the ATi kit is 2.15V in bios. The motherboard does overvolt a little, the real voltage was close to 2.2V. As you say, with Micron ram at 2.4V+ the situation will be quite different temperature wise, but will still be in favour of the Thermalrights.

    You've made a necessary remark about the voltages, which I'll add to the article right away. Thank you for that.
    Comment from HitenMitsurugi @ 2007/01/27
    Ahah, this looks interesting for the BH5 I have in here right now. With some basic heatspreaders, they are almost too hot to touch atm, and this is at 3.2v -- they should reach max overclock at 3.4v, but have been holding that off because of the heat. Don't have any fan running over them either, except for some airflow the zalman 7700 gives them (also the reason why i haven't upgraded that cooler yet ).

    With this I should be able to bump up the voltage a bit more and finally upgrade the cooler to a good Scythe.

     

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