Our friends at Vizo have sent us another new product for review, this one is a nice accessory for all the overclockers out there. It is called the Armada Tri-Fan Ram Cooler, and as the name suggests it uses three small fans to cool your ram. Read on to learn more and check out a useful accessory for your ram…
Vizo Armada Tri-Fan Ram Cooler
Reviewed by: Kristofer Brozio AkA Dracos
Sponsor: Vizo
Tech Specs,Features or the Basic Info:
RCL-301
Armada
Tri-Fan RAM Cooler ( Patented Design )
THE COOL STUFF IN YOUR PC
DESCRIPTION:
VIZO ARMADA is a triple fan cooler which is focused on increasing RAM cooling effect and making your system work with excellent performance. Besides, the three fans with the cold blue LED light which can give you cool and fabulous feeling and add some flair to the inside of your case. It is a cool stuff not only to give you a faster and cooler PC system, but also bring you the state of the art for your PC.
FEATURES:
Compatible with all standard SDR/DDR/DDRII RAM modules
Triple fans provide the maximum airflow and air pressure
Reduce RAM temperature to improve its performance
Avoid system crash caused by RAM overheat
Make your system work with excellent performance
Built in cold blue LED Lights
Vogue design to decorate your PC
Tool Free & Easy to Install with Patented Design Clips
SPECIFICATIONS:
Dimensions : 147 x 44 x 30 mm
DC Fan Dimensions : 40 x 40 x 10 mm ( 3 pcs )
Bearing Type : Sleeve Bearing
Speed : 4500 RPM
Noise Level : 27.98 dBA
Max Air Flow : 13.86 CFM x 3
Rated Voltage : DC 12 V
Rated Current : 0.35 A x 3
Compatibility : SDR/DDR/DDR II
Weight : 75 g
PACKAGE INCLUDES:
Tri-Fan RAM Cooler
Spacer Package( For Single Sided Memory Module )
Find stuff to cool your ram at ShopZilla!
A Better Look at Things
:
The Armada come sin a semi-sealed plastic clamshell, by semi-sealed I mean it is only secured shut at a few points around the outer edge, fairly easy to get open actually. We can plainly see the Armada Tri-Fan Ram Cooler through the packaging, and some of the features are listed as well.
The back of the package has basic installation instructions along with all the specs and features listed, and a glimpse at the mounting system of the Armada can be seen.
Opening the package we find only two things, the Armada itself and a pack of replacement pads for the clamps. Attached to the Armada is a standard 3-pin connector for power, which will power all three fans simultaneously. The fan do not have fan guards on them, something which I think every type of fan should have.
The Armada uses an interesting system to attach itself to the ram in your system, the clamps themselves can slide up and down or back and forth to provide the optimum mounting position for the Armada on your ram.
The clamps are spring loaded and have a locking lever to lock them in place, you can see the pads on the inside of the clamps to protect your ram and insulate it from the metal of the clamps themselves.
The Armada us very lightweight, and is mostly made of plastic, the actual jaws of the clamps are metal, but the locking levers are not. Something that I have to question about that design, the levers being plastic that is, on the other hand though, it is a product that is not made to be removed often, once installed it should stay there for sometime. Overall the Armada does seem very well made, and the three fans should offer decent cooling of the ram and any nearby components.
Find stuff to cool your ram at ShopZilla!
Installation, Testing and Comparison
Installation of the Vizo Armada is fairly easy, the ram I installed it on was Crucial 10th Anniversary DDR2, which has built in heatspreaders. The heatspreaders do make the ram a bit thick, which made installation a little bit difficult. The orientation of my ram sockets and cpu cooler did make the Armada installation more difficult, it was hard to get my fingers behind the Armada to lock it into place. I guess the Armada could have been installed with the ram out of the case and then just re-installed, but I’ve fried sticks and ram and motherboards by not seating the ram correctly, so if I don’t have to take it out I won’t. Depending on your setup/layout of your motherboard you might or might not encounter similar problems as I did. The Armada does add quite a bit of light to your system, all three fans have blue LEDs in them when powered on. In the dark it really shows up.
Here’s a picture of the Armada installed with the lights on, here you can see how tight the spacing is around my ram sockets. One note is about the 3-pin connection, it would have been nice had Vizo included a 3-pin to Molex adapter as well, many people use all of their motherboard fan headers and may not have one to use with the Armada.
The Vizo Armada pulls double duty as a cooler actually, which is a good thing, it not only cools your ram, but sends air to nearby components as well. We’ve seen other ram cooler setups, and they are all very similar, a fan mounted to your ram, modders/overclockers did this first by rigging a fan to blow directly onto their ram to achieve higher, stable overclocks. Now with companies like Vizo releasing products like these, your ram can be cooled and not look like it was something that was rigged together.
There are no temperature sensor chips built into the ram, at least not yet anyway, so it’s hard to really measure the effects of something like the Armada, cool, fresh air blowing on a hot component should be a good thing overall though.
I do own a non-contact, infrared thermometer that I tried to use to get a measurement of the surface temperature of the ram, but I just couldn’t get it in there to do it, the space around the ram was just to confined, so I can’t give you any hard measurements or figures.
In the end though, moving air around can only be a good thing, as long as it does not get stuck there, I think having three fans blowing will keep the air from being stuck in one place, and actually help coll the ram, thus making it more stable to achieve higher overclocks if that is the intention. If your not overclocking, well, keeping components cool is always a good thing, it prolongs the life of them, and just makes everything more stable.
Find stuff to cool your ram at ShopZilla!
Summary:
In theory the idea of keeping your ram cool is a sound one, pretty much all components in a computer can benefit from being kept cool. The Armada does just that, it keeps your ram cool with a nice steady stream of cool air, and it also blows onto nearby components of your motherboard as well making it a very useful product indeed.
DragonSteelMods gives the Vizo Armada Tri-Fan Ram Cooler a 4.5 out of 5 score.
Pros:
-Cools more than just ram
-Bright and good looking
-Fairly easy to install
-Lightweight
Cons:
-Installation can be difficult depending on the layout of your motherboard
-No included Molex adapter, only 3-pin connection
I would like to thank Vizo for the chance to review the Armada Tri-Fan Ram Cooler and for their continued support of DSM.