A Fool and His Money, RAM Edition.

So, generally, there's a lot of gimmicky stuff available as far as "High Performance Memory" goes. And while there are some slight benefits depending on what you're doing to tighter latencies or higher bandwidth, the real fact of the matter is that on systems that aren't pretty top-end, you could spend the extra money on something else for more performance.

Now, obviously, we have stuff like memory kits that are tested at say, 1600, 1866, 2000, or even 2133 Mhz. That's great and all, but what they fail to tell you in the big, bold, easy to read part of the text, is that... oh yeah, some memory needed to be tested at up to X voltage, which may or may not actually be safe for your CPU's Integrated Memory Controller, or your motherboard's North Bridge and Voltage Regulation.

Next up, heat sinks on RAM! Why? Because obviously, the Enthusiast pumping excess voltage through his hardware is going to make his RAM really really hot, right? Well, the funny thing is, those chips are usually rated for temperatures of something like ninety degrees Celcius. If you didn't know, that is hot as hell. Like, second or third degree burns hot as hell, no sweat. Now granted, cooler temps can help stability on RAM, yes. But really, unless you're pumping some stupid high voltages with bad airflow in your case, odds are your RAM is staying plenty cool without a heat sink.

So, all that being said, yes, some people actually are pushing systems hard enough that heat sinks make sense. I would guess that's somewhere around 8-10% of the enthusiast community, which is probably under 0.01% of people who own PCs. So, those people can buy RAM with heat sinks, and maybe even add some fans or whatever. Cool, no problem.

Now we get to the really fun part. Despite the fact that memory cooling as a needed component is already only slightly less of a niche product than Purina Pet Rock Chow, someone found another way to profit off of the masses of gamers who think that running games makes it vital to install automatic halon fire suppression systems in their rigs.

What is this amusing product? Liquid-cooled memory kits. Now I'll go ahead and credit the manufacturer, Kingston HyperX. These guys already advertise Starcraft 2 pros that they sponsor using their products as nail files and combs, but what are they going to do with this? Beer bong? What the hell, Kingston? The only use I can imagine for this is making your rig look badass with UV reactive coolant.

I think the thing that really bothers me the most is the fact that hundreds, if not thousands of gamers will spend a pile on adding this stuff to their already pointless plumbing loop, either under the assumption that it will help their performance (usually, NO) or assuming that since Kingston HyperX supports E-sports, that they should buy their products.

Now I will admit, supporting sponsors is all well and good for the growth of E-Sports, if you're into competitive gaming on any front. But lets face reality. They don't put money into pro gaming teams because they really like E-Sports. They do it to engender that exact response out of you and make money. So if you don't buy the craziest products they make, it doesn't mean you're hurting E-Sports, I promise.