Successful first attempt? – Acer Predator Talos DDR4-3600 CL18 2x 8 GB Memory Kit | Test with Benchmarks and Teardown

1 - Overview Talos SKUs and Specs 2 - Packaging, Looks and Specs 3 - Teardown and Heatsink-Performance 4 - Test systems and overclocking 5 - AIDA64 Memory and Geekbench 3 6 - Gaming-Performance in Cyberpunk 2077 7 - Final thoughts and conclusion

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Disassembling the modules is a double-edged affair. First of all, the white plastic accents are relatively easy to remove from the actual heatspreader – if you heat the adhesive surfaces beforehand, e.g. with a hot air blower, it’s even easier. The result is almost completely black modules, with a few silver accents. In addition to the Predator logo, the four T7 Torx screws that hold the two heatsink halves together with a nut embedded in each other have now been revealed. Even so, the modules are quite nicely looking in my opinion. Whether they are nicer with or without the white accents, you are welcome to discuss in the forum thread. 😛

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After unscrewing the addressed screws and warming up the module again a bit, the heatsink half, which rests on the memory chips with a thermal pad, can also be removed relatively easily. On the back side the heatsink is unfortunately connected to the PCB with a layer of foam and very strong glue, so that its disassembly was unfortunately not possible without any further problems and without the risk of damaging the module. Actually, it’s a pity, because the design seemed high-quality and well thought-out so far and the strong adhesive on the back wouldn’t actually be necessary due to the four elegantly hidden screws.  

Under the heatspreader on the backside we can nevertheless spy an EPROM package, which should act as the SPD here, bears the inscription “44 5M RQR”, but I couldn’t find any further info about it. The memory ICs are also a package mystery that seemingly can’t be found on the Internet yet. This in turn indicates that these are ICs packaged by BIWIN itself and that they cannot exist in this form on modules from other manufacturers. According to info from the SPD, though, it must have at least something to do with Micron.  

Reassembling is as easy as disassembling, the thermal pad doesn’t crumble and will surely survive a few more stresses. Almost as reusable is the tape used to attach the white accents to the heatspreader. However, for interest, I put the modules through the heat stress test with (stock) and without the plastic attachments (No Accent). A 45-minute run of the RAM stress test Testmem5 v0.12 with the Anta777@Exteme1 profile, which is known for its high thermal demands, is used for this.

I also measured once with one DIMM slot distance between the two modules and once directly next to each other, so that really all conceivable use cases are covered. Furthermore, the modules were run with the XMP specification of DDR4-3600 and timings 18-20-20-42 at 1.35 Vdimm and without active airflow for cooling. After about 10 minutes all configurations reach their thermal equilibrium with the environment, except for the tight plastic sandwich, which only stops heating up after half an hour. What do we learn from this? Even a massive and high-quality heatsink made of aluminum-zinc alloy suffers under a dress of thermally insulating plastic, the more, the closer the modules are to each other. 

So if you value the cooling performance or are bothered by the white plastic accents, you can simply remove them and leave them off. All in all, it has to be said that even in the original state not even 20 °C delta to room temperature is a very good result and the heatsink cools more than sufficiently. So even for double sided SKUs and, or more RAM voltage there is enough headroom. So overall the design of the Talos heat sink is quite good, especially when you consider that the modules are specified up to an operating temperature of 85 °C.