Covers on the chips on RAM

[PieceOfMadness]

Does anyone know the purpose of the covers on RAM?

The reason I'm asking is because tech support at the on line store where I bought my motherboard/CPU combo told me that sometimes RAM manufacturers put covers on them to hide the actual specs; i.e., the RAM will tell the bios that its 1066mhz and PC2-8500, when its really not, and tell the bios not to try to read the RAM to determine what the real specs are. Anyway, this might very well be the reason I'm having so many problems with my computer (Vista Home Premium 64 bit). Wondering if anyone has any knowledge and/or experience in this area. Thanks.

[Budfred]

They are intended to act as heat sinks and allow the RAM to keep cooler than it would otherwise... It is generally a good thing to have them there...

[PieceOfMadness]

That was my initial impression as well, but what tech support told me about the possibility of the Corsair RAM forcing the bios to read false info from the RAM made me think, so I went to the ASUS web site to look at their qualified vendor list and ordered some RAM that was on that list. Now if that turns out not to be my problem, I'm back at square one. Fingers are crossed.

Thanks.

[sifLord]

The drams on overclockers ram is usually speed binned by the module manufacturer (i.e. corsair), the heat sincs are required because the modules are usually configured via the SPD to run at higher voltages.

You will probably find the ram on the qualified vendors list contains the same dram chips as crucial.

Most mainboards allow you to overide the SPD and manually set your own ram speeds/timings anyway.