The Alpha PAL8045 is one of Alpha’s premier Socket A coolers, and like the Swiftech model uses the four holes around the socket for mounting.
There once was a time when the Alpha coolers were regarded as the ultimate tool for cooling your CPU. But there was also a time when 3dfx were regarded as having the fastest video chipsets on the planet, and look what happened to them?
The Alpha PAL8045 is one of Alpha’s premier Socket A coolers, and like the Swiftech model above uses the four holes around the socket for mounting. This is why our test results for the Alpha from the HSF roundup in Issue 23 of Atomic turned out much higher than they should have. Again, this is a HSF that required we remove the rubber pads on top of the CPU to make proper contact with the die, and a little reinforcement of the motherboard to stop warping didn’t go astray either.
As stated in the Swiftech review, we’re not a big fan of this type of mounting mechanism, as it appears to offer a simpler way to trash your CPU than the traditional socket clip. It also results in a much larger HSF than is usual, which shouldn’t be much of a problem for those who bother to measure how much space they’ve got to play with around their CPU socket.
The Alpha was retested at the same time as the Swiftech MCX 462+ and Thermalright SLK-800, with the same Delta fan. Again, ambient temperature was a constant 21C.
While the Swiftech and Thermalright peaked out at 49C and 48C respectively, the Alpha rose to a maximum temperature of 54C, which is quite average considering its competitor’s temperatures.
When you consider that this HSF costs around $10 more than the Swiftech unit and doesn’t perform as well, we’d be hard pressed to recommend it to anybody. Combine this with our lack of lovin’ for the mounting screws, and the Alpha is left out in the cold.
Issue: 133 | February, 2012