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Alpha PAL8045 Heatsink

The Swiftech 462 Model cooler has been known to be the best cooling HSF on the market, but also packing the highest price of pretty much any air cooler aimed at the retail market. While Alpha has been dormant in the retail sector for quite some time now, they have decided to show back up on the scene, and not with just any old cooling solution. They are back and have their sights directly aimed at removing Swiftech from the throne.

We have watched CPU coolers become big business over the last couple years. Funny thing is, one of the companies that was really responsible for starting the high-performance end of the market has been out of the picture for some time. Well, "out of the picture" may be a bit too strong. Alpha heatsink products have been on shelves for a long time now, but we have not seen them push forward with newer more efficient designs like many of the other guys. Some will ask, "Why fix something that is not broke?", which is a good point. I still to this day recommend Alpha coolers for Slot 1 and Slot A cooling. I don't think any company really surpassed their dominance in that realm. Global Win did a great job of keeping competitive, but Alpha was seeing years ahead of the pack when they introduced the copper heatplates inserted in their aluminum-pinned heatsink bases.

With that said, the Slot As and 1s have pretty much gone by the wayside in the mainstream market, and Alpha simply has not kept up with high performance Socket A and Socket 370 solutions that are heavily marketed to us now days. Instead, they have been off concentrating their business on OEM and server platforms. I can attest to you that they build one of the best 1U cooling solutions in the world, as we use Alphas exclusively on all our new servers. Anyway, they are jumping back into the retail spotlight, and they are not just doing it with any old heatsink. This one is made strictly for folks that want the high-end of high-end air cooling. Enter the Alpha PAL8045.

The Fit:

   

Above, you see the Alpha PAL8045 mounted on an ABIT KT7A mainboard. On top of it sits the fan that most of you will most likely purchase to go with the PAL8045. The fan was supplied by Outside Loop, and it is a Delta 80mmX30mm 68CFM. It is fully capable of moving tons of air and retails for US$20, give or take a buck here or there.

The Alpha PAL8045's dimensions are approximately 3.125 inches by 3.1875 inches, or 7.94 centimeters by 8.1 centimeters. The height of the unit is of course going to change depending on the fan being used, but with the popular Delta, the unit height is 3.5 inches, or 8.9 centimeters. Comparing this to heatsinks you are most likely used to seeing, this thing looks to be a behemoth...and, well it is. Still, it is designed for use on Socket 462 Athlon mainboards. If the manufacturer of the mainboard has followed the specifications of the "no-mount" zone around the socket, there should not be too many mounting issues.

I did mount this heatsink on the Asus A7V266, the ABIT KT7A, KT7, and the KT7E. The heatsink fit fine on all of these boards. Understand that there was not a lot of room left in many cases, but it did fit. Notice the notched corners on the Alpha PAL8045. Those are not there simply for looks. Those notches will make it possible to mount it on boards that it would not otherwise fit on. Still, I suggest you measure carefully or ask around to make sure your PAL8045 will fit on your particular mainboard.

The Construction:

The PAL8045 is rather plain looking until you flip her over to expose the heatplate. Then you will see what makes an Alpha an Alpha...

     

Flipping over an Alpha is sort of like flipping over a crab. There is not a whole lot going on on top, but the bottom is very busy. Here you will see what makes Alpha one-of-a-kind in the HSF industry. They have a copper heatplate that uses aluminum pins or fins (pins on the PAL8045), but it is one "homogeneous" build. The way the copper and the aluminum are connected is what makes it unique. They are not glued, screwed, or tattooed. Rather, they are bonded together in the forging process. This process is a trade secret owned by Alpha, so they don't like to talk about it much, which is understandable. However, they will tell you that they think their process does the best job of bonding the two elements together better than anyone else's in the industry. We have seen lots of Alpha coolers, and I would have to say it would be hard to argue with them on that. (Mental note: Get the saw out.)

The Alpha is a bit different than many heatsinks out there in another way also. Most Alphas are designed to pull air up through the fins instead of the fan pushing air down into the heatsink. To make this work a bit better, Alphas have traditionally come with a shroud installed to help facilitate that performance.

The shroud provides two functions. First and foremost, it helps properly direct airflow, and second, it is spaced so that the fan blades are moved away from the ends of the heatsink pins. This gives you a little less air turbulence and should quiet the unit down a bit.