![[H]ardOCP](/images/blank.gif){kind=small}
- Date:
- Wednesday, August 01, 2001
- Author:
- Kyle Bennett
- Google +1
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.
The Retention Mechanism:
The Alpha PAL8045 does not mount like most other heatsinks in that it does not use the cleats on the edge of the socket. It takes full advantage of the four holes that are specified by AMD on Socket A boards. While it has never been said, it is my guess that those holes were made standard on the boards due to AMD's relationship with Kryotech, as they were needed to properly install vapor phase cooling systems built by Kryotech. The Asetek VapoChill also uses these holes as well.
Four aluminum studs are mounted in these holes using plastic washers to prevent any shorting. The nuts used on the backside of the board are plastic as well.
As you can see in the pictures above, there are four long screws used to attach the heatsink to the mainboard via the studs. These screws have been fitted with metal springs that are tempered to exert an exact pressure down onto the heatsink to hold it in place atop your CPU. You will tighten the screws down until they bottom out, and at that point you will have the proper amount of pressure to hold the heatsink in place because of the springs pressing down. Alpha has put together a nice installation guide in PowerPoint format, which is about 3MB to download. You can grab it here for more detailed installation instructions.
While this type of mounting procedure might look to be a bit tricky, it is very much worth the effort involved. It you are the kind of person that will take your heatsink on and off often, you probably don't want to hassle with this, as you will have to uninstall the mainboard in most instances to get to the back of it in order to secure the plastic nuts to hold the studs in place. (I am going to forego the obvious joke there.) If you are not one of those folks, the mounting system on the PAL8045 is simply rock solid. If you are a LAN gamer or move your box around any at all, this type of mounting is the way to go for sure. You can be assured that your HSF has not come off or become ajar after a road trip, and that means you don't have to worry about setting that poor little TBird or Duron on fire.
I would highly suggest you read the mounting instructions fully BEFORE you install this heatsink. If you go about it improperly, you could easily chip or break your AMD CPU core.
The Competition.
Many are going to argue my point on this, but let's keep in mind that this is more of a comparison review than a shootout. We will be doing a full shootout for August that will have both these coolers featured, plus a few new ones you have not seen yet. But for the sake of this review, we will be using really the only other air cooler that fits into the same class. When I mention class, I mean that they are both tops in performance.
The Swiftech MC462A is the only mass-marketed HSF unit widely sold in the U.S. that the Alpha is worth comparing to.
Both of these units mount in "identical" manners, so we will skip that portion of the discussion except to say that the MC462A is going to be extremely secure once it is properly installed and should not give you any reason to worry, the same as the Alpha.
The first difference you will notice is that the MC462A has a base of solid copper, and that this unit is not anodized above the heatplate like the Alpha. It has a big bad machined piece of copper that is very close to the dimensions of the 8045. The newer MD462As do enjoy the cut-aways at the corners, unlike earlier versions of the unit that might have prevented you from mounting on some boards.
The next difference you will notice is that the pins are quite a bit larger and that the Swiftech is not "homogenously" constructed like the Alpha. You could argue that this is a bad thing, but the fact of the matter is that Swiftech seems to do an excellent job in their fabrication and bonding processes. To really test the construction consistency on either heatsink, you would really need five to ten samples of each. Still, there is no doubt that both these units are much more consistently produced than something like the Kanie HedgeHog, which can differ greatly in its construction and performance.