Alpha PAL8942

Introduction

Alpha is one of the premiere names in cooling. They took the cooling world by storm with classics such as the Alpha PEP66 and the Alpha PAL6035, then again with newer beasts using 80mm fans such as the Alpha 8045. When the P4 came out, Alpha didn't seem to hop on it to fast. Or they were sitting back and waiting for the competition to put theirs out so they could step in and put on the "alpha ownage" :o). However while Alpha was seemingly away from the market, companies such as Swiftech stepped in with fantastic copper based coolers that were so far ahead of the competition, it seemed almost hopeless waiting for that SuperAlpha to come out. However, there was one thing the swiftech didn't have, and that was a decent and affordable price tag. Alpha stepped in for the AMD fans and gave them some swiftech matchin`, Alpha luvin with the 8045 for half the price! But, what about us P4 peeps?

Well the wait is over and Alpha has hit the market with its own Socket 478 P4 cooler named the PAL8942 and lemme tell ya, I was an instant customer! I've had Alpha coolers since the I got the PEP66 and they have always been fantastic coolers. Will this PAL8942 continue on in the ol` Alpha tradition? ...Something tells me it will...but you better keep reading to find out :o)

The Unit

Alpha PAL8942

The Shroud

Tension screws

The Heatsink Factory was kind enough to send me a new Alpha PAL8942 to review and the timing could NOT have been more perfect as I just picked up a very overclockable 1.8A northwood socket 478 P4. :o) If you've read my previous P4 overclocking article, you know that I used strictly stock components to overclock a very high amount with the P4, however at those high mhz, the heat generated was becoming too much for my comfort range. In steps the Alpha! More on the overclocking will be in my "P4 Overclocking Part 2" article coming up next! So stay tuned!

Back to the Alpha 8942, you can see that Alpha keeps in its tradition of the now infamous "forged" copper base. It's so high tech of a process that Alpha uses, they've yet to tell anyone exactly how they do it. But , this technology has worked very well in every previous product from them and I'm expecting very good things from this one since it's even bigger, and has more copper in the base,than the older ones......w00t! :o)

Installation

Ok, time to do the installation of this monster on my new P4 setup. At the time , I had the stock intel cooler on the cpu along with using only the thermal pad included on the intel hsf. Let's take a look at the process of removing the stock P4 cooler and installing this big bish :o)

Prepare for MB Removal

MB Removed and Ready

Stock Cooler Removed

This step is pretty simple, I'm just showing ya as I clear away the cables and remove the PCI cards so I can remove the motherboard from the case. I'm gonna need to get under the motherboard to remove the old hsf and install the new hsf correctly. The stock cooler is a beast for sure and surely good enough for all but the extremists ( me! ). A couple things to note with the stock cooler, one good, one bad. The good thing is I love the "bracket cage" hsf system used with the Intel's and in my combo especially. The "claw" as I like to call it is very unique and holds extremely well. However the bad thing , well actually two bad things now that I think about it, is the fact that the stock cooler has NO copper core, and it also uses an odd thermal pad. Again, the thermal pad is obviously an adequate thermal solution or it wouldn't grace an intel product, however it's no Arctic Silver either.

Ewww....

What The.......

Here you can see the Stock cooler fully removed. As always, with the pressure this cooler attachs, it left some residue on the P4 cpu itself. Now pay close attention to the pic on the right. Now, this made me go "wtf?". I used a razor scraper and was just gonna remove it in one clean sweep, but this surprised me. The thermal "pad" looks like it's a metal based sticker! It actually made it alot easier to remove so it's fine with me, but just very odd looking....heh. The only reason I removed the thermal pad was just so I could store the heatsink in the drawer with the rest of the "non-alpha's"....lol.

Pry Up Inserts

Squeeze Tips To Remove

Ok, with that big block of aluminum outta the way, we can now take off the stock cooler's base. It is attached directly to the motherboard using 4 connection points so we'll need to do a couple things to remove it, but nothing hard by any means. First, "pry" up the 4 white pushpin heads which will loosen the underside allowing you to squeeze and push them thru the board to remove the base. If you've ever installed/removed a thermaltake blue orb, it's the same kinda thing.

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