SUMMARY: Alpha has been quiet for a pretty long time now, but that doesn’t mean that they have been sleeping. Come join Darthtanion as he takes a look at their newest offering; namely the Alpha PAL8045 Heatsink. We’ll take a look at it in its native habitat and let you know whether or not it’s worth the hefty price tag that it carries.
Even without a fan, there are a number of items that come with this heatsink. Let’s see what we have here…
You’ll get the heatsink itself (of course), which is similar in design to the very expensive Swiftech units. It consists of pins all over the sink that creates a huge amount of surface area. Next up is the white hood that will help protect the pins, and allow for a means of securing the fan to the unit. Two small baggies contain all the screws, washers, nuts, springs and such that will be required when it comes time to assemble this monster.
Also included is an instruction pamphlet. It is written in an easy to understand format and has numerous illustrations. This is very handy since this sink doesn’t install like your common breed, and the last thing we want to do is to damage our precious processor.
The Heatsink
We’ve seen a lot of tricks for getting an 80mm fan mounted onto a heatsink, but Alpha has taken a new approach to this theory. Instead of making some sort of converter, they just enlarged the entire heatsink.
That’s right, this beast measures in at 80mm x 80mm x 45mm and weighs in at a very hefty 520 grams (without fan). What all this means is that you have one huge sink on your hands that also has a large amount of mass to help dissipate the heat built up by the processor core.
But it also means that you’ll be able to use those 80mm fans that run considerably quieter than the faster 60mm screamers. For those who are looking for something that is easier on the ears, then this may be just the ticket.
The Base
The PAL8045 is an aluminum sink, but the majority of the base has a hunk of copper embedded to help out with the cooling chores. There were small swirls seen in the base of the sink from the machining of the insert, but the feel was very smooth. There weren’t any noticeable ridges or anything to be felt on the base.
While we’re here on the base, let me point out that there are two sets of holes bored into it. The small holes on the outside corners of the unit are the threaded holes that will be used to install the fan. The larger holes around the edge of the copper insert, however, are what we’ll be using to mount the heatsink to the motherboard. We’ll go through the installation a bit later, but if you’ve ever noticed those holes that surround your socket, then you’ll have an idea as to how this thing will be mounted.
So now that we can see what makes this thing tick, let’s get into the installation…
