SUMMARY: Most of us who have been using the AMD line of processors have long ago figured out that cooling is essential. But with the new interest in the Intel line mixed with the overclockability of the new Northwood processors, this idea is becoming a larger part of the Pentium Power System. Come join Asher "Acid" Moses as he takes a look at the Alpha PAL8942 HSF. It's time to see if the Alpha coolers can do for Intel what they have long done for AMD.
The PAL8942 has dimensions of 80mm x 90mm x 42mm, which is much larger than what we are used to. The reason for this being that it has to be mounted using holes in the motherboard which are placed quite far away from the CPU socket.
The heatsink was manufactured using Alpha's famous "forging" technique. Its base features a copper inlay, which greatly increases performance due to the fact that copper is a better conductor than aluminum. You may be thinking "why isn't the whole heatsink made out of copper then?". The reason for this is because copper is also a lot more expensive than aluminium, and much harder to machine. Sticking out from the base is a plethora of pins. The reason why it was manufactured this way, instead of being one large block of aluminum, is because the more pins, the greater the surface area, and if you increase the surface area, it will result in increased performance.
Alpha have anodized the PAL8942 black. Most of Alpha's heatsinks feature this black coloring and it is important to note that the only difference between an anodized and a non-anodized heatsink is its looks. Anodizing a heatsink won't increase or decrease performance whatsoever.
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