Cooling Results
To demonstrate the power of the Alpha PEP66 we kept the fan ON for 10 minutes and then turned it OFF for 10 minutes to see the true potential of this HSF on our Celeron 466 @ 66Mhz FSB (not-overclocked) / MSI BxMaster / 128MB PC100 Test Rig... Its to be noted that the room temperature was hovering around 18 to 19 degrees Celsius.
- Heatsink/Fan ON: 23 degrees C
- Heatsink/Fan OFF: 27 degrees C
- Difference: 4 degrees C
Temperature - Degrees C (lower is better)
I would was expecting better cooling results then what the figures show above... but at the same time this unit is cooling your CPU down by 12% and if you are or are considering overclocking your CPU this may mean you’ll be able to push it to the next FSB (Front Side Bus) level.
Installation
Installation of the Alpha PEP66 was pretty simple, any trained monkey would be capable of such task... Included with the PEP66 is a one page Installation Guide (w/ pictures, English and Chinese) to help you get it up and running. For me, the instructions were not needed (but I hardly ever use instructions... Hehe). Nothing really hard is involved, a fair amount of pressure is needed to attach the heatsink to the chip, adding the thermal paste and be messy.
All was ok, the HSF was attached to the chip (tight as a rock), but once I tried to put the PPGA (w/ CPU) in the Slot 1 I noticed the heatsink was actually resting on the RAM, Tom from PC Cables R Us gave me the idea of insulating the metal part of the heatsink with some type of tape (I used duct tape) so that even if the heatsink was resting on the ram, no harm would be done... I should have really thought of that myself, but thanks for this part of the installation must go to Tom!
- Pros: Value for money, took 4 degrees Celsius off our CPU temperature, easy installation.
- Cons: Noticeable noise output, depending on your system - installation can be tricky.
Conclusion
I was impressed with what the Alpha PEP66 had to offer; 4 degrees Celsius cooler, nice features, value for money and simple installation (can be tricky if you had a similar problem to us, as mentioned above), that’s pretty much sums up what I think of the PEP66... We give the Alpha PEP66u Kit 8.5 / 10.
