Now that I have all of the hardware ready, I put the heatsink onto the socket of the motherboard and screwed the 4 screws down. When you screw the screws in you will want to do it in an “X” pattern tightening the screws in a diagional pattern. You may also want to hold the mounting lugs with a pair of pliers because they started to spin before the screws were tight enough. As you can see from the below pictures the heatsink almost doesn’t fit. The capacitors around the socket are actually being pushed a little so that I could fit this Alpha on.
After you have the heatsink secured to the motherboard you can put the shroud back onto the heatsink and then attach your 80mm fan. To attach the fan to the heatsink you will use the gold colored screws and metal washers. I will be using an 80mm 80CFM Delta for the testing of this heatsink.
Test Bed
- AOpen AK77 Pro(A)-133
- 1.2Ghz Thunderbird
- 256MB Crucial PC2100
- Asus Geforce 2 GTS 64MB
- Globalwin YCC-8870 case
Like always I will be using Artic Silver 3 for testing, I will also be using an external Compunurse thermal probe for the temperature readings. To get the idle temperatures I booted up the computer and let it idle for about 20 minutes. To get the load temperatures of each speed I used Prime 95 for about 20 minutes.
As you can see this heatsink performs really well, I was expecting it to be better, but I think it is due to the fact that my thermal probe not quite right. I reseated the heatsink 3 times and got different results each time. A load temperature of 40 degrees Celsius is still really good though.
Conclusion:
The Alpha PAL 8045 is a great performer and has a lot to offer to an overclocker. The only real negative aspect of this heatsink is the fact that it is so large that it will not fit on all motherboards and that it is difficult to install. If your motherboard does not have the room due to capacitors being in the way it is possible in some cases to mod the heatsink by cutting it. If you want a good heatsink which can cool your CPU really well and you have enough room on your motherboard, I would really recommend this one to you. Overall I would give this heatsink a 8/10, and I would like to thank Case-Mod for sending this heatsink to me to review.
Pros:
- Great performance
- Great price ($31.99)
- Uses mounting holes
- Instructions are easy to follow
Cons:
- Difficult to install
- Will not fit all motherboards
- No thermal compound included
