Alpha used
to be pretty much the kings of PC CPU cooling. Their "microforged" heat
sinks had thinner pins than anybody else could manage, and their interesting
shrouded-sink designs make sure all of every pin gets air flow. But now
there are quite a few other high-performance heat sinks, and the two chunky
socket-CPU Alphas I've had kicking around here for some time now don't look
tremendously exciting.
That's because both of these coolers
use 4500RPM 60mm fans, not the 6800RPM+ units that the best current coolers
have. You can stick a 6800RPM fan on an Alpha, no problem, but you'll pay
for the privilege.
An Alpha cooler comes as a box of
bits that you have to assemble; it's not a difficult procedure, but it's
unusual.
Once you've done the assembly
of the PAL6035, you're rewarded with a quality cooler. There's an excellent
two-part wire-and-bent-metal clip that holds quite firmly and is easy to
attach, there's a copper inlay in the base to maximise heat transfer from
small-die CPUs.
And there's decent performance,
too. With the 4800RPM fan, and after well over a year of continuous service
in a real computer (I blew the dust out of the heat sink before I tested
it), the PAL6035 still scored 0.66°C/W. A very good result for a fairly
quiet cooler.
