Alpha PAL 8045

Manufacturer: Alpha Company Ltd.
Supplied by: The Cooler Guys
Price: $39.95  (less fan - available fans below)

Delta 80x80x38mm, 68CFM $19.99
Michatronics 80x80x25mm, 53CFM $9.95
Sunon 80x80x25mm, 50CFM $9.95
Sunon 80x80x25, 33.1CFM (28dBa) $7.95

Introduction:

Oh, how soon we forget.  It seems as if some great amount of time has gone by since last we heard the giant roars from the Alpha company.  When you stop and think for a second, it was only a year ago that the Alpha PEP66 and Alpha PAL6035 were two of the rockingest coolers money could buy.  High performance heatsinks production was a small niche in the  market.  Now there are more makers of performance heatsinks than you can shake a Thermocouple at.  Alpha slowly faded into the background like “Shane” riding off into the sunset.  Well, guess what?  Old “Shane” is back with an attitude and a thirst to be back on top.  Alpha isn’t playing games either; with the Alpha PAL8045 they are gunning squarely for the Swiftech MC-462.  The MC-462 is the ultimate-ultimate, bad ass, heatsink that no one questions as the King Cooler.  Can Alpha do it?  We intend to find out.  First we want to thank the big man, Todd, over at The Cooler Guys for hooking us up with Alpha's newest badness.

The Sink itself

That snow white Alpha package sure looks familiar.  For that matter so does the PAL8045.  (We’ll get to that in a minute.)  The PAL8045 heatsink dimensions (less fan) are 80x80x45mm.  When we referenced the Swiftech, it was for a variety of reasons.  This is the second large sized heatsink we have seen here in the Penthouse Labs.  So large in fact, that it must be secured to the mainboard via the four mounting holes.  Most mainboards BUT NOT ALL, have these holes around the socket.  So a word of caution if you are considering the PAL8045 or any oversized sink for your box, be sure your mainboard can support its mounting mechanism.  Alpha has a listing of supported mainboards here for the PAL8045

The unit has a fan shroud that mounts atop the sink so that it ends up covering approximately the top quarter of the convection area.  Alpha didn’t stray far from a proven design.  Convection is carried out via a bunch (no I didn’t count them) of hexagonal rods.  Quite a bit of surface area there.  The fan shroud helps the heatsink draw air from the base of the cooling rods and then over their length and out the fan.  The age old question of should it suck or blow is of course going to be revisited here.  In the center pic below you can see the four holes that will be used shortly to mount this bemouth to our mobo. 

Turning the sink on its back exposes one beautiful piece of craftsmanship.  Alpha uses a copper insert surrounded by aluminum for its base.  The reasoning is based on the thermal transfer properties of copper and aluminum.  Copper is much more thermally conductive than aluminum, however copper does not dissipate that thermal energy as quickly as aluminum.  Seems as if Alpha was looking for the best of both worlds or rather an extension of a proven design.  No lapping needed on this base.  I could shave by this thing!

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