In our test of about a dozen heatsinks, we have found that you can see up to 5C improvement in temperature by mounting the cooler without the P3 backplate. Seeing how the Alpha P3125 already  blew away other P3 coolers, even with the backplate removed, we figured it would really kick ass once we mount the P3125 without the backplate.

Put the P3 on the heatsink (don't forget the heatsink compound) then take apart a ball point pen and cut it up into little strips like the above photo. The height of the cuts to the pen is basically the same height as what the P3 backplate takes up. We just use a hack saw to cut the pen.

Now we just take the supplied Alpha mounting hardware and mount the alpha like we would if  we had a backplate. You can use the supplied spring clip if you want. We chose to just use the I beam (at least that's what I think it's call. Maybe it's a H beam?).

Here is the finished setup. You can see the L2 spacer on the left. This Pentium III-450 is now happily cruising at 600Mhz. Something it has never been able to do with any other cooler. Look for a full review of the Alpha P3125 in a few days.

[Page 1] [Page 2] [Page 3] [Home]