Written: 4/12/2000
Written by:
MotoŽ
Price: $35.00US
Alphas supplied by:
AMK Services
The Alpha FC-PAL35T and PEP66T are new coolers designed for the new Intel Coppermine CPU (AKA the Flip Chip). The PC-PAL35T (right) uses pins and can be mounted on a Slotket or directly to the CPU without a Slotket if you have a socket 370 motherboard. The PEP66T (left) is a fin heatsink designed for Slotket mounting only. Both units sell for $35US from AMK Services.
These cooler have some insane and hard to remember names. I will just call them PIN and FIN from now on. The PIN is the FC-PAL35T and the FIN is the PEP66T. It's really good that Alpha created two versions of the Coppermine cooler. This was a good chance for me to find out which is better, using a fin design or a pin design.
Here you can see the copper base plate of both coolers. Notice the four plastic pegs. Those are used to ensure the heatsink mounts flush to the Coppermine CPU. The contact area of a Coppermine CPU is very small and it's very easy to mount the heatsink not flushed. The pegs fixes this problem.
The two coolers share quite a lot in common. The first is they both use YS Tech fans. These 26CFM fans are mounted so they suck air out instead of blow air in. Both cooler comes with a fan shroud to help direct the air flow and copper base plate for better heat transfer. Lastly, they both sell for the same price. The question is does one perform better than the other and which one should you get with your shiny new Coppermine?