Installing these monster coolers takes a bit of forethought. I had plan to test these units using the Abit BP6 motherboard. However the FDP32 was too big to fit! I ended up testing these coolers using Abit's new BE6 and a SlotKET.

Putting the coolers on a SlotKET was pretty straight forward. The Alpha 7HO comes with a needle of really high quality heatsink compound. The FDP32 comes with a little tube of heatsink grease. However AMK Services ships them with a cap of the same high quality heatsink compound that 3dfxCOOL ships with the 7HO. This makes the comparison more fair as I really want to compare the coolers and not the heatsink interface material.

The BE6 motherboard is an update to the popular BH6. It's nice and small. However this has a downside. I had to move the PC-133 RAM to the 3rd DIMM slots because when the coolers were installed, the Alpha blocked off one DIMM and the Global Win blocked of TWO!! If you have a BE6 or BH6 and want to install a FDP32, make sure you're only using 1 DIMM because that's all you'll get.

Both units are very heavy for Socket 370 heatsinks but not so heavy that the SlotKET can't support it. I didn't feel a need for additional support for either units. However if you move your computer a lot you may want to zip tie them down to the Slot 1 rails just to be safe.

Both coolers use clips to secure themselves to the SlotKET. The clip on the FDP32 is better than the clip Alpha used on the 7HO. The FDP32 held the unit to the SlotKET really tight. It won't allow the FDP32 to move at all. The 7HO clip didn't apply anywhere near the pressure the FDP32 clip did. You can still move the Alpha back and forth after you install the cooler on the SlotKET.

Total time to install either coolers was just a few minutes. The main thing to remember is that these are very big heatsinks and will be blocking off DIMM slots on your Slot 1 motherboard if you have one of the smaller ones. So far I have put the units in the BX6-2 without any problems and no DIMM blocking. On the new Asus P3B-F you will lose 1 DIMM with the Alpha and 2 DIMMs with the Global Win. Luckily the new P3B-F comes with 4 DIMM slots.

Before considering a Global Win FDP32 for a Socket 370 motherboard you better make sure it fits. So far I know it will fit an Abit BM6 but it's too big for the new BP6 *major bummer*. The good thing about using a Socket 370 motherboard with these coolers is that they won't be blocking any of your valuable DIMM slots.

Next Page: The Test