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Swiftech MCX4000 VS Alpha 8942


Date
: 08/27/02 – 12:07:15 AM

Author
:

Category
: Cooling

Page 1 : Introduction

Manufacturer: Alpha & Swiftech
Price:
Alpha 8942: $49.95 (with Crystal fan and chrome grill included) / $35.95 (without fan included)
Swiftech MCX4000: $51.00

Introduction

With the Pentium4 being a "hot item" among the overclockers, good cooling solutions are needed to keep these overclocked speed devils up and running stable. Today, I am taking a look at two of the most popular and best performing aircooled heatsinks currently available for the Pentium4: the Alpha 8942 in the blue corner and the Swiftech MCX4000 in the red corner. Both brands have a long history of producing high performance heatsinks (check O²'s heatsink reviews here) and I'm sure their goals are still identical to their original ones: providing the audience with high performance heatsinks. Overclockers Online is putting both cooling monsters on the test platform: let the games begin and may the best man win!

Page 2 : Specifications

Specifications

First things first: what are both heatsinks packing? What features do they come with?

Alpha 8942

- Size: 80x90x45.5mm
- 6063 aluminum fins
- Embedded copper base
- Black anodized
- Can take any 80mm fan
- Comes with screws for 25mm and 15mm thick fan
- Mounts through the motherboard, using four holes with included screws, springs and washers
- Compatible with all socket478 P4 motherboards (if they come with the four mounting holes)

Swiftech MCX4000

- Size: 80x90x36mm
- Base is CNC machined and made out of C110 copper
- 429 helicoid pins made of high thermal conductivity aluminum alloy, press fitted in the copper base
- Weight: 600g
- Mounts through the motherboard, using four holes with included screws, springs and washers
- Comes with 70mm Y.S. Tech TMD (Tip Magnetic Drive) fan
- Fan speed: 5800RPM
- Fan airflow: 36.8CFM
- Noise level: 39.0dBA
- Can also take any 80mm fan if required
- Compatible with all socket478 P4 motherboards (if they come with the four mounting holes)

As you can see, both heatsinks are using a combination of copper and aluminum to achieve good results. We all know copper can draw heat away much faster compared to aluminum, but aluminum releases the heat faster. That's why a copper/aluminum performs excellent and is used by most heatsink manufacturers.

The MCX4000 comes with a full copper base, whereas the 8942 has an embedded copper base, surrounded by aluminum. Although both heatsinks have an excellent finishing, the Swiftech unit takes away the prize for best finishing. The base is perfectly flat and shines like a diamond! Of course, a flat base translates into better contact with the CPU core, which results in better cooling.

Coolerguys, who supplied us with the Alpha 8942, included an 80mm Crystal fan, which comes with two blue LED's on the inside of the fan and also a manual RPM knob. The fan measures 80x80x25mm and can be set to run at a speed between 1500RPM (20CFM airflow) and 4000RPM (50CFM airflow). This kit also comes with a sweet looking chrome "alien" grill! You also get a 3-to-4 pin converter in case you have no power connector available on the motherboard …

As I already mentioned in the specs, Swiftech preinstalls the Y.S. Tech TMD fan onto the MCX4000. This "Tip Magnetic Drive" fan uses a new technology to improve airflow and reduce noise output. Because of the very slim "center" of the fan, there is no dead spot … With normal fans, the location right underneath the middle of the fan is getting less airflow than the other areas. Thanks to this new TMD design, this issue is resolved. Unlike most heatsinks, the MCX4000 uses a 70mm fan, but if needed, the heatsink can take an 80mm fan as well: just in case you want to install an ultra high performance 7000RPM rated Delta fan.

Page 3 : Installation

Installation

Since both heatsinks are using the four mounting holes on the motherboard, installation takes a little longer then we're used to. First of all, you have to remove the mounting bracket that is installed on P4 motherboards and is intended to lock down the heatsink. As soon as you got it removed, you have to install the mounting screws onto the motherboard. These are the screws that will be used to install the heatsink. Although both heatsinks use a similar mounting mechanism, I did prefer the Swiftech way. I found the plastic bolts easier to install, but I'm sure others will prefer the metal bolts Alpha is using … it all comes down to personal preferences …

Once you got the mounting system ready, the only thing left to do is bolt down the heatsink to it. Again, both companies are using an identical way of working: a screw with a spring around it goes through the heatsink, into the mounting screws. The springs provide the exact amount of pressure needed to get an optimal contact between the heatsink and the CPU core.

With the MCX4000, you're all set at this point. If you are using the Alpha 8942 you have to install the fan shroud and the fan because the fan covers the screws used to install the heatsink onto the motherboard. In other words, the fan will have to be removed before you can uninstall the heatsink.

Don't forget to apply thermal grease between the heatsink and the CPU core!! It is vital to good cooling performance and since both heatsinks come with some high quality thermal paste, you have no excuse not to apply it.

Page 4 : Testing

Testing

The big question remains: which heatsink performs best in real life circumstances. In order to test the performance of both P4 heatsinks, the following test setup was used:

- ABIT BD7 motherboard
- Intel P4 1.6A @ 2.13GHz / 1.5V CPU
- 256MB Crucial DDR PC2100 memory
- ABIT GeForce3 Ti200 video card
- Western Digital 7200RPM hard disk
- Windows XP Professional + latest drivers

Each time I changed heatsinks, a new layer of Artic Silver 3 was applied to make sure contact between the core and the heatsink was optimal. Both heatsinks were tested with the 80mm Crystal fan at full speed and the MCX4000 was also tested with the standard 70mm TMD fan.
Before any measurements were taken, the CPU was tortured with 99 loops of SiSoft Sandra's CPU benchmarks, making sure the thermal paste is settled in well :). All temperatures are measured by using the P4 built-in diode at full load, without a case and with a room temperature of approximately 26 degrees Celsius.

As you can see, the Swiftech MCX4000 featuring the Crystal fan is taking the lead over the Alpha 8942 by a few degrees. The TMD fan fitted MCX4000 is the second best performer and still outperforms the Alpha, while also being the quietest one in the pack. The Alpha takes third place, but is very close to the MCX4000 …

Page 5 : Conclusion

Conclusion

Each heatsink has it strong and weak points, that's the way things go. The Swiftech MCX4000 is clearly performing better than the Alpha 8942 if fitted with the same fan. When using the preinstalled Y.S. Tech TMD fan, the MCX4000 is taking second place, but still doing great at much better audio levels ;). If we take a look at the pricetags, the Alpha is clearly in favor because it is $10 cheaper (prices @ Coolerguys). In the end, the choice is yours: do you want nothing but the best, or do you want the best price/performance ratio? Big thanks to Coolerguys and Swiftech for supplying us with these test units.

Alpha 8942 Heatsink

Good

- Price/performance ratio
- Comes with all the hardware you need to install different sort of fans (15mm or 25mm)

Bad

- I prefer the Swiftech mounting system (personal favor)

Swiftech MCX4000

Good

- High performance when using 80mm fan
- Comes with Y.S. Tech 70mm TMD fan (low noise, good performance)
- Mounting system (again, personal favor)

Bad

- Pricetag