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Alpha PEP66T Heatsink


Date
: 01/12/01 – 02:07:05 AM

Author
:

Category
: Cooling

Manufactor: Alpha Company

Ltd.

Price Alpha PEP66T heatsink: $39.95

Thanks to Coolerguys for supplying us with this great Alpha cooler!

Introduction

We all know that Tim made a review of his

href='/index.php?page=articles&num=43'

target='resource window'>Alpha PAL6035 cooler last week, which was kindly

supplied by the peeps @ Coolerguys. These guys also supplied

target='resource window'>Overclockers Online with another Alpha heatsink, this

time it’s the Alpha PEP66T. Because we know from the past that Alpha heatsinks can

go where no other heatsink has ever went before, we couldn’t resist putting it on

our testbed. By the way; I was just looking for a high performance CPU cooler that

would let me overclock my P3-700E to, and perhaps beyond, the 1Ghz barrier.

Is the Alpha PEP66T the cooler I was looking for? Let’s find out…

Specifications

• New Clip and flat bottom for use on the FC-PGA and Socket A processors.
• Alpha heatsink
• Copper Embedded
• Model# PEP66T
• Dual-ball Bearing fan
• Includes fan finger guard (fan grill)
• Includes 1.g G47 thermal compound

My First Impressions

Just like the PAL6035, the newest PEP66T has been redesigned to fith both Socket

A en Socket 370 (FC-PGA) CPUs. This PEP66T has a new flat, copper embedded bottom

and a new mounting clip design. Yep, it has a flat bottom without those small

plastic feet (PADS) which were great for Intel CPU owners, but a real nightmare for

those lucky bastards who own an AMD CPU. Hey…now the bottom is flat… and what

about the Intel CPU owners?? Well, those clever ingeneers from Alpha have included

some rubber feet (PADS) in the box, so you can easily put them on the bottom of the

heatsink (the spots are marked) whenever you need them. Smart move, huh! If you want

to use the heatsink on an AMD CPU later on, the feet can be removed from the bottom

by just rubbing over with your finger. Is this easy or what?!

The main difference between the

href='/index.php?page=articles&num=43'

target='resource window'>PAL6035 and this PEP66T is the side-mounted fan which

allows this Alpha to be also installed on the Slocket Adapters that the

original PEP uses.

As you can see on the pictures, the PEP66T is actually an aluminium FIN heatsink

with a copper bottom and a fan attached on the side. Do you want to know something

about the fan I’m using? Well, there isn’t much to say about it actually. The PEP66T

package we received, contained a 60mm Y.S. Tech fan which delivers an avarage

airflow of about 26cfm. But you can also order this PEP66T with a 60 mm Sunon fan

which has a lower noise rate and only a slightly lower airflow of 23cfm. I believe

everyone is smart enough to choose which type of fan he’ll want to use. :)

You can already pick up the PEP66T heatsink at

href='http:/www.coolerguys.com/CPUCOOL/Coppermine.htm' target='resource

window'>Coolerguys for ‘just’ $33.95. Don’t let there be any mistakes here; for

$33.95 you get the PEP66t heatsink without a cooler of your choice or

fan finger guard. That’s why I should advise you to go for the

href='http:/www.coolerguys.com/CPUCOOL/Coppermine.htm' target='resource

window'>$39.95 full PEP66T package which has a Y.S. Tech or Sunon fan and the

fan grill included. That’s only $6 more than just the $33.95 heatsink. But again…

it’s your choice.

These are pictures of the bottom of the heatsink WITHOUT the PADS!

And this is a pic of the bottom AFTER the PADS had been put on.

Installation

First of all, this cooler has to be assembled before you can put it onto your

CPU. Don’t worry, this is a very easy process and, with the

href='/images/articles/pep66t/PEP66T_install.pdf' target='resource window'>nice manual by your side,

this should be finished in less than 5 minutes. First, you have to put the mounting

clip into the heatsink. Then you have to assemble the intake cover and the fan and

screw them both down by using the right bolts. Then, last but certainly not least,

you have to put the feet (PADS) onto the bottom of the heatsink and you’re done.

NOTE : the feet should only be used in case you have an Intel FC-PGA CPU!

Now, the only thing that’s left for you to do is putting some thermal grease

onto the CPU’s core so you can fit the cooler onto the CPU.

NOTE : Be extremely careful not

href='/index.php?page=articles&num=25'

target='resource window'>to crush the CPU’s core!

Testing

System setup

- AOpen HQ45 case

- Asus CUV4X motherboard

- Intel P3-700E @ 945Mhz (7x135Mhz)

- 128MB pc133 RAM (cas 3-3-3-5)

- WD 20Gb 7200RPM UDMA66

- Creative Geforce DDR

- Win2k (SP1)

- Directx 8 final + Detonator 6.47 + VIA 4.25a

Don’t laugh at this poor s*cker :) hihi

The Results

I have to admit, this PEP66T is the first CPU cooler that took my P3-700E beyond the

1Ghz barrier (1022Mhz to be exact!!) without any lockups or other errors

whatsoever. I was really amazed by the results that can be achieved with this HSF.

Next, let’s have a look at some numbers, shall we? Ooh, right… I need to tell you

what we mean by ‘full load’ :) Well, that’s

about 2 hours of Prime95 together with RC5. Duh, what did you expect? Did you expect

that we were going to test this HSF by just playing a game of Minesweeper? I don’t

think so :)

As I already told you above, I was able to overclock my P3-700E to a rockstable

1022Mhz (1.95v) by just using aircooling. 1022Mhz!! Man, just say that out loud and

enjoy how it sounds! :) That’s quite an achievement, don’t you think? With the room

temperature hovering around 20C, the CPU didn’t get any warmer than 42C at full

load. But because I’m comparing results of the Alpha PEP66T heatsink with the

results I got when using the stock Intel heatsink, I had to lower the CPU speed from

1022Mhz to 945Mhz for the one and only reason that 945Mhz is the highest setting I

could get with the stock cooler :(

First, I’ll give you the idle temperatures; with the stock Intel cooler, the CPU

temperature was 34C and with the PEP66T it went no higher than 31C. After the CPU

got its full load the PEP66T managed to keep the CPU temperature down to a

cool 37C, while the temperature went up to a very warm 48C with the

stock cooler. That’s a decrease by more than 10C! Not bad at all, if you ask me.

Good

- Great performance

- Allows stable overclocking

- Nice design

- Alpha quality

Bad

- Rather expensive

- Doesn’t fit all Socket A & Socket 370 mobos

- Mounting it onto the CPU can be difficult

Conclusion

Don’t the results speak for themselves? I think so. I mean…wow, what a CPU

cooler! At full load, the PEP66T dropped the CPU temperature by 11C compared to the

standard Intel HSF. There isn’t much left for me to say other than: If you want to

get yourself one of the best CPU coolers around and you got the necessary $$$, I’d

strongly advise you to go for the Alpha PEP66T!