Heatsink:The heatsink is machine lapped and it shows, you can feel a very fine texture on the base, no mirror finish, but far from bad either:
Did I tell you this heatsink is massive? However its size matches almost exactly that of the default P4 heatsink bracket, so you won’t have issues to install this baby!
Alpha has always been known to be on of the sole heatsink manufactures which designed their sinks to be used with the fans sucking the air away from the HS, instead of blowing it down through the fins. How this helps performance, we’ll try to find out during the testing
Here’s what Alpha has done to improve the performance of the S-PAL8952 when compared to the older PAL8942
The S-PAL8952 shares many design features with the current PAL8942. They both mount through the four holes surrounding Socket 478. We increased the fin length by 10 mm and changed the fin pattern. The new fin pattern design is based on the air flow within the heat sink. The shape of the outside pins is square and inside pins are round. The intake cover is longer to prevent any air from taking a short cut past the hottest portion of the pins. These changes have improved the airflow and thermal performance of the heat sink.
Here’s a shot from above, showing the difference of the pins’ shapeInstallation:
Remove the default bracket, and install the 4 standoffs
4 springs with screws in them secure the heatsink in its place and as you can see, a perfect fit!
Next you put over the intake cover, which is there to guide the air through the heatsinks
Then you install either a 80x15mm, 80x25mm or a monstrous 80x35mm fan onto this heatsink, all the screws needed for this installation are includedWith everything installed it is time for some testing ->
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