by  John Bogush  09/06/99

  It is definitely apparent that the PPGA Celerons are presently king of the overclocking world right now.  As has become common knowledge one of the most important variables to OC success is effective processor cooling.   Without the proper cooling solution strapped to that shiny new processor slug, you may be in for a very frustrating experience.  Lately there have been a number of choices presented to us and it is sometimes difficult to sort through all the information and recommendations when it comes to choosing the best PPGA cooler for your system.   I have taken four of the most popular PPGA (socket 7/ 370) coolers available today and run them around the heatsink test track to help you decide what best will fulfill your needs.

Whats available...

  We have been very lucky in the OC community lately because it seems like the heatsink manufacturers have finally begun realizing what our needs are.   We are no longer left to select only among anemic little heatsinks that have been considered barely adequate by OEM standards.  Along has come the new kid on the block ALPHA who with their popular slot1 cooler the P125 has definitely made their presence known.  With the popularity of the PPGA processor, ALPHA's PFH6035 has been the supreme cooler among hardcore PPGA overclockers.  GlobalWIN is a heatsink manufacturer that we are all familiar with.  They have recently introduced their "ALPHA Killer" the FDP-32 along with it's slightly smaller brother the FEP-32 to replace their standard socket 7 cooler the CPM-16/32.

  Ya gotta have details...

  Lets start with the older and smallest of the lot the GlobalWIN CPM-16/32.  It was the original "most popular" PPGA cooler mostly because nothing better was available when the PPGA processors hit the streets.   It is a holdover from socket 7 which fortunately at the time adapted well to PPGA.   The CPM-32 was originally the CPM-16 which became the "32" model with the addition of a more powerful Y.S. Tech 27cfm fan.  The same fan by the way I used on all the heatsinks for all testing.  The CPM-32 has a relatively small heatsink but it's performance was considered "top-notch" in it's day and installation is very easy with the standard type socket 7 heatsink clip.

  Next we have the first "PPGA heatsink hotrod" the ALPHA PFH6035.  It is a unique heatsink in that it is of a "pin fin" design rather then the extruded fin design typically found in the more common heatsinks.   ALPHA likes practicing good engineering and thats why the PFH6035 performs so well.   Along with all those tiny pin fins ALPHA designed the heatsink to be used with an aluminum shroud that partially covers the heatsink when correctly installed.  The shroud compliments another difference from typical heatsinks in that the 60mm fan is mounted so as to draw air from the heatsink rather then forcing the airflow through it.   This combination adds up to an incredibly effective PPGA cooling solution and sets the standard for others to "aim" at.  The PFH6035 usually comes from the vendor unassembled and there are a few more parts then most.  Assembly is relatively easy but for those who do get confused I have created a simple diagram to follow and 2CoolTek has a pictorial of the process for your convenience.

  Now its GlobalWIN's turn and "aim" they did, they recently introduced the FDP-32 also coined the "ALPHA Killer".  The FDP-32 is a huge extruded fin design heatsink.  It has no special "shrouds" such as the ALPHA unit but GlobalWIN uses brute size to make the FDP-32 the cooler king it is.   It comes already assembled and installation is easy again with the standard type socket 7 heatsink clip.  It is very large and perhaps that may be it's downfall for some overclockers.  It may not fit on some motherboards such as the Abit BP6 dual processor board but thats where our next contestant come into play.

  Realizing that the FDP-32 was not going to fit everybody's needs, GlobalWIN just introduced the FEP-32.  It is a "cut-down" version of the FDP-32 allowing it to fit where the FDP-32 might not such as on the Abit BP6 mobo.   The FEP-32's smaller footprint does come with the cost of slightly decreased performance so read on to get the test results.

  How do they perform...

  All the heatsinks were tested in a standard ATX mid tower case with no other extra cooling provided other then the standard power supply fan blowing out of the case.  The ambient room air temperature for all testing was 25c and the installation of each heatsink was repeated 3 times with separate test data recorded (with the average reported) for each installation to rule out any variance the manual application of thermal compound may have added.  No thermal interface type pads were used whether the heatsink came with them or not,  the only thermal interface material used for data collection was silicone thermal compound.  The exact same fan was used for all tests to rule out any variance in rpm differences between fans.  The temperatures recorded are the maximum obtained while running Prime95 measured using Motherboard Monitor 4.10 on a Soyo 6BA+III (BIOS 2aa2) with a Celeron PPGA 366 at 550MHz on a MSI-6905 slotket adapter.

  Special thanks to PCNut for supplying the Soyo 6BA+III, Celeron PPGA 366, and MSI-6905 slotket adapter for the test rig.

  It is obvious from the collected test data that the GlobalWIN FDP-32 is the clear winner as far as pure cooling performance.   It's large size is no match for even the finely engineered second place ALPHA PFH6035.

  According to the test data I collected it would seem that the FEP-32 does lose a substantial amount of cooling performance from it's bigger FDP-32 brother.  The FEP-32 was almost on par with the ALPHA PFH6035 even though the PFH6035 is slightly smaller in physical size.   If you are running a dual PPGA setup on a BP6 then your choice is clearly between the two with perhaps availability and pricing being the deciding factor being that only about 1c seperated them as far as cooling performance.

  Of great interest to me here is that I did test the ALPHA PFH6035 with the fan blowing in both directions.  It is clear that in the test system better performance was obtained by having the fan draw air from the heatsink (sucking) as ALPHA recommends though obviously each installation may differ especially when extra case cooling fans have been installed.  You just wont know for sure unless you try it both ways in your own particular setup.

  The overall winner is...

  Obviously the GlobalWIN FDP-32 is the PPGA cooling performance winner.  It is the biggest heatsink of the bunch and as they say "size does matters".  Keep in mind that it will not fit in some installations so be aware before you make your order/purchase.

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Copyright © 1999 by John Bogush