Thermalright ALX-800 Heatsink Review

Being the "techie" that I am, I am always looking for something new and exciting. The ALX-800 from Thermalright is just that. For way too long, I have looked at Thermalright's heatsinks and mostly thought to myself, " They're really nice and seem to work really well, but they're too heavy and too costly." Well, now finally they have designed a hybrid copper/aluminium heatsink that is in my price range (around $25 US) and weight range. The guys at CrazyPC were kind enough to send me one of these new Thermalright ALX-800 coolers to review (actually, I personally requested it as I managed to stumble across one review a while back, and the cooler looked like it had some good potential). Our trusty PR contact managed to to get me this new hybrid cooler from CrazyPC along with a 80mm Delta fan, dubbed as the "stock" fan for this cooler.

Now, I have read many reviews and heard some stories about the infamous Delta fans, but until you experience their ear-splitting noise in person, you cannot truly imagine it. They are very loud, but they do push a hell of a lot of air. I'll be using this Delta fan along with a YS Tech TMD 70mm fan and a stock 80mm fan to test this cooler. I mean, seriously, I want a cool CPU, but I also want to be able to hear myself think and talk on the phone in the same room as my computer.

The ALX-800 arrived packaged in a plain brown cardboard box with the Thermalright logo printed in black. Once I opened it, I saw that it was packaged nice and tight, which meant no chance of in-transit damage. The actual sink had a protective plastic sticker protecting the lovely finish and was encased in a plastic bag. The package contained the heatsink, thermal paste, retention clips and spacer pads.

_{Plain brown but sturdy cardboard box}

Package Contents:

• ALX-800 Heatsink
• Retention clips for fan
• Thermal paste and and Stand-off pads.

Features:

• Super thin aluminum fins for maximized heat dissipation
• Trapezoid heat sink base ensures effective heat conduction
• Six pronged type heat sink clip
  

Technical Specs:

• Dimensions: L84 x W58 x H42 (mm) - Top, without fan, L32 x W58 - Base(mm)
• Weight: - 400g (heat sink only)
• Stock Fan-Maker: DELTA
• Model: FFB0812EHE
• Size: 80 x 80 x 38 (mm)
• Bearing: Dual Ball Bearing System
• Voltage: 12V
• Speed: 5700 RPM
• Air Flow: 80.16 CFM
• Noise Level: 52.5 dBA

AMD: Athlon XP Palamino, Thoroughbred, and Barton 2500+ and up

_{* Specs subject to change without notice}

I have been using "hybrid" copper/aluminium coolers for some time now and think they offer the best combination of weight and heat dissipation you can get. The ALX-800 is basically the same design as the SLK-900, but instead of being all copper (and heavy as hell), it has a trapezoid copper base, which then contacts to the aluminium fins, and to me at least, a better design idea (and a lot lighter - 400g - almost 120g than the SLK-900).

_{A nice big warning label adorns the base of the heatsink - you can't say you didn't see it.}

Copper transfers heat away from a source to itself very, very fast, but it does not dissipate this heat as fast as it takes it in, so you end up needing high speed fans to help all copper coolers work properly. Aluminium on the other hand doesn't take heat away as fast as copper from an object, but it dissipates it a lot faster once the heat is transferred to the aluminum. So in essence, the cooper gets the heat off the CPU fast and then transfers it to the aluminium which dissipates the heat faster than the copper and, therefore, requires a less powerful fan, making it a lighter, quieter and better cooling solution than an all copper heatsink.

_{You can see that there's been some quality workmanship put into this heatsink
^{as evidenced by the nice mirror-like base finish.}}

The finish on the base of this Thermalright ALX-800 heatsink is by far the best finish I have ever come across on any of the heatsinks I have owned. You can barely see the machining marks if you look very, very carefully. It's not your bathroom mirror, and you couldn't use it to shave, but it's pretty darn close. You can see some of the thermal adhesive used to bond the trapezoid copper base to the aluminum fins -- looks like good stuff to me.

_{With the 38mm tall Delta fan installed, the combo is the same height as the Tt Volcano 9 using a 25mm Tt fan.}

If you've bought any of the newer AMD CPU's, you would have received a pretty nice hybrid copper/aluminum cooler with it. They work pretty well, especially when you switch the provided fan for the YS Tech TMD 70mm fan as I have. I also own a Tt Volcano 9, and with its stock fan, this thing almost competes with the Delta screamer on noise level, but put on the YS Tech TMD fan and you get almost the same amount of air movement at significantly lower noise level. So, you see where I'm heading with this. The main thing I will be looking at is how the ALX-800 compares to these coolers using the same YS Tech fan and the Delta 80mm "screamer." After an intial run of the Delta fan at full throttle in my MSI-based system, I decided that I would run the actual tests in my Asus A7N8X and do tests running the Delta on my fan controller at full throttle and at lower RPM's that are more tolerable to human ears.

_{Very good contact between the CPU and heatsink as evidenced by the}
^{thermal paste pattern on the base and CPU lug.}

Contact between the CPU and heatsink was to me quite exceptional. When I installed the sink for the first time and tried to "wiggle" it around, there was no moving it. After running the heatsink for about 12 hours on my MSI K7N2 Delta-L motherboard running Folding@HOME and completing a unit, I decided it would be a good time to remove the sink and see how that contact was and how the thermal paste had "spread." As you can see, the heatsink was very firmly attached and "squashed" out most of the thermal paste, thereby making almost direct contact with the CPU lug, which of course is the best solution for heat transfer.

CompuNurse thermal probe installed .	Dust pattern after 2 weeks installed .

After some intial testing and using my different motherboards over time, I have found that there are great variances between MB manufacturers. To make sure I had accurate temperature readings, I affixed a thermal probe on the CPU, as close to the lug as possible, therby eliminating any sort of variance I could encounter testing from MB to MB.

In the two photos above, you can clearly see the design difference (highlighted by the yellow border) between the more square Tt V9 and the ALX-800. The Thermalright ALX-800 follows in the SLK line's rectangular design, therby making it have more of a chance of fitting more motherboards than the square Tt design. This also makes attaching the clips for the sink a hell of a lot easier since you can clearly see the notches and what you're doing. You can also see that the ALX has 32 thin aluminum fins compared to the V9's 23, giving a much higher amount of surface area to be cooled.

_{The most recent stock AMD heatsink I received with my last Athlon XP 2500+. It returned}
^{some decent temps but was still 8 to 10 degrees hotter than the ALX}