It's the year 2004 and Socket A/462 is still around in larger percentages then expected by most people "in the know". The move towards AMD's own Athlon 64 is happening, but very slow due to the high prices and the constant changes of the new platform. If you want to buy a new future-proof and upgradeable A64 PC you need to invest in a Socket 939 motherboard and CPU with support for PCI-E graphics boards. As far as I know these setups are very expensive and do not offer performance increases which warrant the high cost.

So here we are with yet again an AMD Socket A roundup. Last time in December 2003 we saw that the field was dominated by the Thermalright SP-97 heatsink which sports heat pipe technology. Nowadays a lot of manufactures have caught up and we have a wide variety of heatsinks available which are based upon the successful heat pipe tech.

As with our last roundup we have 2 different categories of coolers for you, high end models which aim at bringing excellent performance at low noise levels. And lower end products that can offer a worthwhile alternative to the stock AMD heatsink.



High end:

Aerocool HT-101 ($50)

Aerocool DP-102 ($50)

TTIC NPH-201 ($35)

Sharkoon HPS1 ($35)

Thermalright SP-97 ($50)



Low/Mid end

Thermalright ALX800 ($20)

TTIC NPH-2 ($30)

PrimeCooler MegaCool I+ (€12)

PrimeCooler MegaCool II+ (€15)

PrimeCooler MegaCool III+ (€30)

If you can't seem to find the heatsink listed in the pictures, take a look here, it's under there somewhere :-).

Prices are average values I encountered from different retailers, the price in your country/region may differ. So without further delay, we start our roundup ->

Provided by: PrimeCooler

The PrimeCooler brand is quite new to the Hardware Enthusiast scene, although they have been around for quite some time; it is only recently that their products have started to appear in our online shopping lists. We previously reviewed their Zalman look-a-like Socket A coolers here and found them to be a valid alternative if you are on a budget.

The MegaCool heatsinks on display today cost even less and are aimed at replacing the Stock AMD cooler with a budget friendly better performing version.

There are 2 different versions available of each sink, the "+" in the name means that you'll get a speed adjustable 80mm fan (1500-3000rpm). The rheostat is very small and you need a small screwdriver to adjust the fan's speed. Not ideal if you want to change it a lot.



The difference between these two fans is the ball bearing; the "b" version has 2, the cheaper "c" version only one. Both MegaCool II+ & III+ are equipped with the B version. I could not hear the difference.

The fans come installed with finger guards, but the screws used are too long, spacers are used to make them fit more tightly, when the fan starts trembling this will increase noise, although not by much, but everything adds up.



The heatsinks:



Stock AMD ..………… MegaCool III+ ……..…… MegaCool I+ …..……… MegaCool II+



MegaCool I & II comes with copper inserts, II's a bit larger and the aluminum fins are bit higher also. The III is made out of copper and sports fine fins:



The finishing on these heatsinks is okay, the base is not perfect and lapping it might prove useful.

Provided by: Thermalright

Thermalright SP-97 :

Thermalright has continually improved the efficiency of their heatsinks, and the SP-97 doesn't disappoint. Using the same layout as the P4 version (SP-94) it sports 3 heat pipes which advantage increases as the heat output of the CPU rises.




For more details please read our previous writeup on this unit.


Thermalright ALX-800 :

For the more budget minded users, Thermalright created this Copper/Aluminium based heatsink:




More details about the ALX-800 here from our previous review.

Provided by: Aerocool

Aerocool HT-101

This heatsink uses heat pipe technology just like the SP-97, 3 separate pipes create a U form and are joined at the base, in between the pipes are copper plates to help transfer and dissipate the heat.




A plastic fan cage is placed over the copper structure and features mounting holes on both sides for 70 & 80mm fans.




The base is very smooth and does not require lapping




Aerocool DP-102

Featuring a large heat pipe in the middle and fan mounting possibilities at both sides make this heatsink into a very modular creation. Two 60,70 or 80mm fans can be attached and their orientation changed by pivoting the fan holder and bolting it down through the copper fins.




The heat pipe and fins are made out of copper and the base is smooth but shows some small scratches.

Provided by: Sharkoon

Sharkoon HPS1

The Sharkoon HPS1 has much in common with the Aerocool DP-102, and as you will see, the "big heat pipe in the middle" design is quite popular. The main difference with its competitors is the use of aluminum instead of copper (the heat pipe is made from copper though). Previous tests between copper and aluminum with this design here have shown no difference what so ever in performance. TTIC provides Sharkoon with an OEM model without the bracket so this explains the striking resemblance (thanks for the info Gary!)





The HPS1 only supports 80mm fans, but they can be installed on either side, or both!




Its base is quite smooth but shows the same anomalies as the DP-102.



The main advantage of the aluminum is of course its weight, this heatsink weighs a lot less then the other tower coolers seen so far.

Provided by: TTIC

Our last two heat pipe tech heatsinks come from TTIC, the design is very similar to the Sharkoon, yet some differences can be seen.

TTIC NPH-2

This unit is very compact and features a 70mm fan on one side




The core the heat pipe is made out copper while the rest of the unit is from Aluminum, this reduces the weight a lot!



The base can benefit from a serious lapping job:



The included 70mm fan is very silent at 7v, but can be heard more clearly when running at full speed. Nowhere near “noisy” though. (Rated 31dBA / 31CFM)


TTIC NPH-201

The NPH-201 is made of out copper and supports 2x80mm fan to be installed, it also uses the a big copper heat pipe in the middle for removing heat effectively





The base is fairly smooth but small ridges can be felt.





Now onto the installation & features of all the heatsinks ->

Features

All heatsinks come with fans except for the Thermalright SP-97. The Aerocool HT-101 sports a flashy LED fan and Sharkoon model features colorful fan.

Some heatsinks are made with more universal mounting gear, allowing them to be installed across a wide variety of platforms:



Seems like only the Aerocool models can be used over multiple platforms. None will fit on AMD’s latest A64 sockets unfortunately.

Using a balance I checked to see if none of the heatsinks were dangerously heavy:



The 3 “top” contenders are all made out of copper (to no surprise) but remain within safe norms, if they are properly mounted. Which brings us to…

Installation

Please take a look at the table below to see how each heatsink is installed



Click the remark with * to see an illustrative photo

Testing & Conclusion


AMD Athlon "Barton" 2500+

This CPU was clocked at 2006Mhz using 1.85v vcore which makes it give of close to 90Watt of heat.

Here are the full specifications of our test setup:

JMke's Test Setup
CPU	AMD Athlon "Barton" 2500+ @ 2006Mhz - 1.85v
Mainboard	DFI NFII Ultra Infinity Rev A
Memory	1 * 512Mb PC3200 Mushkin
Video	ATI Radeon 9000

Details on testing:

Room temp during testing was 26°C.

Test were done on an open test setup, temperature in a closed case will be higher.

Thermal Paste used on all heatsinks was T-Zero a new paste from CJH International

Coolink 80mm fan at lowest and highest settings (24-70CFM / 19-44dBA) on all heatsinks unless noted otherwise.

Papst 92mm “MultiFan 3312” at 12 and 7v. Used on the SP-97 heatsink.

The “Aerocool DP-102 Modded” entry: I placed a self-made air duct over the heatsink to guide the air through the heatsink (photo), this did not have an immense effect on performance though.



For those who rather see the raw data:



At the bottom end of the scale we see the five heatsinks with classic design, the MegaCool I+ is able to offer a 5°C improvement over the Stock AMD cooler, more impressive results can be seen from the MegaCool II+ and III+ though with a 10-15°C drop in temps! However at low fan speed the system crashed due to CPU overheating with these low-end models. The ALX-800 from Thermalright is the exception on this rule, although at 71+°C it comes very close to the CPU’s shutdown temperature. With the fan running full speed the ALX-800 keeps up with most of the Heat pipe equipped sinks, quite impressive! The TTIC NPH-2 is the other exception; it offers excellent performance even with a small 70mm fan, and bests its larger brother when the fans are at 7v!

In the high end department we see the SP-97 still reign supreme when combined with a high output fan. However when we go for silence the playing field changes and it’s now the Sharkoon HSP1 which takes 1st spot, closely followed by the others. The DP-102 trails the pack together with the SP-97 when equipped with a low noise 92mm fan. It must be said that this particular 92mm fan does not offer the best noise/cfm ratio and better results can be obtained.

Conclusion

Everything said and done, the Socket A cooler market has blossomed into a competitive place where price and performance are heavily balanced against each other. Thermalright was first on the market with an effective heat pipe heatsink and has remained at the top spot for quite some time. Now we see other companies pull up next them with a wide variety of Tower coolers.

The winner in this roundup is clearly the Sharkoon HSP1 which costs less then its closest competition and is able to beat them all when keeping your hot CPU cool using low noise/cfm fans.

If you can not find the Sharkoon HSP1 in a store near you, then you don’t need to worry as you can’t actually go wrong with any of the Tower heatsinks we tested today. Each one offers performance close to low end water cooling and this without any fast spinning fans.

At Socket A’s life end you can now finally find cheap effective heatsink/fan combo’s which keep your CPU cool without becoming deaf!

Visit the company’s websites for more info and to find out if they are available in a shop near you:

Sharkoon - HSP1

TTIC - NPH-2 & NPH-201

Thermalright - SP-97 & ALX-800

PrimeCooler - MegaCool Series

Aerocool - DP-102 & HT-101


Questions/Comments: Forum thread