3DfxCool Alpha1HO-P3 Cooler
by Jason Clark on September 10, 1999 12:08 AM EST- Posted in
- Cases/Cooling/PSUs
For the review, I used an average P3-450, which ran stable at 558Mhz, albeit the CPU temperature was 52.4 °C/126.4 F. Mounting the unit to the P3 was a piece of cake -- apply some heat sink goop and then mount the CPU to the cooler. For the tests, I used two different motherboards, since lately, I have had better success with the AOpen AX6BC Pro Gold board. The ABIT BX6R2 showed some instabilities in other tests I was performing, so I thought it was better to give the cooler a fair chance on a board that is just rock solid.
For the tests, I used the same method that I did for the MC1000 coolers. I tested the CPU at all common overclock points. First, I did it just booting into Windows; then, for each speed, I ran Quake 2 Crusher for 15 minutes to see if it was reasonably stable. To make the tests more meaningful, I compared the Alpha cooler to a common P3 cooler, "Crystal Cooler". To measure CPU temperature, I used a flat thermistor attached to a digital thermometer, which is just as accurate as a thermal header. It retails up here in Canada for $15.00.
Testing Hardware:
Intel Pentium 3 450Mhz
- Serial: Philippines 19210739R-0195
- Cache: SEC 4
64 Corsair PC-133 RAM
Aopen AX6BC Pro Gold Mainboard / Abit BX6R2 Mainboard
Quantum 7.2 EL Hard drive
Voodoo3 3000 Video Card
Diamond MX300 Sound Card
Booting Windows 5 Minutes at Idle
| CPU Speed | Crystal Cooler | 3DfxCool Alpha1HO-P3 | CPU Voltage |
| 450Mhz | 50 °C / 122 F | 38.6 °C / 101.5 F | 2.00v |
| 558Mhz | 52 °C / 125.6 F | 39.7 °C / 103.5 F | 2.00v |
| 580Mhz | 55.7 °C / 132.3 F | 41 °C / 105.8 F | 2.10v |
| 600Mhz | Unstable | 44 °C / 112 F | 2.30v |
Quake 2 Crusher Demo 15 Minutes
| CPU Speed | Crystal Cooler | 3DfxCool Alpha1HO-P3 | CPU Voltage |
| 450Mhz | 50.5 °C / 122.9 F | 41 °C / 105.8 F | 2.00v |
| 558Mhz | 52.4 °C / 126.4 F | 42.7 °C / 108.9 F | 2.00v |
| 580Mhz | Unstable | 43.9 °C / 111.1 F | 2.10v |
| 600Mhz | Unstable | 45.6 °C / 114.1 F | 2.30v |
Conclusion
This cooler was quite impressive. To reach 600Mhz air-cooled on an average P3 is not bad at all. Will this cooler do this for everyone? No. There are many
factors in achieving these kinds of results: quality of the CPU core, RAM, Motherboard, etc. The cooler retails for about $55 USD, which I think is worth it for those of you
who have a cooler that couldn't blow out a candle. If you already have a quality cooler, like a GlobalWin or something of that nature, then this is not really worth the investment in my opinion.
The construction of this unit is solid and it does exactly what it is supposed to do. 3DfxCool has put together a quality unit, one that took an average P3 to 600Mhz stable. With all of the coolers available in the market, I would put my money here if I was in need of a cooler for a Pentium 3.
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Finley8 - Saturday, July 25, 2020 - link
According to this discussion to reach 600Mhz air cooled on average p3 is not much worse. And because of this reason this cooler is quite impressive. If you want to https://topaussiereviews.com/ for your exam preparation you can use this one.