Over the last few years we have seen bigger and better heatsinks come from different manufacturers. One of the first was Alpha's PEP66T that was one of the best socket A coolers at the time. Then other manufacturers like Thermalright and others came out with orb's and copper based coolers. Now it's time for change again; Swiftech with their 80mm cooler MC462A and Alpha with their PAL8045T also with a 80mm cooler.
The Swiftech MC462A
Specifications:
Heatsink
CNC machined, C110 copper base, 3"W x 3"L x .375"H, flatness better than 0.001", micro surface finish 8 or better.
Overall dimensions with fan 3"x3"x3", without fan 3"x3"x1.56"
Weight 760g with fan, 560g without fan.
Mounting
Motherboard fittings: 6-32 Female to Male 1/4" brass round standoffs with nylon elbow washers and nylon nuts
4 compression springs providing exact specified pressure per chip manufacturers.
For Intel Pentium 4 processors, 2 brackets bolt atop the block to match Intel's mounting specifications.
Picture with Sanyo-Denki 56CFM fan
Bare heatsink. Great quality
The MC462A uses a thick copper base to dissipate the heat from the CPU. The pins are made of aluminium and inserted into the base. They are held in place by soldering to ensure a good heat transfer between the pins and base.
The fan that came with my MC462A is a Sanyo-Denki 53 CFM, which is very loud (45dB). Compared to Delta's 80x80x30 68CFM fan, the noise is next to nothing, though =).
The bottom of MC462A shows good work, it's not as shiny as Alpha's heatsinks, but it's still completely flat.
