Go, Gadget, Go!

A little cartoon history

If you recall from the original Inspector Gadget cartoon series, every time Inspector Gadget tried out some new contraption, he would always need to be saved by his niece Penny and their dog, Brain. Well, forget all of that. Installation of the Alpha was surprisingly simple, even for someone like Inspector Gadget. (Don't ask why this analogy suddenly came about.)

Heatsink mounting and cartridge sizes

The heatsink comes ready for mounting on a Pentium II. Conversion to a Celeron mount is as simple as removing four metal pins that would be used to align the heatsink with the Pentium II cartridge. At this time, the P125C is not SECC2 compatible; the holes are not aligned properly.

Attaching the heatsink to the CPU was not done with any of those pesky spring clips, but rather with good, old-fashioned screws. This took a little more time, but guaranteed that the heatsink was firmly mounted on the CPU. In the box, Alpha also provided some very high quality thermal paste, maximizing the efficiency of the heatsink.

Let us make a fan out of you

One of the Alpha's more unique features is its shroud for the fans. These shrouds direct air flow through the heatsink in the most efficient way. I think they may add to the noise of the unit, but who cares about noise when you are overclocking. :)

The heft of the heatsink does violate all of Intel's recommendations regarding the size and weight of the heatsink, but your are violating your warranty by overclocking anyways. Standard Pentium II retention clips can be used, but not the Celeron mounting clips. If you live in a seismically unstable area, be prepared to fashion some kind of makeshift retention mechanism. Well, no, I didn't exactly use any special retention mechanisms… and umm… I suppose you could consider the San Andreas fault to be a seismically unstable area. Just don't screw up and be a Gadget about it. We've given you our warning, and here's Alpha's:

We only guarantee against manufacturing defects. Please understand that we have no responsible for the damage that may occur because of the installation or use of our heatsinks. Some of our heatsinks such as P125, P126 do not meet with the design guide that CPU makers recommend. They are made based on the requests from Japanese users. Because of size, weight, the center of gravity and etc, the chances are that they might not attach to CPU or motherboard and/or it may cause damage to other components near the heatsinks. We advise before ordering that you compare the size of heatsinks in the catalog with the space on the motherboard.

A bit scary, wouldn't you say?