There are a lot of different cooling solutions that exist on the market today. Most of today's overclockers would prefer a big fat heatsink to a peltier kit or water cooler any day. In this area (heatsinks), there are a lot of choices, but the Alpha heatsinks have always been known for being among the best. Last February, Globalwin released the VOS32. It probably is the only heatsinks that could dare challenge the Alpha P3125 in a head to head battle. Which one is faired the best? Let's find out.

Features/options

The P3-125 has a copper plate that makes contact with the CPU; the rest of the heatsink is made of aluminum. Alpha uses this method of attack on all of their heatsinks today. The VOS32 is entirely made out of aluminum, and both units have some ventsinks to cool the cache chips down. The VOS32 use 60mm YS Tech fans while Alpha Novatech sells the P3-125 with 60mm Sanyo Denki fans, or no fan at all. Most resellers buy the P3-125 without fans and then resale it with YS Tech fans because they are more powerful than the Sanyo Denki, but they also create more noise.

The VOS32 can be used on both SECC1 and SECC2 style CPU cartridges. By doing this it will fit any Athlon, P2 or P3 CPU (except the newest flip-chip P3). An easy modification must be made to the heatsink if you want to switch the format. It comes by default Athlon ready. All you have to do to make it fit a P3 is to change two small clips witch are held on by screws, otherwise the clips work like any other.

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