Is it hot in here? Or is it just..., oh, nevermind. It's the hottest month of the year, and it spells unhappy times for your CPU if you have a crap heatsink. Then again, what you really should be doing is hanging out outside and enjoying the weather. But if you must stay indoors and use your computer, keep it cool. We're going to look at the Vantec FCE-62540D today. The Vantec FCE-62540D is designed for both Intel Coppermine PGA or AMD Socket A. It's an all aluminum heatsink with a huge fan to keep it chilly.

Specifications

Recommended For: Intel PIII FC-PGA up to 1.13 GHz, AMD Socket A or 462 up to 1.333 GHz
Heat Sink Material: Al 6063T5
Heat Sink Dimension: 80.0 x 60.0 x 40.0(mm)
Fan Dimension: 60.0 x 60.0 x 25.0 (mm)
Outline Dimension: 80.0 x 60.0 x 70.5 (mm)
Bearing Type: TWO Ball
Thermal Resistance: 0.35°C/W

One thing about the Vantec FCE-62540D is that it's quite large, at least compared with the AMD retail HSF. There's 18 fins (20 sorta, if you include the sides), and it looks a lot like the GlobaWin FOP38, but the heatsink on the Vantec is wider. This should allow more area for heat to dissapate. At least that's what I think, but I also think soda are better for you than water.

Like other manufaturers, has included the Delta fan with a fan guard. Important, if you don't want your new nick name to be "Lefty" (or "Righty) if you get your fingers caught in there. I haven't mentioned it in my last two performance cooler reviews, but the Delta fan draws a heckuva lot of juice. Vantec was wise to include a 3 to 4 pin adapter, so thet you can plug directly into your power supply and not kill your motherboard headers.

has also included a very good clip. It's not too stiff, and I was able to install it without any tools, but that's why my nick is "Beefcake". Anyhoo, anyone who has had the pleasure of working with other coolers will know how frustrating the clips can be. Not so here, and no longer will you cry like a sissy when you smash your motherboard with a screwdriver while installing a heatsink.

I should have snapped a better pic, but the base isn't as scratched as it looks. I think it's my stupid flash that washed the pic out like that. The base is fairly smooth, and probably doesn't need lapping. My sample did have obvious machine lines on it, but some thermal paste would fix that right up.

Testing

As with the other tests, the test bed consists of:

AMD Thunderbird 1.2GHz (1.75v), HSF paired with regular silicone thermal paste
Abit KT7-RAID, with socket thermal sensor touching the bottom of the CPU
Lian-Li PC60 Aluminum Case, with only the Enermax power supply fans on
Prime95 is run for 20 minutes
Room temperature is maintained at 23C/74F with my honking A/C

The only factor I can see affecting the scores, is the Lian-Li aluminum case. I've determined the margin of error to be approximately 2C degrees. Temperatures were gathered using VIA's Hardware Monitor.

Final Thoughts

Good aluminum based coolers typically fall in the 46-50 degree Celcious range, so the FCE-62540 falls in the range. The performance isn't bad, considering it costs about 20$ online, and it's fully capable of handling some moderate overclocking, but it's only rated for up to 1.33GHz. The Vantec FCE-62540 actually performs about the same as the FOP38. No surprise here since both are roughly the same size, and use the same Delta fan. However, with the better Vantec clip, I will have to give them the nod if given a choice between the two, especially since they're about the same price online.

Vantec:

Pros: Cheap, Delta fan and guard, pin adapter, decent performance, good clip.

Cons: Delta is LOUD. Not suited for overclocking above 1.33GHz.

If you have any comments, be sure to hit us up in our forums.

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