Arctic Cools AMD's Cheeky AM1 Socket With Alpine M1 Passive
Arctic built two new very affordable CPU coolers for AMD's socket AM1.
If you're looking to silence your system, but are sporting a board with an AM1 socket, you may be having a somewhat tough time finding a new CPU cooler. Because of the way the slot is designed, there aren't actually all that many coolers for it, because the CPU coolers that fit on the mainstream sockets don't fit on the AM1 socket. Now, however, Arctic revealed two new units for the cheeky socket, and not only do they fit, but they are also cheap – right in line with the goal of the AM1 platform.
The new units are called the Alpine M1 and the Alpine M1-Passive, and you guessed it, the latter doesn't have a fan.
The first unit is capable of dissipating up to 50 W, which is more than the little AM1 CPUs will generate. It comes with a simple aluminum fin stack, through which air is blown by an 80 mm fan that spins at 750 RPM. Sadly, Arctic only quoted a noise level in Sone, although a quick search revealed that 0.1 Sone translates to about 20.5 dBA – relatively silent. The unit is 41 mm tall.
The Alpine M1 Passive is arguably more interesting, however, featuring no fan at all, but it is notably larger at 70 mm tall. In short, it's an aluminum cube big enough to passively dissipate the heat generated by the CPU that would be resting underneath it. Do note that you'll probably need a bit of case airflow in order for this to work effectively, or at least a very open-air design. Of course, we don't need to tell you that this one doesn't make any noise at all, but we just did. If you're interested, do make sure that it fits in your case before you buy it.
The Alpine M1 is available for $9.99 at Amazon, as is the Alpine M1 Passive, albeit for 50 cents more.
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Niels Broekhuijsen is a Contributing Writer for Tom's Hardware US. He reviews cases, water cooling and pc builds.
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someguynamedmatt Soo.... they've released a Socket A/Socket 370 heatsink with a new mounting mechanism. :) I can respect that for $10.Reply -
Calculatron I've used the Arctic A30 Freezer, and am using the Arctic Accelero Xtreme IV. They make good product, especially for the price-point.Reply -
Quixit ReplyI've used the Arctic A30 Freezer, and am using the Arctic Accelero Xtreme IV. They make good product, especially for the price-point.
I agree, I've used a few of their Freezer coolers in system for friends and I have a few Arctic Accelero Xtreme 3s. They make good products at a fair price, although the higher-end GPU coolers can get expensive I respect that they're expensive to design and don't sell in big numbers.
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f-14 ReplySoo.... they've released a Socket A/Socket 370 heatsink with a new mounting mechanism. :) I can respect that for $10.
i was thinking P4 heatsinks, but that works also.
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MU_Engineer I have an Athlon 5150 and the stock cooler is nearly silent even with a fan and the CPU at full roar. I don't really see a real reason for a completely passive cooler other than to say that you have a passively-cooled system. However, if I hadn't already made the system a year ago, I'd certainly pay the $10 for the regular M1 just to not deal with the cruddy Intel push-pin attachment mechanism of the stock AM1 heatsink.Reply -
alextheblue ReplySoo.... they've released a Socket A/Socket 370 heatsink with a new mounting mechanism. :) I can respect that for $10.
Old stock :D