Of course by then the ridiculous requirements they established were well underway to destroying lots of new CPUs. Yes, I blame AMD, not Thermaltake. Thermaltake designed, submitted, and were approved with a heatsink meeting AMD's specs. So be wary of any products that use em, they are too damn noisy for their RPM and airflow, and are general junk when it comes quality and returns. The Card Cooler beats any of the latest similiar case coolers to heck and back when it comes to quality and noise.
Alpha makes the best, period.
Looking at capability, fit, and finish, and there is no question, Alpha heatsinks are what I use. Like I said, this is an opinion. Not due to any benchmark numbers everyone and their brother have shown, rather from the aesthetic and common sense approach. Smaller die size, onboard cache, lower energy consumption and much lower heat production. The K7 is a kludge, pure and simple.