The clip which come with the VA476 heatsink proved to be amazing complicated and difficult to engage on the stock HSRM. This despite the fact that they are essentially nothing more than flat, bent pieces of metal. In theory the clip should be pretty simple to work with, but even in the wide open spaced of our test platform we had a hard time figuring out what to do with it, and with the amount of force necessary to lock the heatsink in place.

Globalwin do include instructions, and we made good use of them which emphasizes the fact that while the clips are simple in design, the mechanism is not intuitive, and not immediately straight forward. There are a half dozen or so clipping systems in the market and Globalwin may do well to seriously consider adopting one for the VA476.

With the fan removed we can see one of those secrets to good airflow - airflow between the base of the fan and the tips of the fins. The small slot in the center of all those fins is probably for a clip for a socket A variation of this heatsink to sit in. On the VA476 it serves no purpose whatsoever that we can see.