A spring on each of the clips keeps the Core under tension on the processor.

Mounting the heatsink onto the socket is not as easy as it really could be due to several things. The spring which keeps the stainless steel clip in tension is a bit stiff, and can be difficult to clip into place. Secondly, since the clip is flush to the side of the heatsink, there is no lateral movement whatsoever - just up and down. To properly mount the core onto our test socket we had to remove one of the clips, attach it to the ZIF socket, and then screw it back together.

Anodized and coloured a nice shade of blue, the shims included with the heatsink are a nice accessory to have.

Time to test out "The Core" on the Frosty Synthetic Temperature Test platform and compare it with several other our reference heatsinks.