The Fan:
The company ships the heatsink with the fan mounted in the exhaust position. We tested the fan like this, and also in the impingement position (air moving down into the fins). The 7-bladed fan is made by Sunon and features ball bearings, ARC and MLC technologies. It is powered from a 3-pin connector with RPM monitoring that plugs directly into the motherboard.

Heatsink Top:
This cooler is really like no other we have ever tested before. The 60-odd fins are grouped at the center and compress in such a way that they form this 'flower' shape. The top of the heatsink is not machined, nor does it need to be, and there is 2mm of space between the top of the fins and the base of the fan.

Note the four holes used for mounting. Two align with socket A motherboards, and two with Pentium 4 boards.

Side A:
The heatsink is constructed from essentially three parts. The flower heatsink, the fan shroud and frame, and the fan. The four brass stand-offs are what connect to the motherboard (each is spring tensioned) and hold the CNPS5000-plus in place tightly. 13mm of the total 42mm of copper fin is exposed at the base.

Side B:
The side shows more about how this heatsink is assembled. Two screws hold the center FHS in place, while the stainless steel bolts hold the FHS together. The brass stand-offs hold the entire unit in tension, in place on the motherboard.

Heatsink Base:
The base of the heatsink is perfectly flat and smooth. The useable area measures roughly 23x30mm. While it is not immediately evident, the fins are stepped down from the surface of the base by 1mm.