The Fan:
The fan is moderately noisy, but not that loud to be distracting. At only 15mm in height it is a low-profile cooling solution. Many current cooling solutions opt for 25mm high fans for their added CFM ratings. This fan comes with an RPM monitor and hooks into the motherboard fan headers via a three-pin connector.

Heatsink Top:
Without the fan on top of the heatsink it is easier to see the cuts made for the clip clasps. The heatsink is a little longer than it normally might be and the cuts help allow the clip to easily lock into place. The clip is made such that it can only fit into the heatsink in one direction. Additionally the small tabs stop the heatsink from sliding when the motherboard is in a vertical position.

Side A:
There is only one side channel cut into the heatsink. While the outer fins are serrated, the inner fins are without the texturing . Typically, older fin designs employed the serrated surface finish to help induce turbulence.

Side B:
Those tall and skinny fins look quite good for cooling from this angle, but the question remains, without those side slits is the air escaping easily. The clip sits in a little channel so that the length of the heatsink is actually a little longer then it would normally be. The aluminum base is just over 6mm thick.

Heatsink Base:
Behind the blue protective cover is some pink, bubble-gum like thermal phase change material. It is a bit sticky, but when heat is applied to it is starts to flow and allows for a very tight thermal joint. Personally we prefer to use silver-based thermal compound. The surface finish of the base is okay, but by no means the picture of perfection.