Heatsink

     Let's take the Northpole XE apart and see what it's made of.

     The heatsink itself is constructed of solid copper.  It has 28 fins that extend from the base.  This is the ideal construction of a heatsink.  If you have fins that are bonded to a base, you will not achieve optimum heat transfer.

     Another important element of heat transfer is a good flat contact area.  MicroCool gives the bottom of the copper heatsink a mirror-like finish that is very flat.

     The fan is a 40mm x 40mm x 15mm, 3 ball-bearing fan that rotates at 1500 ~ 5000 RPMs.  This moves from 2.5 CFM to 6.5CFM and keeps the noise level down to only 12~18dBs and justifies the name "Whisper".  The fan speed is temperature controlled.

     All of this is held together by an aluminum shroud.  Not only does the shroud serve to hold everything together it also focuses the airflow directly on the heatsink.  The shroud also serves as the mounting location to the clips that will hold the Northpole to the motherboard.

Installation

     Here is where the Northpole took a turn for the worse.  While the idea of installing the mounting brackets to the board looked easy, after 30 minutes of trying I was ready to throw it out the window.  Luckily a calmer head prevailed and I decided to see why such a simple task was making me feel like a moron.

     I took out my trusty inspection mirror and flashlight and started looking around.  The above picture may be hard to see, but focus in on the red arrow.  The red arrow is pointing to the reflection of the mounting rod.  Look at the shiny white, crescent moon object and you will see the problem.  The crescent moon shaped object is the wire clip on the motherboard and it's blocking the hole that the screw is supposed to go into.  It wasn't blocking by much so I decided to fix it myself instead of sending it back for a replacement.

     I only had to shave a fraction of metal from the end and it was easy to install.  I'm not quite sure who is to fault for this problem.  My motherboard clips may have been out of spec or the attachment rods from Microcool may be to blame.  Anyway it was an easy fix, and even if I didn't do it myself, I'm sure Microcool would have sent me new ones.  Let's get on with the installation.