The Tower arrives in an attractive, modern box with a sneak-peek on the front. On the sides you get the specifications and a list of features including silent operation, size, and practically universal compatibility.



As you can see, the Tower is very snug in its box, with everything fitted neatly in a foam encasement. In the box is: the Tower itself with attached fan controller and sleeved cables, the different backplates and mounting brackets, spring-loaded thumbscrews, a manual and the glorious white goop that is Tuniq TX-1 thermal compound. The bottom of the heatsink isn't as well protected as I would have liked to see, but you'll notice why in the next picture.



Tuniq made no effort at all to finish the base of the heatsink. As my little Burger King Gengar shows, the machine lines leave almost a sandpaper texture. Some companies pass this off as “increased surface area,” but at least an attempt to make this finish appear intentional would be nice. It's also peculiar that the screw-holes are right there on the base. I can see that making for some pretty messy cleaning if you slide your cooler by accident and some thermal compound gets in there.

You can also see where the three heatpipes meet the base. The copper is a good choice, and everything looks solidly built here. You'll notice that little notch sticking up from the center; that's for centering the mounting bracket on the cooler.





Here's the monster itself in all of its wavy goodness. It has very thin, tightly packed fins for high airflow situations. They are also folded down on the ends to keep the air flowing directly through the heatsink. The blackplate on the top of the cooler is attached to the blue LED fan and slides out with some encouragement, making it possible to put in a higher powered or lower noise fan. However, because it's located in the center of the unit, there's no option to add more fans or move the fan around.



Here are some pictures comparing the Tower with the Noctua NH-U12F and the Intel stock cooler. As you can see, it's not only taller, but also deeper than the other two. Well, let's slap this monster on the motherboard and see what it can do!