| Thermalright IFX-14 CPU and Back-side Heatpipe Cooler
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The Basics:
Thermalright includes everything you need to mount the cooling system on either a socket 775 or AM2 platform. It is also possible to use this heatsink on socket 939 motherboards with a kit which is sold separately. They include enough wire fan clips to mount two fans, and they give you a very generous quantity of thermal paste. I'm not sure what type it is, but it has the consistency and appearance of some of the well known non-metallic offerings on the market. There was enough paste for me to use with all four coolers to be used during testing, with some left over. They were also thoughtful enough to add a small wrench to the kit just in case you find the need for one, but I suspect most people will find a Phillip's head screw driver easier to use. Fans are not included, but this is no surprise since most of Thermalright's offerings do not include fans. It is disappointing however given the cost of the cooler.
The images below take a closer look at the IFX-14 CPU cooler part of the system. It uses eight large heatpipes to move heat from the base plate to the cooling fins, and these pipes are larger and more numerous than on many of the other big coolers on the market. It is larger than any other cooler I have had a chance to use, including some titans like the Tuniq Tower 120 and Zalman CNPS 9700, which we will see compared side-by-side later.
 
The cooling fins are broken up into two towers, each of which is capable of supporting a 120mm (or even 140mm) fan with the hardware included. The Each fin is finished to have a flame-like appearance, which is appropriate since IFX does stand for Inferno Fire Extinguisher. Speaking of finish, everything has a monotone "silver" appearance thanks to all materials (namely copper and aluminum) being nickel plated.
The CPU cooler can be seen from below in the images below. The heatpipes all exit the thick base in parallel, and veer off at different angles to reach different locations in the heatsink. Even though no size comparison is provided at this point, it seems pretty clear already that not only is this a big cooler overall, but even the heatpipes are bigger.
 
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