The S1, for such a large cooler, is still remarkably compact in the height department. The four heatpipes are placed quite far apart to take advantage of the widely spaced aluminum fins. This provides ample surface area to dissipate heat and keep the aluminum fins from becoming “heat saturated” in passive mode.

The copper base has a very nice, flat finish and comes with a layer of Arctic Cooling's MX-2 thermal compound pre-applied. The heatpipes are soldered into the base for optimum teat transfer. The aluminum retention bracket has adhesive pads at the four corners to help hold the spacers during installation. If you'll look closely at where the bracket connects to the base, you'll see that there are slots and screws here to adjust the base position with respect to the GPU. This is a nice feature.

The mounting solutions are fairly minimalist, which I like, in most cases. The instructions are quite clear and multilingual, making the single sheet large and somewhat unwieldy. The heatsinks and heatspreaders have peel-and-stick thermal pads for easy installation and the black plastic support clips snap into place, but you'll need a small screwdriver to secure the cooler and heatsink. The red insulating washers and black plastic spacers complete the installation package.

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