There are three heatpipes. They stick out in the front and end in the rear. Basically, each one starts from the rear on the bottom, going through the bottom and curv upwards outside the heatsink, then go back through the heatsink near the top and are capped off on the rear. Heatpipes are best at transferring heat and since they curve inwards near the top, that's where the more powerful air is coming from the fan. The idea is for the bottom of the heastpipes to obsorb the heat and transfer it to the top where the more powerful air from the fan can cool it off quicker. And this should provide better cooling since the heat is dissipated quicker.

Heatpipes are commonly used in things like laptops and some vga coolers but are rare to a cpu heatsink. System heatsinks rely on active cooling from the fan to help dissipate the heat and it will be interesting to see if heatpipes do in fact help much with active cooling and a large copper heatsink.

The bottom plate is slightly wider than the SLK heatsinks so now you don't need those foam spacers Thermalright use to include. But still narrow enough to allow good airflow around the bottom area. That also helps to cool off any surrounding capasitors or mosfets.

Try fitting the clips and the fan you'll be using to the SP97 so you know which clips you need and where they go. This way you'll be familiar with attaching the fan and clips so you won't be fiddling with that once the SP97 is on the cpu.

First thing you need to do is completely remove your motherboard from the case. Remove the cpu and old heatsink/fan and turn the motherboard face down. Line up the plastic protective sheet over the holes around where the socket is. That's to shield the motherboard from the metal bracket you place there and to prevent any shorting out. Then align the bracket over the plastic sheet, rubber pad facing the mobo.

Notice the screws and standoffs above. The larger plastic washers go between each of the four standoffs and the motherboard to prevent a short. You may need to slide over the smaller washers first, depending on the size of your mobo holes. See Thermalright's detailed instructions for more info. For the Shuttle AN35N Ultra I am installing the SP97 on I only needed the larger plastic washers. Once the plastic sheet and bracket are lined up, secure the bracket to the mobo by attaching those standoffs. I suggest to attach the first on one side, then the 2nd standoff on the opposite far side to keep things more even (see close-up pics below). A crisscross pattern. Hand tighten them is all you need to do.

Once the standoffs are secure to the bracket/plastic sheet then align the SP97 over the holes. I found it easiest to place a metal washer over each hole, then place each spring-loaded screw. And again, attach each spring screw in a criss cross manner to help keeps things even. Tighten them up in the same way, crisscross.

Then attach the clips according to the fan you use, and then the fan. Install your motherboard and be sure to plug the fan into a power connection. Once everything is plugged in, then it's time to power up this bad BAD boy.

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