The Basics:
Removing the cooler from the snap pack, you can look it over. The first thing that caught my attention was the size of it. I was expecting a large cooler, but it's not as big as I really expected. Here you can see the top view of the cooler. You can see the fins are in two sections, so there is plenty of room between the two fin sections for the mounting brackets. The power cable has a three-pin fan connector, and is the first disappointment, it's not wrapped. I would have expected it to be wrapped since the cooler is branded for gamers, and they not only expect the best, but they tend to show off their equipment. Wrapping the power cable certainly isn't a requirement, but is nice to have.
Flipping the cooler over, you can see the base. The base of the unit is perfectly smooth and reflective, but not a mirror finish. The first pictures I took looked like there were fingerprints over the base of the cooler. On closer inspection, I found something interesting; if you look at the close up of the base, the fins aren't soldered to the base -instead it's one solid unit! The fins were cut off the base and finned out. This could potentially provide a little extra heat transfer since it leaves no room between the base and the fins.
Since the Fatal1ty FS-C77 is designed for multiple CPU types,
Zalman has opted to use a clip design. The model of CPU will determine which clips you need to use to mount the cooler. The clips slide onto the cooler, which will make it easy to mount. Here you can see the clips I will be using. Once again, the clips are designed for multiple systems, and the manual says that AMD 64s use the outside hole for the screws. If you look closely at the fins of the cooler, they have Zalman stamped on them.
Here you can see all of the included accessories. Zalman has included all the necessary mounts for each of the supported processor types. There are also many paper washers to ensure you don't create a short.
