The Xigmatek HDT-S1283 is a massive cooler with just as big 8 mm heat pipes. The great upside of such a large heatsink is the use of a large fan, which does significantly decrease the noise level and it does manage to cool the CPU well. So if you are looking for a quiet alternative to that stock cooler, the very well built HDT-S1283 is a good choice as it will also cool the surrounding components. After initial trouble with the first sample another sample was sent that was a newer revision and performance did indeed improve. It came with the AMD clip made longer to aid with AMD64 installation. Xigmatek continues to provide products that work well and are price competitive.