Features:
As you can see in the pictures, the heatsink of the XiR-3500 looks different than most coolers. Instead of having a fan that sits on top of the heatsink, the fan on this cooler is integrated into a valley in the middle part of the heatsink. Fins on either side of the fan go up higher than the fan itself and although case fans will help cool these off a little bit, I am not sure if they will be cooled very much from the fan on the heatsink itself.

This fan has a temperature sensor built into it that will make sure the fan is always running as quietly as it can while still providing sufficient cooling. It can range from 1500-2500RPM with noise levels from around 15dB(A) up to 24dB(A). Although there's no frame around it to easily identify a size, it is actually a 92mm fan. For some extra styling there's two orange LED's in the hub of the fan that provide a little illumination. Without a proper casing around the fan like most LED fans have, it is a hard task for Nexus to provide much more lighting effect than just these LED's. For those who like to change the fan on their CPU cooler or who like to be able to in the future when it starts to fail, you unfortunately can't do this for the XiR-3500. Although there are screws to remove the fan from the bracket, you'll have a hard time finding a replacement fan of this style.

The XiR-3500 is available in two different versions; aluminum heatsink or copper heatsink. The version we're reviewing here today is the copper version. For those who aren't familiar with cooling products and are wondering "why copper or aluminum?", put simply, copper is a better conductor of heat than aluminum but is also slightly more expensive. So when it comes down to it, it all depends how extreme your cooling requirements are. The price difference I found between the two versions at most stores was only a mere $10.

Since the heatsink is too large to sit on the chip itself without getting in the way of things, heatpipes are used to transfer the CPU's heat from a copper base to the heatsink unit itself. On the heatpipes at the base there is a small aluminum heatsink with fins that arc outwards using what Nexus calls "SkiveTek" technology. Skiving refers to the method used to cut this fin design from the aluminum block.

 
(Click to enlarge)

As mentioned in the specifications, this is a multi-platform cooler. All the mounting brackets and mounting arms you'll need to attach it to both the newer AMD and Intel sockets are included. As is typical with any cooler, they also toss in a small tube of thermal grease, about enough to do a small number of installations if applied correctly.