We dry fit the heat pipe on the card to make sure it wouldn't be getting in the way of any other components, and to check that the Heatsink Base Assemblies were aligned.

The heatpipe Zalman use is made of gold plated copper. The gold plating is purely for show, and I suppose to prevent oxidation of the metal. The heatpipe is very soft and can be broken easily if bent in the wrong direction. Since heatpipes only work as long as they are not punctured, and oriented properly, be very carefull when handling the pipe. If it is bent and cracks it will be useless.