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I have never seen a CPU hestsink of this design before. Everything else has been a clunky Cu/Al composite type.

This came out of a Dell Optiplex 960 which had a mfg. date of 20090717. To me, it's beautiful. It is one piece of Al that weighs 274 grams. I suspect it was manufactured using waterjet technology.

Has anyone else run across one of these and have a history on them?

Thanks!

Seen many of those in my scrapping days, Dell has always used interesting heatsink designs

It's actually multiple pieces.
The fins are spun aluminium
They're then set in a soft pour
Yes they're pretty but not at all uncommon.
Gigabyte and Asus make some of the prettiest ones out there in their high end gaming lines. With 4 or 5 different metals and a combination of worked methods. 5 colour heatsinks really catch the eye as they're supposed to in a windowed gaming rig.

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Rumour was this design was either "flight of the butterfly" from the German cartoon series or the rebirth of mothra.
I've also heard it was a pun/homage to a reborn Phoenix.
Since Dell never said anything you be the judge.

Personally I think mothra and the butterfly are more likely. Especially the scene of mothra on the mountain spreading it's wings for the first time in mothra (1996).

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I vote for Mothra

There you go! You put that heatsink in front of an orange backdrop and you've got the fade out from the film.

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