FSP Windale 6 CPU Cooler 6 Direct Contact Heatpipes 6mm Black Aluminum Alloy with 120mm

This is a really great, high-powered cooler at a terrific price (mine was 40). That said: there are things to take into account when buying. They aren't necessarily cons, but they need to be accounted for:1) It's really powerful. I tested mine in the middle of a heatwave (room temperature 85°+F/30°+C) and the result after 20 minutes of Prime95 v26.6 Small-Fets test was only 60°C. That's great for a 40 dollar cooler. Using Thermal Grizzly Kryonaut probably helped. Using a second fan probably helped. Using my solution to #4 probably didn't. That I got those temps despite my solution to #4 is amazing.2) It's really big. Not a con, because It's in the specs andyou should know what you're buying, but it's like the saying goes: Measure twice, cut once.3) There have been some very differing reviews of it's performance that I believe are due to an under-discussed aspect of CPU cooling: the part of the processor that heats up is smaller the the metal cover. As a result all direct-heatpipe-contact coolers are most efficient when they are oriented so as to maximize the number of heatpipes in contact with the hotspot. In my case (using an Intel 1150 socket) that means the cooler is substantially more powerful when oriented with fans pointing upwards.4) This one is a con: it's really heavy. Like: almost two pounds heavy. A sturdy MSI motherboard will probably be fine. A less substantial board (like my ASRock z97 Killer) may begin to bend under the weight. My solution is pictured below, but some metal wires hanging from the top of the case would probably do more to help airflow.

The cooler is as you'd expect from a large 6-heatpipe tower cooler. Large and efficient.I've only installed it on an LGA 2011-v3 socket, so I can't speak for the others, but fan orientation can only be facing up or down. You're most likely going to have the fan intaking air from the top and blowing down because the fan will barely have space for intake or won't even fit between a dedicated graphics card and the heatsink in the blowing upwards config. This can make your case air flow a bit tricky. The rubber fan mounting stoppers have long ends which are a bit unsightly, but they can be stuffed into holes in the fan's housing or cut off.Installation was a pain for me. Don't be like me. You can't install the fan on before fixing the heatsink onto the motherboard first because you'll cover the screw holes if you do.How to install with least pain:0) Start installation outside of the PC case1) Mount heatsink onto motherboard2) Install fan onto heatsink in desired orientation3) Plug in cables around heatsink (fan cables/CPU power cable) You may have to install the CPU power cable after you put the motherboard into the case depending on how you route your cable. If so, good luck. Depending on your case, it may be cramped to very cramped4) Set motherboard in case, yay doneThe fan is very quiet and moves quite a bit of air. It only has 4 blue LEDs in each corner though and most likely won't match other LED fans. Personally, I don't like the look of the LEDs.The black paint on the heatsink doesn't look half bad. Matte black is nice, but I did notice some faded splotches that were more grey than black (not sure if intentional), but it was only noticeable upon close inspection.

The fan installation was not so easy, if it is out of the case when you install it would work better, but I was too lazy to take everything out, so I am just running the one fan, and it does work well. Installs securely, looks good and keeps the CPU cool. For the price I would give this 5 stars all day long.

Okay so I am an avid watercooler, I have made custom loops before, I only picked this thing up because I upgraded my chipset to a ryzen 2600, and didn't have time to rebend tubing and also the stock cooler was showing the CPU getting to 70 C.With the cooler installed i am seeing 20 degree drops at idle and load, currently sitting at 55 under prime95 load, it is a great cooler! Build quality is solid mounting brackets are universal supporting am4, and latest intel 1151. I like the paint job, it is black and no major defects on arrival and makes the look really clean, also doesn't seem to be affecting cooling performance at all so that is a plus. The cooler is NOT rotatable once brackets are installed which is a missed opportunity, but not a deal breaker for me because this is a temporary solution till i am out of school.NOW, we get into the biggest issue that I have with the cooler is the actual mounting of the cooler and the fans. the way the brackets are designed you cannot install the cooler and fans together, which would not normally be a problem except that the fan mounting solution they came up with is laughably bad and not thought out. There is a middle bracket that goes through the base of the cooler that you screw into the mounting bracket, which given the size of the cooler is hard to get the screws in place. Now for mounting the fans to the cooler they include 8 total mounting strips (enough to mount 2 fans), but they are not REUSABLE, they are rubber that you pull through the fan and then are slid into the top and bottom of the cooler. it is RECOMMENDED for a clean look to cut the rubber down which makes them unable to be reused, as you are trimming off the part of the rubber that you pull through the fan. ALSO, make sure when you mount them that they are facing the way that you want because the rubber is so soft it is impossible to remove them without tearing the rubber apart. you get no extras so good luck. I also had to remove my ram and graphics card to even get the fans mounted on the bottom on the cooler. Instead of being innovative they should have just had side clips as a mounting solution so you can reinstall fans as needed. It is kind of stupid to have to locate more mounting tabs for something that should be as easy as unclipping the fans and replacing them. I gave a 3 star SPECIFICALLY for the fan mounting alone.So even though I have a big issue with the fan mounting it is still a solid cooler and I have not tried to contact the company to see about getting replacement tabs. This is still only a temporary cooler that I will end up passing on to a friend when I get his computer built.