FSP Windale 6
For a CPU cooler that comes in at around $45, the FSP Windale is a great candidate for users who want cool temperatures, great aesthetics from a company that is one of the best quality PSUs manufactures.
- Compatible with all sockets
- 6 heat-pipe design
- Black Cooler Aesthetic
- Easy Fan mounting
- Cooler Design allows great cooling capability
- The White LED is subtle (can be turned off if it clashes with your build
FSP is a hardware company that you might know for its high-end, bulletproof power supplies popular amongst PC enthusiasts but, did you know they also make CPU coolers too?
Today, I am going to take a look at one of their other offerings that is compatible with most major CPU sockets at the time of writing; This is my FSP Windale 6 CPU cooler review which, at the time of writing, currently retails for between $44 and $48 USD.
You might also like: Noctua NH-D15 Cooler Review
FSP Windale 6 CPU cooler Key Features:
- CPU Direct Contact: Six heat pipes directly contact with CPU – 100% copper heat pipes are touched on the base, which creates a large thermal area and speeds up the heat conduction from the CPU to the heatsink.
- Best Air Flow with Fin Design: Each cooling fin of Windale 6 is shaped with four rectangular holes, which can increase the surface area for contacting the heat. With this design, the inside airflow becomes more smoothly, and the heat emission process comes more quickly.
- Optimized Fin Design: Windale 6 is featured with unique surface treatment specifically designed to keep heat away from its source rapidly. 120mm fin design provides an optimized cooling effect, also enhances the speed of heat dissipation.
- Windale Series Get Ready for AMD Ryzen and Intel Kaby Lake: The Windale 6 comes with a mounting solution that allows it to be compatible with most sockets.
- Best Performance and Silent Fan: With a paragliding blade design, the fan keeps airflow over key components more efficiently and decreases noise.
- Stable Anti-Vibration Rubber: Flexible and soft anti-vibration rubber is easy to assemble. Windale 6 provides a better connection to minimize movement and noise between fan and heatsink.
- Easy Installation for Intel and AMD CPUs: Windale 6 equipped with multiple clips to support installation. Universal mounting bracket is compatible with both sockets of Intel and AMD.
FSP Windale 6 CPU cooler Specifications:
- Dimensions (W x H x D): 122mm x 110mm x 165mm
- Weight: 1.81 lbs or 823 grams
- Thermal Resistance: 0.09ºC/W
- Heat-pipes: Direct Touch 6 x 6mm
- Material: Aluminum with Black Plating
- Maximum Cooling Capacity: 240 W
- Fan Dimensions (W x H x D): 120mm x 120mm x 25mm
- Speed: 1000-1600 rpm
- Bearing Type: Sleeve Bearing
- Air Flow: 60 CFM
- Noise Level: 32 dBA
- Connector: PWM, 4-pin White LED
- Compatibility: Intel Sockets: 775, 115X, 1366, 2066, 2011 AMD: AM4, AM3+, AM3, AM2+, AM2, FM2+, FM2, FM1
FSP Windale 6 CPU Cooler Unboxing
As we take a closer look at the FSP Windale 6 CPU cooler box from the outside, you are greeted with a nice blue and black color scheme. The front of the box has some nice pictures of Windale 6 and some literature alongside. On the left side of the box, you have more literature and a chart with the efficiency curve that displays that this cooler can dissipate heat up to 240w TDP. Finally, the back of the box displays the specifications for the cooler.
When we open the box, we notice that the cooler is packaged with a fan attached to the cooler. In addition, the accessories box is also placed in the box.
Inside the accessories box, you will find all the screws, rubber isolators and the mounting bracket to mount this cooler to any mainstream AMD or Intel CPU socket.
A Closer Look
Right off the back, looking at the FSP Windale 6, you notice right away that they had aesthetics in mind, and the cooler has a black paint job on the cooler fins. In addition, the 120mm fan is a black outer shroud, and the fan is a grey color. Overall this is a great aesthetic, and I believe it could compliment almost any build.
At the top of your cooler, you can see that FSP had the right level of detail to paint the heat pipes all the way down to the cold plate, where they make direct contact with the CPU heat spreader. The Fins have a nice design, and you also notice that the many fins will help dissipate the heat collected by the heat pipes.
The fan is secured to the cooler via rubber isolators. I like this approach because it is far easier than the typical metal clips. In addition, it looks aesthetically pleasing and dampens vibrations from the fan.
Lastly, the 120 mm fan does have an LED, which is white. While I wish that FSP could have used an RGB fan, a white LED fan is not distracting and could fit almost any building color scheme. You also have the option of disabling the LED if the white clashes with your scheme.
Testing System and Installation
- Processor: AMD Ryzen 5 2400g
- Motherboard: Gigabyte AB350N Wifi ITX
- Graphics Card: Onboard Vega 11 Graphics
- Memory: 16gb Gskill Flare X 3200mhz
- Storage: 240g Samsung 850 Evo ssd
- Power Supply: XFX TS 750w
- Case: Cooler Master HAF Evo XB Test Bench
FSP Windale 6 CPU Cooler Tests:
- Idle Temps: The temperature is recorded after 5 minutes of idle
- Metro LL Benchmark (Very High, AF 16X, No AA, PhysX dis): This is looped into 3 consecutive runs and the highest temperature is recorded
- ROG Realbench 15 min Stress Test: This test is accomplished to put a realistic load on the CPU/GPU. It runs LuxMark and Handbrake to stress the CPU, cache, GPU and RAM of your system.
- Ashes of the Singularity CPU Test: The CPU test is used to place a great gaming load on the CPU with lots of calculations being made with the many units on the screen during the test.
- Rise of the Tomb Raider: This game is less demanding on the CPU and more demanding on the GPU but is a great title to benchmark game performance.
- Cinebench R15: This is a great CPU test to use all of the threads on your processor.
Installation
During our FSP Windale 6 CPU Cooler review, the installation was fairly straightforward. The directions were easy to read and understand.
First, you start by inserting the four long screws into the back of the backplate. Next, you thread the bolts through the holes in your motherboard. Next, you secure the backplate by screwing four black plastic retaining pillars.
After that, you use four silver screw heads to secure the socket mounting brackets to the pillars. Lastly, You use the crossbar and two small screws to attach the CPU cooler to the mounting brackets.
While there are several steps with the mounting hardware, this allows FSP to allow the CPU cooler to be compatible with many sockets.
Performance
The following are what I believe to be a great group of real-world representative tests to stress the CPU and integrated Vega GPU and, lastly, the CPU cooler that is attached. The ambient temperature of the room during testing is 20 C. The testing was conducted with the 2400g stock settings, an Overclock of 3.9 GHz on the CPU, and Overclock of 1500 Mhz on the GPU and lastly, both the CPU and GPU Overclocked. During testing, the hottest package temperature is recorded.
System Idle (after 5 min of Power On)
The FSP Windale 6 was able to keep the 2400g at 26 C and below during idle in all test variations of idle. This is an improvement over the wraith stealth as it could only keep the 2400g at 26-28 C in all test variations of idle.
Metro Last Light (Very High, AF 16X, No AA, PhysX Disabled (3 runs)
When testing Metro Last Light, you can see that the FSP Windale can hold its own, keeping the 2400g overclocked on both the CPU and GPU at bay with a temperature of 50.3 C.
15 minutes of ROG Realbench Stress Test
A similar story for Realbench, the Wraith Stealth had consistent temps in the 80’s C, while the Windale 6 was no higher than 76 C.
Ashes of the Singularity (CPU Test)
For a game that is primarily used as a benchmark, the Windale was able to keep the 2400g (1500 MHz on the GPU) at a lower 65 C, compared to 75.1 C with the Wraith Stealth.
Rise of the Tomb Raider Benchmark
For Rise of the Tomb Raider, the Windale 6 improved upon stock temps by 18.5 C.
Cinebench R15 (3 consecutive runs)
During testing of Cinebench R15, the Wraith Stealth allowed the 2400g (GPU 1500 MHz overclock) to climb to a toasty 93 C after one run. The Windale 6 under the same overclock maintained a maximum of 74.1 C after three runs.
I was happy to read your blog.