Aywun A1-V6

Two cylinders dropped, but still impressive.

When we looked at the first Aywun A1-V8 heatsink recently, we were impressed; and Aywun has managed to knock our socks off again with its midgetesque A1-V6. It's much smaller than most coolers out there, with a height of only 133mm, but that doesn't mean it's a terrible performer.

The base of this heatsink is formed from six sheets of aluminium, each with a cutout for three heatpipes. They hold the pipes in place, placing them directly against the IHS on the CPU to take the heat away quickly. Bent into the same U shape that we've seen in every tower heatsink this gives an effective six paths for heat to travel. They're spaced quite well, and head up into the series of aluminium fins to distribute the heat - there were no areas that felt cooler and every piece of metal was being used utilised in the process.

Shaped almost like a D from above, the Aywun comes with a 92mm LED fan mounted to the straight side of the cooler to blow air through, and also comes with a variable rheostat controller that gives direct fanspeed manipulation. A noise of 51.6dBA at low is impressively quiet, though the high speed makes an annoying 70.1dBA. Mounting this heatsink was a breeze; with a bracket installed on the mobo and secured with pins the heatsink is simply clipped onto the bracket, forming an incredibly solid and even pressure. Compatibility covers 1366, 775 and all AMD sockets.

The performance for such a small 'sink was great, passing our torture tests at stock on low fanspeed easily - and even managing to pass the same tests while overclocked at high fanspeed! Considering the normal TDP is 130W for the CPU this is a huge amount while overclocked; and for the price this heatsink can't be ignored.