There’s a huge selection of CPU coolers
available on the market today, and choosing one can be confusing at
best. The latest trend in CPU coolers is direct heatpipe cooling
where the heatpipes contact directly onto the top of the CPU cooler.
This system seems to work well, and with some cooler it does provide
a better cooling solution.
We haven’t taken a look at any CPU
coolers in a while, so today I’ve got the Sunbeam Core Contact
Freezer CPU Cooler for review. As the name suggests, the heatpipes
are in direct contact with the top of your CPU to supposedly provide
good cooling performance. The Core Contact Freezer is a lightweight
cooler that appears well made and offers up some decent performance
numbers when compared to other on the market today, so continue on to
learn more about this cooler…
Sunbeam
Core-Contact Freezer CPU Cooler
Author: Kristofer Brozio
Sponsor:
Sunbeam
Tech
Specs,Features or the Basic Info:
Sunbeam
Core-Contact Freezer CPU Cooler
1. Core-Contact Technology
2. TX-2 Thermal Grease Included
3. 4 pcs High Performance 8mm
U-shaped Heatpipes
4. Light Weight .(590g without
the Fan)
5. Fan Controller Included
6. Easy Installation
7. Bent Fins Design Helps to
Cool the Components on the Motherboard
8. Universal Clip Design
MFDB
Fan Features:
1. Silent 120mm Fan MFDB (
Magnetic Fluid Dynamic Bearing)
2. Ultra-Silent Low-Noise Level
(16db)
3. Outstanding Long Life of
50,000 Hours
TX-2
Features:
1. Low Thermal Resistance for
Superior Heat Transfer, 4.5W/mK
2. Small Molecular Size Makes a
Better Contact Between the
Heatsink and Heatsource
3. Thin Bond Line for
Hi-Efficiency Conductivity
4. Low Bleed under High
Pressure
5. Spreads Easy – Clean
Consistency
6. Help the Low-pressure Clip
Design of Cooler to Achieve
7. better cooling performance
8. RoHS Compliant
9. Not Electrically Conductive
Compatibility:
Compatible with most of the
mid-tower / full-tower cases and most of the motherboards in the
market
Specs:
Part number: CR-CCTF
Dimensions(mm): 125(L) ×
104(W) × 155(H)
Weight: 590g
Bearing Type: MFDB
Rated Voltage: 12V DC
Rated Current: 0.16A
Air Flow: 90.65 CFM (Max)
Noise: 16~20 +/- 10%
Speed: 1,000~2,000 RPM+/- 10%
Life: 50,000 hours
Thermal Resistance 0.092 (? /
W)
A
Better Look at Things:
The Sunbeam Core Contact Freezer
CPU Cooler comes packaged in a brightly colored box with specs and
features listed on it as expected.
Unpacking everything we find the
cooler itself, 120mm fan, PCI fan speed controller, Tuniq thermal
compound, user manual and mounting hardware.
The Core Contact Freezer appears
to be well made, it’s fairly lightweight as well. The fins are very
thin, and the unit I received for review got a little beat up and
some of the fins got bent during shipping, but I don’t think it
affects the performance.
As the name suggests, Core
Contact, the heatpipes contact directly onto the top of the CPU. The
base appears flat and is a bit rough, not a mirror finish but fairly
smooth with machining lines still visible.
Installation,
Testing and Comparison:
Normally I mount CPU Coolers
sideways so the air blows through the cooler and out the back exhaust
fan, but do the the shape of the Sunbeam Core Contact Freezer and its
mounting system this wasn’t possible, it hit the northbridge heatsink
on my motherboard.
For
testing I used my Intel C2D6420 and my GIGABYTE
GA-G33M-DS2R Intel G33 Bear Lake mATX Motherboard.
Ambient temperature during
testing was 19C (+/- .3C), and I used Orthos Stress Test to get load
on my CPU. I used CoreTemp with logging enabled to record the
temperatures then average them out.
First up is testing with the fan
connected to the CPU header:
Not bad performance overall.
Next up is testing with the fan
connected to a molex connection:
The same temperature as the fan
was running at same speed.
And finally here’s testing with no
fan at all:
Good performance with no fan as
well.
You can see the Sunbeam Core
Contact Cooler isn’t the best performer but it does a very good job
at keeping your CPU cool and is comparable to the others out there
today.
The
fan is relatively quiet, and the included fan speed controller can be
use to regulate the speed of the fan if need be.
Summary
and Comments:
The Sunbeam Core Contact CPU
Cooler is a good choice to cool your hot CPU, it’ll do a good job
even without a fan attached.
It’s well made, fairly quiet and
the included fan controller can be useful as well.
I did run into the installation
problem, so if you’ve got a motherboard with a large Northbridge
heatsink , keep in mind that you’ll only be able to mount the Core
Contact one way basically.
DragonSteelMods gives the Sunbeam
Core-Contact Freezer CPU Cooler a 4.5 out of 5 score.
Pros:
-Quiet
-Well made
-Lightweight
-Good performance
Cons:
-Will have problems with install
on motherboard with large northbridge heatsinks
I
would like to thank Sunbeam for the chance to review the Core
Contact Freezer and for their support of DSM.
review# 516