Review: Sunbeamtech Core Contact Freezer CPU Cooler
Summer is fast approaching and it’s time to get into shape. That’s right, I’m just here to remind everyone that you should start sooner rather than later to get ready for the warmer months. No, I’m not talking about how your lard ass looks in a Manzini but rather the temps on your CPU. Hey, if you’re looking for health tips try 1-800-597-Jenny but if you’re in need of a serious health update for your socket 754/939/940/AM2 or LGA775 CPU keep reading.
The System
I built this rig about a year ago and I still love it.
- Intel Q6600 G0 Stepping 2.4 Ghz
- XFX nForce 680i Mobo
- 2 GB A-Data DDR2 800 memory
- 2x Seagate 500 GB HDD 32 MB Cache (RAID 0)
- XFX 8800 GT Alpha Dog w/Zalman VF900 heatsink/fan
- Sound Blaster X-Fi Platinum Fatality Edition
- PC Power and Cooling 610 W PSU
- Cooler Master Cosmos Case
With the above setup I was using an Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro that I paid $20 for at the time. It wasn’t bad and has lasted me for a year but with recently getting back into PC Gaming (World of Warcraft) I need to make sure my rig stays cool. The Freezer 7 Pro was never bad it just was never great. With a modest overclock from 2.4Ghz to 3.0Ghz my temps would hit high 50’s and would idle between 56 and 49. That just wasn’t good enough.
The Cooler
Choices, choices, and, holy hell, more choices. There are so many coolers on the market today my head was spinning. I wanted excellent performance and I wanted it for $65 or less. This limited the selection with most coolers being at least $50 that are worth a darn. The Thermalright 120 is almost legendary for it’s cooling capacity but that was $50 without a fan so I looked at Xigmatek which shares pretty much the same design. Xigmatek’s S1283 was very similar to the Thermalright and looked to perform about the same but then I found another.
Sunbeam didn’t even come to mind when I was thinking about coolers but I’m happy I found it listed. The Sunbeam CR-CCTF 120MM Core Contact cooler is priced great and works great or at least from what I had read. I have to admit I was a little nervous about the purchase since I can’t even think of the last “Sunbeam” thing I bought. Lightbulbs, I think?
The Core Contact is basically 4 copper heat pipes that sit on the CPU and run up through the rest of the cooler which is a collection of cooling fins. Combine that with a 120mm fan and you’ve got yourself a decent setup. I have to say, when I opened the box I wasn’t overwhelmed with the feel of great quality but rather it felt built just well enough to work as a CPU cooler. I was surprised, as I didn’t properly read the description, that they included a fan controller and a tube of good thermal paste made by Tuniq. So, not overly impressive but rather it felt like it was the bare essentials of a very good cooler.
The Install
Opening the package made me just a slight bit confused and the instructions were also bare essentials. This cooler is designed for so many CPU’s you have to take a second to make sure you’re grabbing the right stuff to get setup. I’m running the Q6000 which is LGA775 so I had to put an adapter around my CPU. You don’t have to remove the motherboard to do this but I did anyway which was good cause I would have had to later. The piece just snaps in followed by four plastic parts to make sure it stays there and with the size of this thing you don’t want to forget them.
Once that was installed I followed the directions to put “an extra amount” of thermal paste on the CPU and was ready to mount the cooler. This became a problem pretty instantly. Most nForce boards have passive (copper/aluminum) heatsinks around the CPU to keep the chipset cool and there just wasn’t enough room to properly attach the cooler. Fortunately, it was an easy fix/mod. I just took a straight screw driver and bent some of the fins enough to mount the cooler and then bent them back as far as I could. This was surprising but I wasn’t at all upset by it. I’m sure some people might not like this and it’s certainly not ideal but with so many motherboards being on the market it can be tough to get a perfect design. After it was firmly in place I ran the cords to the motherboard and fan controller and was on my way.
The Results
I can’t say that I didn’t have any doubts after the install but I was instantly reassured. First, the fan is not very loud at all even cranked up at its top speed. It is a lower speed fan that could easily be replaced for more performance. Moving along, I booted the PC and let it idle for roughly 15 minutes and ran SpeedFan to check the temps. At idle my PC was now at 31C instead of 38C! A 7 degree drop is an excellent start.
I will be following this up with overclocking results and more pictures but this is all you get for now.
Initial Rating: 8/10 - DeviantKnowledge Recommended (Great Value!)
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May 31st, 2009 at 4:56 am
[...] Review Sunbeamtech Core Contact Freezer CPU Cooler DeviantKnowledge Posted by root 4 hours ago (http://deviantknowledge.com) This cooler is designed for so many cpu you have to take a second to make sure you 39 re if you enjoyed this post please consider to leave a comment or Discuss | Bury | News | Review Sunbeamtech Core Contact Freezer CPU Cooler DeviantKnowledge [...]