Hardware Bistro

Product: Core-Contact Freezer
Manufacturer: Sunbeam
Supplied by: Sunbeam
Price: 40USD/RM145
Launch Date: NA

 

If you have went through our review on the 3360A CPU cooler and like it very much then you may interest with our review item today; Core-Contact Freezer from Sunbeam. Sunbeam Core-Contact Freezer is a four heatpipes tower CPU cooler with 120mm fan which is exactly same with 3360A with slight differences. Will Sunbeam Core-Contact Freezer able to outperform its competitor? Let us find out more...

Company Profile

Sunbeam Company, a true art innovator in the field of PC modification and accessories at all aspect, targets on providing the top quality and state of art computer products to high tech PC users. We dedicate outstanding high quality control as our number one priority and deliver the products with the highest level of excellent Performance, as well as the coolest Innovation and an Appearance that draws your attention.

Sunbeam Company has manufacturing factories located in Dongguan City, China. In order to provide exceptional product quality combined with superior customer support, we keep updating and advancing ourselves to meet the diverse changes and increasing market demands. We strive to continue designing and developing ground-breaking, exciting, and appealing products as well as being the one stop resource and solution for all computer enthusiasts seeking to turn their ingenious visions into the coolest and fanciest reality.

 

Core Contact Freezer Features

1. The Best CPU Cooler.
2. Core-Contact Technology
3. TX-2 Thermal Grease Included
4. 4 pcs High Performance 8mm U-shaped Heatpipes
5. Light Weight (590g without the Fan)
6. Fan Controller Included
7. Easy Installation
8. Bent Fins Design Helps to Cool the Components on the Motherboard
9. Universal Clip Design
10. Compatible with most of the mid-tower / full-tower cases and most of the motherboards in the market
11. Core Contact Freezer Height: 15.5 cm
12. Regular mid / full-tower case Width: 19 cm or more

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

Specifications

Package & Contents

 

Sunbeam Core-Contact Freezer comes with a simple and standard CPU box. The packaging box of our review sample here is bit damage due to courier services hence don't worry about it as this is not Sunbeam quality problem at all. The features of Core Contact Freezer, MFBD fan and TX-2 thermal compounds are written on the back of the box.

 

The whole fan and CPU cooler are protected by a transparent plastic box separately inside box. The rest of the accessories such as user's manual, fan clips, socket mounting bracket, thermal compound, and fan speed controller are kept inside a simple white box.

 

Basically besides the cooler of Sunbeam Core-Contact Freezer is very similar with 3360A the rest of the accessories and even packaging are also very similar. The user's manual is simple but it is very complete which shows the step by step installation. CPU socket bracket is provided for Intel users and the two springs are used to secure the fans on the CPU cooler.

 

Some major differences between 3360A with Sunbeam Core-Contact Freezer are the fan speed controller and thermal compound where Sunbeam has included their sister company famous thermal compound; Tuniq TX-2. The fan speed controller is quite important for Core-Contact Freezer because its incoming fan is having 200RPM which would be a bit noisy and this fan speed controller will able to control the fan speed in between 1000~2000RPM.

 

Sunbeam Core-Contact Freezer

 

Sunbeam Core-Contact Freezer is a tower CPU cooler with four heatpipes and its dimension is ~ 125mm x 104mm x 155mm. 15.5cm is the cooler height where it may not compatible with some small PC cases. Sunbeam Core-Contact Freezer is exactly same with 3360A with some slightly differences like the end of the heatpipe where Sunbeam does not cover them nicely like 3360A. However this shouldn't an issue at all except for those are looking for an absolutely perfect heatsink.

 

Heatpipe cooler is not new but what is getting attention from us of this Sunbeam Core-Contact Freezer is the four heatpipes as most of them time there will be two heatpipes only due to higher cost. If you are not familiar with heatpipe, basically heatpipe is a heat transfer media that contains a fluid which can transfer huge amount of heat from hotter area to colder area; triggered by temperature differences between them.

 

Another great feature of Sunbeam Core-Contact Freezer is the direct contact between the heatpipes and the processor. By having this way, it will shorten the time for transferring the heat from processor to the fins and get cooled. Aluminum fins are used for Sunbeam Core-Contact Freezer which is common as aluminum is much cheaper than copper and it has better heat dissipation factor.

 

For AMD users, no CPU bracket is required as Sunbeam has universal installation process. However for Intel users, the black CPU bracket is required to be installed on the motherboard first and we have tested such bracket holder, it will be able to hold a heavy heatsink without any problem but in the other way it will be hard to be taken out as well. We believe Sunbeam will add the additional bracket for Intel i7 motherboard pretty soon which is required for Intel i7 new design.

 

Sunbeam Core-Contact Freezer is a giant CPU cooler where a 120mm fan is paired with it. Some other giant CPU cooler will have dual 120mm fans but with large heatsink of Sunbeam Core-Contact Freezer, it will be hard to support dual fans as it will harden the installation process. This fan is able to generate up to 90CFM which is very powerful for a standard slim fan but this will be same for the noise as well. Luckily a fan speed controller is included.

Here is a structure of Sunbeam Core-Contact Freezer's MFDB fan which is using magnetic fluid dynamic bearing.

 

On the top the fan, Sunbeam added four fan mounting rubbers to reduce the vibration noise when mount on the heatsink. The fan cable is shield type which has better protection from being damaged and looks nicer as well.

 

Installation, Testing & Performance

 

For the installation, it will be better for users to install the fan on the heatsink first before install it on the motherboard as it is not easy to install the fan on the heatsink as the spring is very strong and hard to bend it. Here is the complete installation for the fan on the heatsink together with the motherboard socket bracket.

 

Sunbeam Core-Contact Freezer installation is not so simple if you are not familiar with it which is due to the giant heatsink and it will block the your finger for installing the heatsink clips on the motherboard socket bracket. Besides that it need to be done carefully as it may damage the components around the CPU such as capacitors, MOSFET and etc. We have some installation problems with 3360A as it was the first time to install such CPU cooler however after some practicing it should be no problem to install/uninstall this CPU cooler less than a minutes.

 

Test Bed

Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo E8300
Memory: 4GB 800MHz DDR2 Memory
Hard Drive: 250GB 7200RPM 8MB Seagate HDD
Graphic Card: OEM Nvidia GeForce 8800GT 512MB
Optical Drive: 16x DVD RW
System BIOS: F7
Operating System: Microsoft Window XP SP2
Benchmark Software: Gigabyte Easy Tune 6
Ambient Temperature: 27 Degree Celsius

As you can see, the performance of Sunbeam Core-Contact Freezer is pretty good and able to beat its competitors like Tuniq Tower 120 as well as NorthQ 3360A. Both of these competitor air CPU coolers performance are very good and quite popular in PC industry. Sunbeam Core-Contact Freezer performs a little bit better than 3360A where the key point here which is the fan. Sunbeam Core-Contact Freezer has higher RPM fan which generate greater CFM than 3360A and if you use the same fan for both of these coolers, then you will able to see the same result for both of them.

 

Conclusion

Looking for a great CPU air cooler? Then Sunbeam Core-Contact Freezer should be in your list as its performance is very good and so far it is the best air cooler in our test lab but it may not be the best one in the market. Besides that Sunbeam has included a tube of TX-2 with this cooler which is one of the best thermal compounds in the market. With its price around 40USD, it is not really expensive and with its performance we consider it is cheap as there are some more expensive coolers in market but not performs as good as Sunbeam Core-Contact Freezer. 

Pros:
* Great Performance
* TX-2 Thermal Compound
* Changeable with other 120mm fan
* Fan Speed Controller

Cons:
* Installation is not simple
* A bit noise during full speed

 

Thanks to Sunbeam for providing this sample for us to review.

 

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