Sunbeamtech Core-Contact Freezer Heatsink Review

Sunbeamtech has some huge shoes to fill given the last great cooler marketed under the Tuniq brand name. The Tuniq Tower 120 is what I am referring to, and it is a stellar heatsink to use and beats the heat really well. So the Core-Contact Freezer is an evolution from that cooler, however I think the Core-Contact Freezer missed it's overclocking mark. This evolution going from having a heatspreader for the heatpipes to making the heatpipes touch the processor core just did not help all that much. I think the Core-Contact Freezer can do a great job at cooling lower end processors and dual core units however quads will need to remain at their default speeds.

The reason for this is in the core processor contact.  Here we have four 8mm heatpipes and only two are really getting worked hard since they are directly over the processor cores while the two outer heatpipes get to do very little work. This creates an unbalanced chain reaction that does not allow the heatsink to handle the heat very well. The other reason is in capacity,  Heatpipes by nature have very thin walls and while heat can have direct access to the heatpipe you lose efficiency due to a smaller heat differential.  The higher the temperature difference, the more heat the pipe can remove.  This is clearly indicated in the benchmark portion of the review.   Maybe a stronger fan would help or more surface area on the radiator but neither of these come in the retail package.

Here is the moment to either crush the Core-Contact Freezer or pick it up from the fall exhibited in the benchmark section of this review. Well the numbers count, and are not very good with a huge upswing on the heat. Yet the Core-Contact Freezer does destroy the Intel Stock cooler at stock temperatures. So the potential of the Core-Contact Freezer is there in every way. The element of adding a better fan or something to this nature might give the Core-Contact Freezer the true boost it needs to subdue the heat that an overclocked quad core can bring to the table.

In the end it is not all doom and gloom. Sunbeamtech does give you a great amount of wonderful items to go along with the cooler. They do not skimp on the goodies to make the overall package a great value. Looking at the price of the Core-Contact Freezer up against the likes of a TRUE, and you will see from the start that Sunbeamtech is charging less than half the price of the TRUE. Then factor in you get a fan that is very quite even at high speed plus the fan controller to tune it in to your liking. Throw in a very easy mounting system that does not require you to remove your motherboard and some top notch thermal paste and well, the picture starts to look much better.. The Core-Contact Freezer is not going to make an extreme overclocker happy however it will make someone looking for a stock replacement just a little happier.

Very easy mounting system no need to remove motherboard
Comes with a very quiet 120mm fan and controller to tune to your liking
Premium thermal paste included
Beats the Intel stock heatsink in cooling
Great for mild overclocking

Is not for the extreme overclocker
Unbalanced heatpipe system
Not for Quad-Core overclocked systems