Product Review: Sunbeam Core-Contact Freezer 92mm CPU Cooler

The Sunbeam Core-Contact Freezer 92mm CPU Cooler is the smaller cousin of the Core-Contact Freezer for a simple cooling solution for smaller PC cases.
Ease of Use, Performance: 18/25
Look amp; Feel: 18/25
Features 20/25
How much I enjoy 20/25

Total: 76/100

The Sunbeam Core-Contact Freezer 92mm is the smaller cousin of the original Core-Contact Freezer with a smaller size and fan but a few improvements. The 92mm Core-Contact has a few feature differences that also affect how well it dissipates heat but I found this cooler works well for a lower wattage CPU.

The Core-Contact Freezer 92mm is 95mm long x 80mm wide and 150mm tall or about 3.5 inches long, 3 inches wide and 4.75 inches tall. The cooler is a nice size even though it is a bit too tall to be considered a small form factor size but it also can be outfitted with another 92mm fan if you want.

I found it quite easy to install a 92mm fan I had using the supplied rubber mounts and attaching one fan on each side of the cooler for added cooling. This was beneficial for use with my Intel Core 2 Quad system where the single fan and cooler was just not adequate for high CPU activity.

The Core-Contact 92mm is a smaller heat sink fan assembly but includes some nice features like dimpled aluminum fins and the fins being crimped together on the ends. The dimples of the fins allow for more surface area without adding to the size of the heat sink and the fins being crimped together mean no bending and misaligning so the fins stay in nice neat rows.

The surface of the heat sink that contacts the CPU is not mirror finished but a bit rough with the four heat pipes in direct contact with the CPU surface. The aluminum heat sink that the heat pipes run through are visible on each side of the heat pipes and the two sides that extend outward from the group of heat pipes.

The Core-Contact Freezer 92mm has a channel running up and down each side for some rubber mounts to slide in which are tough to insert but hold in well. The mounts are not your usual through a hole rubber mounts but have a tubular part that inserts into the circular channel.

You can use the one fan that is already mounted or add an additional fan with the included extra set of mounts for increased cooling. I found that adding my extra .26 amp fan easy and was getting about a 2 or 3 degree improvement using the extra fan.

I ran the Core-Contact Freezer 92mm in my AMD system along with some other coolers and was getting some decent cooling using Speedfan for my measurements. My AMD system is an AMD Athlon 64 X2 5000+ CPU at 3.01 GHz on a Gigabyte GA-MS75SLI-S4 motherboard running Windows Vista Business with a Zotac 8800 GT graphics card.

I was getting readings of 22 degrees Celsius at idle for the Scythe Ninja Copper cooler with a 92mm fan attached and 52 degrees Celsius using Prime95 to stress test the CPU. The Core-Contact Freezer, original version, was getting 19 degrees Celsius at idle and 22 degrees Celsius using Prime95 testing.

The Core-Contact 92mm CPU Cooler was getting 25 degrees Celsius at idle and 30 degrees Celsius using Prime95 torture testing with 28 degrees using two fans while torture testing with Prime95. The Thermaltake Spin Q cooler which is a much larger cooler was getting 18 degrees at idle and 21 degrees using Prime95 testing.

My Intel system has an Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 CPU running at 2.91 GHz on an ECS P45T-A Black Series motherboard running Windows Vista Premium with a PNY 9800 GTX+ graphics card using the Real Temp program for measurements. Using the Quad Core CPU I was getting 19 degrees Celsius idle temperatures for the Ninja Copper with 92 mm fan and 44 degrees using Pirme95 torture testing.

With the original Core-Contact Freezer I was getting 20 degrees Celsius at idle and 36 degrees Celsius torture testing using Prime95. The Core-Contact 92mm cooler was getting 38 degrees at idle and 50 degrees using the Prime95 testing with an additional 2 degrees lower with two fans during torture testing.

The Thermaltake Spin Q was getting 26 degrees Celsius at idle and 43 degrees during torture testing on the Intel Core 2 Quad CPU. The original Sunbeam Core-Contact cooler did the best at my testing on the Intel system while the Thermaltake Spin Q did the best on my AMD system.

The smaller Core-Contact 92mm did pretty well and never reached temperatures that I would worry about but I really would not consider it much for a system with a high wattage processor. The Core-Contact Freezer 92mm seems more like a smaller heat sink fan assembly for those smaller systems that do not use a lot of higher CPU activity.

The Core-Contact 92mm tested well and used two fans to bring the temperatures down a little but also did not do all that bad on the quad core Intel system. For these higher temperatures I would really not recommend the Core-Contact 92mm cooler but for systems needing a smaller cooler using a lower wattage processor or one that is a dual core this would be a good choice.

The Core-Contact 92mm CPU Cooler is easy to install and comes with a tube of TX-2 Thermal Grease, retention brackets for Intel LGA775 and a fan speed controller. The Core-Contact is simple to install using the clips that mount normally like on the AMD motherboards for both the AMD and the Intel LGA775.

The fan has the usual connector for hooking directly to the motherboard or you can install the bracket controller and connect the fan to the controller and then to the motherboard. The Core-Contact 92mm is a bit noisy when running at full speed but not more so than many other fans I have heard in my systems and works well with or without the fan controller.

The Core-Contact Freezer 92mm best gaming cpu coolers performs well for its size but I would not recommend this for systems that use high wattage CPU's or the quad cores if you are going to be stressing the system a lot. The Core-Contact Freezer 92mm from Sunbeam is a nicely priced cooler at about $28 and is well worth the cost for the size and performance you get.