A Closer Look:

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There are a few things that you notice about the Core Freezer if you have a basic understanding about computer thermal properties and cooling methods.  impressions. Aside from its obvious size and tower cooler construction, a lot about the cooler is deceiving.

Top

First, the cooler isn't as heavy as it appears even with the numerous aluminum fins and heat pipes. In fact, it's probably about two thirds or less the weight of something like the Noctua NH-U12P cooler. Being lighter offers up different benefits such as a new installation methods unlike larger, heavier coolers.

Bottom Angle

Second, you can see that the base actually exposes the copper pipes and integrates them as part the base. Another cooler we've seen that looks similar in nature is from SilenX. What can make or break the performance of the cooler is just how close the pipes and aluminum base are actually fabricated. If there's too much of a disconnection, the heat won't be properly dissipated.

Copper Base

The base itself is machined pretty well and feels quite flat. Aside from the transitions, the base isn't rough which means better thermal connection between the CPU. Ideally, you'd want to add just a little extra thermal paste to help fill in those transitions. Otherwise, it looks like we may have a worthy design.

Copper Base Up Close

The tips of the copper pipes could use a little extra thought. It seems a shame to leave them visible with the gray smelt and unfinished, collapsed pipe ends. A good quick fix might be a cap of sorts in either matching aluminum or copper themselves. That would had a nice clean effect to the cooler's overall towering physique.

Copper Pipe Tops

The mounting hardware and thermal paste are almost identical to that of the SilenX. The shape of the cooler and thermal paste may be the only difference. Stock thermal pastes don't always perform the best, but it really depends on its make up and properties. One interesting thing about the paste is that it has Tuniq's name on it rather than SunbeamTech. So, it's very possible we may have some better quality thermal paste in the bundle. We'll see later on in testing.

And finally, the specs indicate this is a strong bundled fan. It's a 90 CFM 120mm fan controlled by a PCI I/O bracket with variable speed knob, or potentiometer. The fan spins about 40 CFM at its lowest setting and tops out at about 90 CFM. The noise ratio claims to range 16 to 20 dB. At 40 CFM, the 16 db seems about right. But, I'm predicting about 30 db for the 90 CFM. The noise will be measured during testing.

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