X-bit labs

Introducing New Heat-Pipe Coolers: CoolJag Falcon 92-Al and Falcon 92-Cu Review (page 2)

Category: Coolers

by Sergey Lepilov

[ 07/17/2007 | 10:08 AM ]

Design

As you might have guessed from the names and packaging, one model is almost entirely made from copper and the other has aluminum heatsink ribs. This is the only difference between the two coolers, so I’m going to discuss the all-copper Falcon 92-Cu as the most interesting one from an overclocker’s standpoint.

It is a classic example of a cooler with heat pipes. There are four copper pipes, 6mm in diameter, in the cooler’s base. The pipes carry a heatsink.

An attentive overclocker is sure to notice the unevenness of the ribs in the top middle part of the heatsink. This defect is indeed present on both models and on both sides of the heatsinks:

The coolers’ plastic jackets just opened up during transportation and bent some of the ribs with their edges. This was easily to correct, though.

The heatsink ribs form a kind of a bowl in which the fan is located and secured on an aluminum leg attached to two side ribs.

Considering that the CoolJag coolers have only the impeller blades of a fan, without a housing, the ribs to the sides of the fan are going to be cooled by the airflow as well. I touched the top ends of the ribs while the cooler was working and found them to be quite hot, which meant that the entire surface of the heatsink was being utilized. This is an original solution indeed, and the tests will show you how efficient it is.

A total of 66 ribs are set at a distance of 1.5 millimeters from each other.

The contact area between the heat pipes and the heatsink ribs is enlarged by means of bottlenecks that were shaped when the ribs were being put on the pipes.