Author: Wayne Ihamäki Date: April 12, 2008 Manufacturer: CoolJag

Page 1: Introduction

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In a sea of CPU coolers, CoolJag has come out with two different versions of the Falcon, the 92-CU and the 92-AL. Just like the periodic tables, the CU is for copper and AL is for Aluminum. CoolJag sent us the Falcon 92-AL to put through it's paces. (Hopefully they develop and send a Falcon 92-AU next time!)

The Falcon 92 series coolers are 10.6 x 12.2 x 11.1 cm. It's a big cooler, so we're expecting big results.

Packaging

The packaging on the Falcon 92-AL is tastefully done. The contents are well protected, all basic information you'd need is there, and you can clearly see what the product is.


Contents

Inside you have the CPU cooler of course and mounting hardware for major motherboard types such as Intel 775 and AMD 754, 939, 940, and AM2.


The Falcon 92-AL is a nice looking unit. The fins are narrow at the top and are easily bent if one's not careful. I was happy to see a simple, but effective means of mounting the unit – bolts. For the Socket LGA775, it also comes with an 'X'-bracket which goes on the bottom. Although one has to take out the motherboard during installation, this is a trade-off I welcome over a stock 'push-n-click' system. The bottom features a nice flat shiny surface made of copper. The four heat pipes are also made of copper. The base has it's own aluminum heatsink mounted on it.


The 'Smart-fan' is auto-controlled by system temperature. There's no shroud on the unit, with open blades spinning between the 65 aluminum fins sticking up. Juice is provided via a 4-pin connector. The clear blades glow green once running. With the unit being so quiet, this was the only way I could tell it was running.

Testing

Testing was done using a ASUS P5ND2-SLI motherboard running a 2.8 Prescott. To heat things up, StressPrime 2004 ORTHOS was run for 15 minutes to produce a load. Idle temperatures were recorded after sitting still for 15 minutes.


The stock Intel cooler was put on using Arctic Silver 5. The CoolJag Falcon 92-AL comes with it's own tube of thermal compound. Not wanting the compound to have an impact on the results, I retested the Falcon 92-AL using Arctic Silver 5 also. The results? Absolutely no difference. Although the compound provided with CoolJag was thicker and a little harder to apply, they do include a plastic applicator to do the job.

One observation during testing was the lack of noise coming from the CoolJag. As stated, the fan is auto-controlled by system temperature. Pegging the processor at 100% wasn't making it kick in. This fan has no shroud so I wondered what impact that made. In the interest of maximum performance, I removed the existing fan and replaced it with my own speed-adjustable 80mm fan. Since I was using an Ahanix D-Vine HTPC case the fan was just placed directly top of the aluminum fins. With the 80mm on it's slowest speed setting, there was no difference in temperatures or noise. So the lack of a fan shroud didn't make an impact. My next step was to see what kind of improvement there would be cranking the fan all the way up. (See CoolJag 92-AL Modified on the chart.) This lowered the temperatures by 5 degrees, but raised the noise level to intolerable. CoolJag has found the perfect balance of performance and noise with it's thermally speed controlled fan.


Conclusion


Is the Falcon 92-AL the 'Ultimate Cooling Machine'? It sure did gobble up the BTUs. I would of liked to been able to throw more heat at it, but even mild over-clocking didn't budge it. Until they change socket designs, this unit should handle my future multi-core needs. It's one cooler I can see using for a very long time and should be a great investment.

Pros

• Excellent cooling capacity.
• Quiet operation.
• Slick packaging.
• Thermal compound included.
• Thermal compound applicator included.
• Various mounting hardware.
• Serious visual statement.

Cons

• Possible size considerations. (Fit in my HTPC case.)
• Green LED fan might not be one's color choice.

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