CoolJag Falcon 92-CU CPU Cooler Review

First Impressions


With its copper wing tips one could on first inspection mistakenly think that it really is ZEROtherm butterfly BTF90. Of course, this notion is fleeting at best, as the ZEROtherm is a tower cooler and this is a down draft cooler; but that was the first thing that came to mind when it was first taken out of its packaging. Once you get over a quick case of déjà-vu one is left with the feeling that this cooler was originally an old fashioned AMD 939 heatpiped CPU cooler that was fed too many steroids and had received a really good tan. It is only on closer inspection that one realizes that the copper radiators fins are not attached to the copper & aluminum base. Regardless of how it looks this really is a down draft cooler, just a rather larger example of one. Hopefully it outperforms all its potential doppelgangers and can justify that self appointed moniker of “Best Air Cooler in the Market”.


The recent trend in down-draft coolers is to have only the heatpipes supporting all the weight of the radiator fin assembly. In this case however there is support coming from one side via the heatpipes and from the center via the aluminum “skeeved” fins on the base’s heatsink (in case you are wondering Skeeved means that the aluminum part of the base was cut from one big solid chunk of aluminum and the fins were cut into it rather than soldered on). Unlike many that leave the base plate either smooth or with just small fins, the Falcon 92-cu’s base fins go all the way up to and touch the bottom of the copper fins. This does provide much needed support and takes a lot of stress off the heatpipes. It is doubtful if this touching causes much in the way of heat transfer as the main copper fins are extremely long and the heatpipes terminate at the top of them.

There are pros and cons to down draft coolers, and the biggest of those are: (con) hot air is funneled down and over the cpu itself, but (pro) there is a lot of air movement to cool off the MOSFET and hot chipsets on the motherboard. Another relatively minor “pro” is that most down draft coolers are of a lower profile than tower designs. However, this last point is moot since this cooler is just as tall as some of the towers on the market. In fact, this cooler has a very large footprint in all 3 dimensions.

As noted, since the hot air is being blown down and across the CPU base this cooler’s biggest weakness is its own design. As thermal loads increase more and more of the coolers thermal potential will be used in cooling the cooler’s base plate rather than the CPU. Of course, on could argue that it if properly implemented this “hot” air can be recycled and actually help cool the base plate. After all, the more air movement the more time for heat to be radiated / moved away from the CPU. To a certain extent this is true, but it is true only as long as the air moving over cooler base is cooler than the CPU. In a nutshell down draft CPU coolers can be very good solutions just as long as the thermal load is low enough, the design is efficient enough, or even if the cooler’s fan(s) can physically move enough air. This is a known issue with this style of cooler and there are a 3 main partial solutions to it, many of which CoolJag have availed themselves of.


The first and easiest solution to this known issue is that base of the cooler acts like a small heatsink in of itself. CoolJag engineers not only didn’t make the base of the cooler flat, they designed some of the biggest base fins that we have seen. This helps trap and recycle the air current created by its 92mm fan. These large fins significantly increase the base’s cooling surface area and all this extra space goes a long way to keeping the cooler from becoming its own enemy. However, there is a point where they can become too long and not only trap the air but keep it from being effectively moved away from the base of the cooler. Did CoolJag make them so large that they really need a second fan to push the hot air away from them? Only time and testing will tell.


The second partial fix to keep the cooler from thermally overloading itself is by adding more heatpipes. The more heatpipes, the more efficient the cooler and the more likely it is to perform well at higher thermal loads. Unfortunately, and unlike some other down draft coolers, the Falcon 92-CU only has four 6mm diameter heatpipes coming from only one side of the base plate. However, these heatpipes are very long and they do terminate in amongst a massive amount of copper fins.


The last but not least solution to the down draft design issue is to give the down draft cooler a big enough fan, thus enabling enough air movement to make the issue a moot point. After all, when finesse fails brute force usually doesn’t and in the real world there really is no such thing as “overkill” when it comes to cooling today’s CPU’s. In the case of the Falcon 92-cu, the fan used is a truly case-less 92x92x25 mm fan. However, even though 92mm is a not small it is literally dwarfed by the sheer size of the copper fins. While it would have cost the Falcon 92-CU some of its looks, if CoolJag had left off the upswept “tips” of the copper fins a more practical 120mm fans would have more than likely fit. As it stands, one has to wonder if this fan can handle the static air pressure that all those large, closely mounted copper fins must surely create.

As noted the fan itself does not have a case per say. Rather the motor and fan are mounted to a thin metal strip that runs behind the fan and the length of the copper radiator assembly while it is actually screwed into the assembly at both ends. While it does not look overly secure it does do the job and helps not only to eliminate static pressure caused by the case of the fan but also to an unknown extent makes the upswept copper wings somewhat practical. This is because air can be sucked into the fan from all directions causing air movement over and through these wing tips.


As you can see the copper radiator fins are very large and very densely packed. Similar designs in the past have shown that this requires a powerful fan with good static pressure to be truly efficient. If the fan is not up to the task, all that extra copper is not only wasted but can actually be considered a detriment to the efficiency of the unit. On the positive side all those copper fins with their old fashioned “wing tips” does give this cooler a very unique “bling” factor that cries out for a windowed side case…preferably with lots of lights to show it off to its fullest extent.


Here you can see that the base is very well polished showing only minor polishing marks, and was flat. Overall, the level of quality at this price point, while not the best we have seen, it is certainly above average.

One thing worth mentioning is that while some downdraft coolers are relatively short, this is NOT one of them. This cooler is BIG and I would not seriously consider placing it in a HTPC. While its height was by no means an issue it was a tight fit when installed in a CM690 with both door fans still in place. As per the manual these door fans were removed so as to keep the required space between the coolers fan and the side door.