# Phanteks PH-TC14PE



## crazyeyesreaper (Apr 21, 2013)

The Phanteks PH-TC14PE is a behemoth of a CPU cooler that looks ready to maul the competition. This anodized aluminum and nickle-plated copper beast has twin cooling towers and five 8 mm heatpipes. Are the giant towers and fleshed-out pipes enough to deliver top tier performance?

*Show full review*


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## NeoXF (May 8, 2013)

Really? No comments?

I find this (at least by TPU's review) to be a stellar heatsink, aside from the gargantuan weight, I wish it had some 3-fan setup tests as well, in which case I think it would beat even H110 in most situation. Congrats to the engineer folks over at Phanteks... now if only they'd sell them in my country... then I'd be less inclined in DYI or semi-DYI water cooling setups, which frankly scare me... then again, so does this mode's almost one kilo and a half weight.


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## HammerON (May 8, 2013)

Nice review
I really like the black heatsink.


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## studentx86 (May 8, 2013)

I am absolutely shocked by the performance of this monster!  I was considering the H110 but after this review considering the price/performance difference I see no reason to do so..   
I'd like to see a 3 fan setup, but I bet it outperforms H110 all the way then. Also why is there no NH-D14 for comparison??


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## W1zzard (May 8, 2013)

NeoXF said:


> Really? No comments?



I just posted this review today. Due to how our site engine works the review thread/post has the timestamp when the reviewer first started working on it, not when it was published. This has been fixed now.


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## micropage7 (May 8, 2013)

nice cooler, maybe i prefer red one
but so far its like nothing new
bigger heatsink + many heat pipes + big fans = over weight and over size too
maybe they need to add some holder since most users have vertical placement


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## crazyeyesreaper (May 8, 2013)

The weight is heavy for sure but not as bad as previous designs.

Thermalrights True 120 Copper edition is 2000 g for those that want to really worry about weight.

In comparison the PH-TC14PE is heavy compared to most typical air coolers but its not chart topping in that category. still do to its massive size the weight is still a con.


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## RyougiShiki (May 8, 2013)

I have this cooler (silver one), I bought it almost 1 year ago (june 2012) and it's amazing cooler. I'm using it on i5 2500k@4.5GHz 1.375V. In idle when room temperature is around 20C cpu temp is +2C (22C), during summer its a little more +3C when in room is around 30-35C (unfortunately I don't have air conditioning). Last time I checked when in room I had 26C during playing Crysis 3 max core temp was 47C so basically I have set on motherboard fans to go at 100% RPM above 65C and it's always very quiet hovering around 900RPM (temps I did mention before are basically on minimum RPM). It is heavy and huge but I don't see it a problem. I was building my first pc by my own hands with this cooler and didn't have much troubles (only those clips to fans were quite annoying but maybe I'm mentally challenged ). I was moving with this pc and cooler inside 2 times and I always was afraid it would break motherboard or something but nothing bad happend even after riding car on bumpy road. It's size just requires a little wider case - I have Fractal Design Arc Midi Tower and it fits fine. I was considering back then to buy other coolers like noctua nhd14 but chosen this one as I noticed it was performing amazingly even on lower RPM and I wanted to have quiter pc.

I will only add that lately I changed reference cooling on my Radeon 7870 to Arctic accelero extreme III and set RPM to 800 and now my pc is as quiet in idle as it's when gaming for a few hours .


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## MT Alex (May 8, 2013)

Pictures look really good


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## neofury (May 8, 2013)

Hi there, first time poster, long time reader. I'm planning on getting this heatsink and have read tons of reviews. (Great review by the way)

The only thing I've been wondering is how this heatsink would perform with 3 fans (some reviews did it, and it got 1-2 lower) but also with better fans. The ones that come with it if I recall correctly are around 70CFM so I was just wondering how it might perform with 90-100CFM fans.

My computer will be several feet away as I play on a 60" LED in my living room. With either a headset or surround, noise of the fans won't be a major factor. Do you think if I popped 3 after market fans onto it that are rated 100CFM+ I could even get 3-5 degrees less? Reason I ask is because if that's the case closed loop solutions seem like a waste of money and potentially dangerous if they leak.

Thanks again for the review.


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## crazyeyesreaper (May 8, 2013)

Long answer :


Spoiler



honestly if you can afford the cost get another one of Phanteks fans for it, that way you have 3 matching fans, my testing for fun I tried a third fan a Noctua 140mm which i just held in place with my hand, it dropped temps about 2'C in Prime 95 testing but didnt do much for typical load or idle.

I would just stick another Phanteks fan on it personally and run it with 3 matching fans call it a day take what you can get performance isnt going to be night and day difference.

Closed loops are popular because they do not block DIMM slots this means if you want to run say Intel x79 with 8 x 8gb sticks for a total of 64gb of ram or just have 8 sticks of DDR3 anyway, The Phanteks cooler will limit you to standard height memory.  

Closed loops let you use whatever memory you want without interference. There are pros and cons of both systems.

Mostly it also depends on your CPU,  the Phanteks PH-TC14PE was amazing honestly on my x79 test bench, but this does not instantly mean it will be absolutely amazing on say Z77. CPU choices plays a roll in this. For example on AM3 + on an 8350 overclocked I expect the PH-TC14PE would perform very well, same goes for X79.  However LGA1155 LGA1150 with the TDP being so much lower, and using TIM instead of solder, heat transfer suffers. In this situation the Phanteks PH-TC14PE could perform far worse.



short answer:
Depending on the CPU you are using 3x 90-100cfm fans could perform better. however i would just pick up another Phanteks fan mount it for a matching set and call it a day. Temp drops would be 1-3'C again depending on CPU and socket.

Another thing to keep in mind is actual overclock. the 3960x I use for testing at 4.1 GHz gets pretty damn hot pretty quick, however at say 4.3GHz things may change in terms of which product is on top. Their are many variables to keep in mind. Regardless of this from the tests I know the PH-TC14PE will let me take this chip further something the Hyper 212 EVO or my Noctua NH-C14 were unable to do.
There is also the fact that another chip may run cooler. This is especially true on Socket 1155 with Ivy Bridge CPUs.


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## Huguito (May 8, 2013)

RyougiShiki said:


> I have this cooler (silver one), I bought it almost 1 year ago (june 2012) and it's amazing cooler. I'm using it on i5 2500k@4.5GHz 1.375V. In idle when room temperature is around 20C cpu temp is +2C (22C), during summer its a little more +3C when in room is around 30-35C (unfortunately I don't have air conditioning). Last time I checked when in room I had 26C during playing Crysis 3 max core temp was 47C so basically I have set on motherboard fans to go at 100% RPM above 65C and it's always very quiet hovering around 900RPM (temps I did mention before are basically on minimum RPM). It is heavy and huge but I don't see it a problem. I was building my first pc by my own hands with this cooler and didn't have much troubles (only those clips to fans were quite annoying but maybe I'm mentally challenged ). I was moving with this pc and cooler inside 2 times and I always was afraid it would break motherboard or something but *nothing bad happend even after riding car on bumpy road. *It's size just requires a little wider case - I have Fractal Design Arc Midi Tower and it fits fine. I was considering back then to buy other coolers like noctua nhd14 but chosen this one as I noticed it was performing amazingly even on lower RPM and I wanted to have quiter pc.
> 
> I will only add that lately I changed reference cooling on my Radeon 7870 to Arctic accelero extreme III and set RPM to 800 and now my pc is as quiet in idle as it's when gaming for a few hours .



true; i have 1 since launch day and still going strong; i move my pc once a month like 10 miles on "bumpy roads" like you say  (well i have a jeep YJ so every road its bumpy ) and i the motherboard is fine, no problems at all

and for the fun/testing i installed 3 Cooler master excalibur: now i have 5/6 degrees better temps than before under full load (full rpm) and i can beat any CLC systems available easily

8120 4.6ghz 1.41volts inside a thermaltake chaser MK1 with all fans installed (rear fan and grill removed, top front intake, rear top exhaust) 43degrees all cores full load


best air cooler available


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## neofury (May 8, 2013)

Thank you for the quick response crazyeyesreaper!

I'll be trying to overclock the 3770K. As I understand it, reviews are pretty mixed unless you delid and I don't think I'm comfortable doing that 

I'll probably just get another phanteks fan, 1-3 degrees is worthwhile. Thanks again.


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## crazyeyesreaper (May 8, 2013)

no problem glad I could help


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## m1dg3t (May 8, 2013)

Manufacturers; Why you No supply review samples earlier? 

Good review, nice cooler! Same/similar performance to Noctua D14 but so many colour options!


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## OneCool (May 8, 2013)

HOLY SHIT!!!  

You cant stop a Trane


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## adulaamin (May 8, 2013)

I'd replace my 212 evo with one of these if it was only available where I live.


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## RyougiShiki (May 8, 2013)

It looks like this in my pc:













my cable management skill rules


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## KashunatoR (May 9, 2013)

is this better than noctua nh d14 I already have?


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## crazyeyesreaper (May 9, 2013)

most likely its a toss up between the two but i would say the Phanteks has the slight edge due to the 2x 140mm fans where as the NH-D14 if memory serves me right is a 1x 120 and 1x 140.


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## Ikaruga (May 9, 2013)

Thanks for the great review.

Everything is really nice, except those fat cables for the fans, but on the other hand, you have to paint things on the Noctua as well, so why not this one too?


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## m1dg3t (May 9, 2013)

crazyeyesreaper said:


> most likely its a toss up between the two but i would say the Phanteks has the slight edge due to the 2x 140mm fans where as the NH-D14 if memory serves me right is a 1x 120 and 1x 140.



Agreed, and yes the Noctua uses a 120/140 combo. 

As a D - 14 owner, i will concede that this is the better performer overall. I only wished i could have sourced one locally, or in Canada for that matter, at the time i moved into these "quiet" performers. I say quiet because i came over from a Thermalright VenomousX 

You would think being in Canada would make things readily available, locally...


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## crazyeyesreaper (May 9, 2013)

it depends on what your looking for M1dg3t I wanted a Mass Effect 3 mouse pad from razer as it was red and black matched my entire theme. only 10 i could find in the world via english language mind you of which 8 were in china and 2 were in Canada  Thankfully a fellow TPUer helped me out but I digress depends on what you want or look for. Hopefully Phanteks will start to move into canada with greater presence in the near future. The PH-TC14PE is certainly a great cooler. enough so that I will use it in my secondary rig.


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## neofury (May 10, 2013)

Newest.ca does have phanteks.


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## crazyeyesreaper (May 10, 2013)

ah yes but alot of newegg.ca items ship out of the US and so have a rather high shipping cost from what I remember compared to competitors like NCIX based in Canada.


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## neofury (May 10, 2013)

Very true.  I guess it can be worthwhile when ordering a lot of stuff since they do tend to have quite good selection.  NCIX and tiger seem to never have things I want and unfortunately here in Montreal local retailers are just brutal.  It makes the newegg shipping seem good.


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## crazyeyesreaper (May 10, 2013)

yea it all depends on location. When getting items you want for prices that dont suck.


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## 1c3d0g (May 10, 2013)

The only thing missing in the review is a Thermalright HSF, usually they're both neck-and-neck. Looks like I found my next CPU cooler, as I love the low noise of this thing!


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## studentx86 (May 12, 2013)

Huguito said:


> true; i have 1 since launch day and still going strong; i move my pc once a month like 10 miles on "bumpy roads" like you say  (well i have a jeep YJ so every road its bumpy ) and i the motherboard is fine, no problems at all
> 
> and for the fun/testing i installed 3 Cooler master excalibur: now i have 5/6 degrees better temps than before under full load (full rpm) and i can beat any CLC systems available easily
> 
> ...



How did you oc your 8120 to 4.6GHz with just 1.41v and have 43 degrees?!  I can't get mine past 4.1ghz with nh-d14 using msi 990fxa-gd80.. what mb do you have?


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## m1dg3t (May 12, 2013)

crazyeyesreaper said:


> it depends on what your looking for M1dg3t I wanted a Mass Effect 3 mouse pad from razer as it was red and black matched my entire theme. only 10 i could find in the world via english language mind you of which 8 were in china and 2 were in Canada  Thankfully a fellow TPUer helped me out but I digress depends on what you want or look for. Hopefully Phanteks will start to move into canada with greater presence in the near future. The PH-TC14PE is certainly a great cooler. enough so that I will use it in my secondary rig.



Strange how things go sometimes  We can get the majority of mainstream items here but speciality items/shops can be tricky to come by  We used to have a PC watercooling/mod store in Toronto but it went tits up about 4/5 years ago, i don't know why really.  They were the only FrozenCPU like store in Canada, that i knew/know about anyways 



neofury said:


> Newest.ca does have phanteks.



I think they can now be sourced from Newegg.ca, Ncix.ca & CanadaComputers.com. At the time i purchased, over a year ago now, they were nowhere to be found in Canada  I try to  shop @ CanadaComputers as much as possible, both Newegg & Ncix are American companies. Ncix has fucked me over on several occaisions as well, so i try to avoid them alltogether TBH.


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## Huguito (May 12, 2013)

studentx86 said:


> How did you oc your 8120 to 4.6GHz with just 1.41v and have 43 degrees?!  I can't get mine past 4.1ghz with nh-d14 using msi 990fxa-gd80.. what mb do you have?



Sorry, it was at 4.375 @ 1.41; at the moment of my post i was working on a 4.6GHZ OC  my bad.. 

currently 4.625 (250*18.5) at 1.43v

I replaced the original fans with 3 cooler master excalibur wich moves a lot more air with a Truck Load of pressure; for reference with 2 fans only i can feel air coming back from the heatsink with the excalibur easily, with the stock fans that didnt happen

Im not in my home right now so i cant post screenies, sorry (later i will  )


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## Am* (May 21, 2013)

This review NEEDS a Thermalright Silver Arrow SB-E and a NH-D14 thrown into the mix...and definitely a Be Quiet Dark Rock Pro 2 as well, as all of these are the current air cooling champs, beating every single-rad all-in-one watercooling kit, and trading blows with each other, with the difference between them being merely a few degrees here and there, depending on the setup & mounting method.

I had this heatsink for a day, before I replaced it with my Silver Arrow SB-E and I can tell you these have terrible quality control: I found my top fin with the 'Phanteks' logo rattling around on top of the inside of the box, which was not touched on the outside by the courier. It was also this version of the cooler (Black/White) to match my black & windowed Define R4.


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## revin (May 21, 2013)

Well now! Seem's like I *may *think about replacing the 'ole Ninja Rev.B !!!!


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## neofury (May 28, 2013)

So today I'm ordering the phanteks (black) and I'll let you guys know what the difference is from my 3770K @ 4.7 on a 212+ versus this and then eventually maybe even with upgraded thermalright fans 

I'm still narrowing down my stable voltage but I'm closing in on it, will likely be 1.24v and will keep it that way across both tests.

Here are my current details:

Antec Eleven Hundred Case
CoolerMaster Hyper 212+
3770k at 4.7ghz (1.24v) with stock TIM on the cpu
Temps in prime95: 78-84-79-76, edit: Passed after 12 hours of prime95.

I'll be moving to:

Rosewill Thor V2
Phanteks PH-TC14PE (2 fan stock)
3770k at 4.7ghz (1.24v) with Arctic Silver 5

It will take a few days to get the items, after that I'll be testing the same way but with 3x Thermalright TR TY-143 fans. I've heard good things about using the TY series with this cooler.

Will let you guys know all the results. Bare in mind, it's pretty hot right now in Montreal and I don't have air conditioning. My room temperature is probably like 25C.

Unfortunately it seems like I may only get the Phanteks and Thor V2 by Monday where as the TYR will probably come in tomorrow afternoon. FrozenCPU 1, Newegg 0


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## neofury (Jun 7, 2013)

Alright so in my previous post I didn't realize but I was running an older prime95. Got the newer one and got much higher temps and needed 1.255v for 4.7ghz (ultra LLC)

Just to give you an update, I have the Phanteks now with 3x TY-143 fans installed.

My old Hyper 212+: 86-93-90-86 on a 12hr prime95
My current Phanteks + TY-143 x3: 77-84-81-77 after 9~ hours of prime95 and also not giving it any time to cure.

I opened another temp monitor about 1 hour 15 mins ago and now it's like 3-5 degrees lower per core during that period. The TIM hasn't cured yet so it may keep getting better. Overall, I'd recommend the Phanteks to anyone, and if you can afford 3x TY-143's to go give it, it's a bonus for sure.


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## Delta6326 (Jul 3, 2013)

Ok I just got done installing my Phanteks PF-TC14PE_BK, Had to completely disassemble my computer to put the mounting bracket on, I must say I like this more than how my Xigy S-1283 fits on.
The only problem I have is that my NZXT Sentry 2(10w per channel...)can start up the 2 fans!? they just barely move from left to right maybe a blades width... So I had to spin them with my finger then they started to spin, so in my testing I don't think they where running 100%(now I have them connected to my MB header and they run 100% They are noisy compared to my Cougar fans.
I got this on sale for about $68
On to the testing all test where done same day and at 25c room temp.
Both used MX-2



Spoiler: Xigy S1283 Stock Intel Q6600 66cMax














Spoiler: Xigy S1283 OC Intel Q6600 3GHz 1.292V 75cMax













Spoiler: Phanteks PF-TC14PE_BK Stock Intel Q6600 60cMax













Spoiler: Phanteks PF-TC14PE_BK OC Intel Q6600 3GHz 1.292V 69cMax











Sorry phone pic's, my back fan almost works as a 3rd fan, only about 17mm between them.


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## neofury (Jul 15, 2013)

neofury said:


> Alright so in my previous post I didn't realize but I was running an older prime95. Got the newer one and got much higher temps and needed 1.255v for 4.7ghz (ultra LLC)
> 
> Just to give you an update, I have the Phanteks now with 3x TY-143 fans installed.
> 
> ...



Just to give you all a final update on my build with the phanteks:

3770K delidded, CLP on the die, AS5 on the IHS. (Switching to CLU on both today though, long story)

Cooling: Phanteks + TY-143 x3
Overclock: 5ghz
Offset: 0.27 (my manual was 1.45v)
Ultra LLC (Spikes it up to 1.48v on load, goes down to quite low on idle/etc though)

Temps were maximum: 79-86-88-83 after 12 hours of prime95 with 90% ram usage.

After I fix my chip by cleaning it and using CLU instead, both on the die and IHS, I expect it to be somewhere in the vicinity of: 77-82-83-80, the reason for this is I didn't apply the CLP properly in the first place, and also CLU on the IHS should also give me about 3 degrees difference as well versus my non-cured AS5.

To conclude, the Phanteks can safely OC some 3770K's to 5ghz within safe temps. Before while gaming my temps never broke 61c. It was only under stress testing that it went that high. I won't try to push to 5.1ghz since it would probably take me 1.53v and I'm not comfortable doing a 12hr stress test at 1.53v + Ultra LLC.

If anyone would like some additional information about the Phanteks, the OC or anything like that let me know.


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