Phanteks PH-TC14PE

[crazyeyesreaper]

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

 

[NeoXF]

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.

 

[HammerON]

Nice review
I really like the black heatsink.

 

[studentx86]

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??

 

[W1zzard]

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.

 

[micropage7]

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

 

[crazyeyesreaper]

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.

 

[RyougiShiki]

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 .

 

[MT Alex]

Pictures look really good

 

[neofury]

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.

 

[crazyeyesreaper]

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.

 

[Huguito]

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

 

[neofury]

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.

 

[crazyeyesreaper]

no problem glad I could help

 

[m1dg3t]

Manufacturers; Why you No supply review samples earlier?

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

 

[OneCool]

HOLY SHIT!!!

You cant stop a Trane

 

[adulaamin]

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

 

[RyougiShiki]

It looks like this in my pc:

my cable management skill rules

 

[KashunatoR]

is this better than noctua nh d14 I already have?

 

[crazyeyesreaper]

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.

 

[Ikaruga]

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?

 

[m1dg3t]

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...

 

[crazyeyesreaper]

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.

 

[neofury]

Newest.ca does have phanteks.

 

[crazyeyesreaper]

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.