As fierce as the cooling market already is, we enthusiasts always notice room for improvement on our quest to find the elusive perfect cooler. Extra competition usually represents nothing but joy for the consumer’s wallet as multiple manufacturers compete to offer the best bang for your hard earned buck. Cue the market entry for an assassin sent by Phanteks with its targets being the current air cooling kings, from the likes of Noctua and Thermalright and its objective of becoming the most dominant air cooler on the market, bar none!
You can query any enthusiast on what they believe to be the best CPU cooler currently available for consumer purchase. The pair of dual tower brutes clinching the top two results in terms of popularity would probably be the mighty Noctua NH-D14 and Thermalright Silver Arrow. For a long time now, these two monsters have been widely regarding as the best there is where air cooling is concerned but can Phanteks with their dual tower PH-TC14PE CPU cooler change this ageing trend?
The PH-TC14PE features a unique design in so many ways. It is one of the few coolers that has been designed to pack the conduction might of 5 double ended 8mm copper heatpipes departing the copper base for a dual tower aluminium fin array. That is some extreme conduction and heat extraction muscle for a single CPU cooler. The unique features don’t stop there though. Phanteks have their own patented designs for helping them to avoid unintentional nose-dives in cooling performance. P.A.T.S (Physical Anti-oxidant Thermal Shield) which has been successfully proven in the aviation industry and C.P.S.C (Cold Plasma Spraying Coating) technology are just some of the potentially useful and truly unique features designed to improve the cooling performance and thermal conductivity of the PH-TC14PE. Where other manufacturers fall short and overlook such an important aspect of any CPU cooler, the fan, Phanteks haven’t. They have made sure to include two of their high quality PH-F140TS Maelström Vortex Booster 140mm fans ensuring the potential heat extracting prowess isn’t disappointingly wasted by a lack of airflow.
With a red, blue, orange and standard (frosty white in colour) designed cooler being sold by Phanteks, the aesthetics are basically faultless. This is useless without the obligatory performance accompanying those tremendous looks, so let’s waste no more time and explore the performance of this colossal CPU cooler.
Nice one. Great review. At least some movement in air CPU cooling. On the other hand, I wouldn't wonder if they make these cooper-burgers at same factory as Noctua 😀
Having never heard of Phantek, I was a bit skeptical, but this cooler has monstrous performance to match its monstrous size. When I saw it posting lower temps than the mighty NH-D14, I was truly impressed. Maybe Phantek is a EU/UK brand, because here in the US I have never heard of 'em. I do A LOT of reading of cooler reviews, and this is the FIRST Phantek product I've read about… if this is truly their first outing, they appear to be a cooling force to be reckoned with! Great review!
Indeed. Their launch was kept very secretive up until the NDA lifted today. As far as performance goes, its the best air heatsink on the market. This feat is even more impressive when we consider the fact that its nearest competitor, the silver arrow uses dual fans which spin 100rpm faster. Yes, phanteks are a European brand but with this level of performance on offer, its only a matter of time before they explode into the US scene! Yes, this is one of the first reviews out for this new monster. If you come across other reviews, remember that Theyr only a worthwhile read if the coolers are tested inside a case. Outside of a case the TC14PE beats its air cooling competitors, inside of a case, it beats them by an even wider margin thanks to the intelligently designed P.A.T.S technology proving its worth.
Omnomnomnom! Great review! I can't freakin help myself to compare it to others but *drum rolls* yours is far by the easiest one to read, and drool over… :cool:CAN I HAS IMAGE? I will use it as a wallpaper :$
thanks mate :)!glad you like the review :cool:! take whichever images you like :D! the cooler looks epic enough to warrant its wallpaper destination :p!
This is the second review that I have read about this cooler. They however used 140mm fans with little clearance over the memory as they used low profile memory, but stated that this could be overcome by attaching the fan on the other end away from the memory, or if required you could use three fans, I however thought that your review went into a few more details, like over tightening of the screws which really at this price you should not be able to do to easily. Good review Lucas.
I feel that memory clearance is a very strong point of this cooler. i worked with the thermalright silver arrow before this cooler and actually had to switch from my corsair dominator memory kit to a low profile patriot kit because it was physically impossible to fit the silver arrow and corsair dominator with an optimal fan configuration.i think the weak screw is a minor niggle and nothing worthy of not recommending this cooler. me highlighting this fact in the review will hopefully serve as a warning for readers not to over-tighten the screw and damage their cooler.Thanks for your feedback :D! always much appreciated!
No I never meant the screw niggle as a negative more of a well done to you for pointing it out. Did you try it with 140mm fans. As long as you don't get memory with heat spreaders on I agree you should be fine. So no Mushkin black/red line. Anyway nice one Lucas.
yes, sorry if my comment came across as a complaint :p! thanks :D!yes, the supplied PH-F140TS fans are 140mm but they use 120mm mounts. Heatspreaders are fine, just i wouldnt advise anything too tall such as corsair dominator, vengeance or kingston hyperx T1 etc. Mushkin blackline and redline should be fine, but the tall ridgeback versions may cause some interference.http://www.eteknix.com/attachments/8541d131481268…
My mistake Lucas for some reason I had 120mm fans stuck in my memory and not 140mm. The other review I read also stated that they are very decent at Passive temps as well, an excellent cooler IMHO.
lol, no problem :)!yes, we were informed that they were awesome performers while being ran passively and heard some very bold claims. Naturally, in an effort to give you, our readers the best and most comprehensive (without being too much) review of this cooler and its ability, i thought it would be a great idea to test it passively and see how it faired. I was quite surprised to see it handle a hot 4.4GHz OC without fans :eek:! lol! well done to the designers!
holy cow… i though its a revamp of nhd14. 😀
Nice I hope they are on the market soon and can fit in my shinobi 😉
Should be available near the end of September 🙂
Nice one, a new king reigns, who will be the next contender?