Phanteks PH-F140TS 140mm Fan Review

PerformanceMeasuring temperatures is all about being consistent; therefore we make sure that the test is kept completely fair so that none of the fans are at a disadvantage. We measure the temperature of our overclocked CPU using HWMonitor after a 15 minute load period using Prime95 with the small FFTs setting.

The chart shows the delta CPU temperature (difference between ambient temperature and recorded CPU temperature). This way we can fairly compare each cooler without presenting any inaccuracies due to slight fluctuations in the ambient temperature or unfair results.

Here is an example of how to understand delta temperatures. “If the ambient (room) temperature is 25C and the recorded CPU temperature is 65C, the delta temperature is the CPU’s temperature rise above ambient temperature, therefore the delta temperature in this case would be 40C. If the ambient temperature is 23C and the recorded CPU Temperature is 80C, the delta temperature in this case would be 57C. Delta temperature = Recorded CPU temperature – Ambient temperature”.

The PH-F140TS fans show pleasing thermal performance when coupled with the NZXT Havik 140 heatsink. They manage to beat the cooler’s supplied 140mm, 1200RPM NZXT fans even when the Q.S.A adapter is used and the Phanteks samples are throttled to 900RPM. This is very impressive considering that the NZXT fans can potentially be tailor made for their job on this specific heatsink. None of the low RPM solutions can keep up with the 1900RPM Scythe Slipstream fan though. Even though it loses some blade real estate being a 120mm form factor, it still manages to top the performance chart.

We decided to measure the maximum RPM of each fan tested. This will not only help you to understand and reveal the reasoning behind the performance shown above, it will also allow us to check that the quality of each fan is acceptable and they are performing within their +/- 10% RPM threshold.

It now becomes clear why the 120mm Slipstream took such a distinct lead in the cooling performance test. Even the slowest of the pair of Scythe fans is rotating over 50% faster than its fastest competitor. Considering that both Phanteks solutions have a lower average RPM than their NZXT competitors, the victory is even more impressive than we originally thought. Every fan is running within the quoted +/-10% margin of RPM error, so quality control isn’t an issue.