Phanteks PH-TC12DX CPU Cooler Review

As far as pricing goes the Phanteks PH-TC12DX CPU cooler costs £44.99 for the coloured versions and £39.99 for the white/silver version. Given the performance we have just seen I can’t say I am really very enthusiastic about this pricing because £45 can get you a lot more performance for your money. However, I will first elaborate on the “non-performance” aspects of this CPU cooler as it has quite a lot going for it.

Firstly Phantek’s PH-TC12DX is one of the only CPU coolers on the market that you can buy with coloured heatsinks. For most people this may not be that important but given the rising popularity of side panel windows having a coloured heatsink would be a something a lot of people would appreciate, I myself think it is a great idea and I commend Phanteks for it as well as them taking the effort to coordinate the fans too. Secondly the PH-TC12DX is a very compact unit so don’t let the images deceive you. At just 157mm tall and with quite a slim design it should fit in every mid tower case on the market and be 100% RAM compatible with the vast majority of ATX motherboards on the market too. I am glad Phanteks thoroughly thought about the design before implementing it. Thirdly the quality and attention to detail is very impressive. The fans are particularly nice and we reviewed similar Phanteks fans a while ago and found them to be really top performers. Furthermore they include a nice full sized tube of thermal paste something quite a few companies often skimp on, and a PWM splitter in case your motherboard has only one PWM slot.

Yet I cannot escape the fact that the performance is only average. There are just so many better performing CPU coolers out there for the same money and if performance is a big thing for you then this unit may disappoint somewhat as it doesn’t keep up with the competition. We are literally talking a few degrees but that does make all the difference in my eyes because I’ve tested many CPU coolers in the past year and what sets them apart is often only a few degrees – every degree counts particularly with Intel CPUs running hotter and hotter with Ivy Bridge and Haswell.

Pros

• Available in many colours
• Good quality fans
• Very good accessory pack
• High quality finish and attention to detail
• Full size tube of thermal paste
• RAM compatibility
• Case compatibility

Cons

• Unnecessarily “fiddly”/complex fan clip mounting system
• Average performance, can’t keep up with the competition
• Not great value for money on performance terms

eTeknix says: The Phanteks PH-TC12DX is a fantastic looking CPU cooler and we really think its high build quality and refreshingly vibrant and colourful aesthetics are its main selling point. Despite having very high quality fans, and a highly compatible design we can’t help but feel the Phanteks PH-TC12DX is let down by relatively mediocre performance that sees it outperformed by much cheaper competitors. The Phanteks PH-TC12DX is by no means a bad product and I think this CPU cooler should still be popular, and rightly so given how awesome it looks. Yet performance lets it down and in my eyes that means it doesn’t get an award from us today.

Thank you to Overclockers UK and CaseKing for providing this review sample for testing.