Thermaltake NiC (Non-Interference Cooler) Series C4 CPU Cooler Review

Thermaltake’s NiC C4 has a pre-tax MSRP of $57.90/€45/£40 which translates into roughly $70/€54/£48 once a sales tax/VAT of 20% is added. Thermaltake have informed us that the NiC series should be available at all good online retailers from the end of May. To me this price is pretty good and I can see the Gelid Black Edition and Noctua NH-U12S as being the main competitors to this Thermaltake NiC C4. It blows most other dual fan CPU coolers away such as the Spire TME III, Cooler Master Hyper 412 Slim and surprisingly the Be Quiet! Dark Rock Pro 2. Although, it is still a product that has areas for improvement.

The Thermaltake NiC C4 certainly impressed me a lot more than the NiC F4 which I found to be lacking in performance. The Thermaltake NiC C4 had bags of performance although you would of expected this given how loud the fans can get. Though that said, even at its lowest fan speed it is relatively inaudible and still offers excellent competitive performance for its price point. The design is very much a Gamer oriented design, with the robust plastic casing combined with bold black and red fans. In terms of warranty periods we were informed these will have the standard Thermaltake 2 year warranty which is reasonable considering there isn’t really much to go wrong with a CPU cooler.

My main area of contention with the NiC C4 is with its fan speed control design. The NiC C4 uses two 120mm fans that share a single 3 pin connection. This 3 pin connection has a fan speed control knob on it which allows you to adjust the speed of your fans. Essentially, being a 3 pin means it cannot have its speed altered in a CPU fan header because these support only PWM adjustment. Even though the fan speed control knob does work, it is not practical because you have to be able to access the inside of your case every time you want to change your fan speed. If you can find a single fan speed that you want to use all the time then this wouldn’t be an issue, but I myself prefer being able to change my fan speed, and from within Windows, not having to do it by hand inside the case. If Thermaltake wanted to add a fan control feature they should of provided a rear PCI express control knob so you don’t have to open the case to gain access to it.

Pros

• Excellent cooling performance
• Gamer friendly design, attractive red and black colour scheme
• Inlcuded thermal paste
• 100% RAM compatibility
• Good value for money

Cons

• Not as quiet as the competition, fans could be improved
• No PWM support, fans use 3 pin connector
• Fan control knob on fan cable is impractical and difficult to access once your case is shut, PWM would of been preferable
• “Plasticky” design may not be to everyone’s taste

For a high-end Gaming PC the NiC C4 would go down an absolute treat. It offers robust and aggressive aesthetics, an excellent level of cooling performance, 100% RAM compatibility so you can use gaming oriented RAM kits like Corsair Vengeance and the two high airflow fans mean in an air starved chassis it would hold up a lot better than some of the equivalently priced single fan competition. I think Thermaltake have done a good job with the NiC C4 and I think the NiC C4 deserves our Gamer’s Choice award because this CPU is ideal for a high end gaming PC.

Thank you to Thermaltake for providing this review sample