First off, let me clear the air a bit as to what I am seeing asked around in many forums. Phanteks is its own entity and has no affiliation with Noctua or the parent company, Rascom. While the basic concept and design of this cooler is based heavily on the already famous D-14, there are no ties between it and what we are about to look at from Phanteks. Phanteks actually looked beyond the limits that Noctua set with the D-14 and into every possible way to improve on the basic concept. This attention to detail and from what I am told and by the literature on their site, Phanteks backs this cooler with one of the best warranties on the planet. Not only does this product carry a 5 year warranty, but if an issue arises within the first year of ownership, Phanteks offers a full on advanced RMA. They will send you a replacement cooler along with a return shipping label to return your ill fated original cooler.
This moves us into the mentality of Phanteks and what their bottom line goal is in today's market. Through various emails about the warranty conditions and all the finer points of the cooler, I did get a bit of a bottom line statement. I was told the goal here is to offer premium quality cooling, with a warranty that will put any buyer at ease as they click the "add to cart" button. Taking a basic aluminum cooler and slapping some fans on it is something that anyone can do really, but it takes things like a huge feature set, terrific aesthetic appeal and the knowledge that I know I can take the cooler from one build to another with superior universal mounting, and in this instance five years in which to reap the benefits of this cooler under warranty.
Today we are going to get up close and personal with one of the four PH-TC14PE coolers being sold. More specifically, we are going to test the PH-TC14PE_BL, or an electric blue colored version. Let me set the stage a bit here. Not only did I get the PH-TC14PE and its pair of included fans, Phanteks also sent along a third fan that matches the two supplied in the box, but in its own retail packaging. So right when you thought the D-14 made a motherboard disappear, just wait until you see the PH-TC14PE with three fans installed on my GIGABYTE later in the review! This cooler may be massive, but as you will see as we continue on, it offers plenty more than the average contender in almost every aspect.
Grab a beverage and get comfortable as I take you through one of my longest CPU cooler reviews I have ever written. This venture will go through everything from some new features specific to Phanteks coolers, the unique fans used with this cooler and some really interesting three fan cooling results. For those looking to find the best that air cooling has to offer, sit tight and have a detailed look at what I am about to bring to you. Phanteks has impressed me with what I have seen in the PH-TC14PE and I think you will be just as impressed as I am by the time I am done!
Specifications, Availability and Pricing
Touching on some of the finer points mentioned in the specifications list, as I'm sure you can read all the finer details and comprehend them fine on your own. This brings me first off to the PH-F140 Premium fans, two of which are included with the kit. These fans are not only 140mm, they use a UFB bearing with a vortex booster design all incorporated, but the life expectancy is three times that of most retail fans sold! This cooler will fit anything AMD since socket AM2, but requires the use of the stock AMD back plate to mount the PH-TC14PE. As for Intel, this cooler fits anything LGA775 and newer with the included hardware in the box. The last thing I want to cover is the sheer weight of this behemoth! - If you run it passively it will weigh in at 970 grams. With one fan the weight jumps to 1100 grams, and once the second fan is clipped into place you raise the bar to 1250 grams of cooler hanging off the motherboard.
Moving past the technical specifications and into a bit of patented technology, I want to discuss the P.A.T.S. and C.P.S.C. tech that also goes into the PH-TC14PE. The Physical Antioxidant Thermal Shield (P.A.T.S.) is introduced which is claimed to offer a barrier to external heat sources. In other words, it is employed to deflect heat from the GPU, chipset heat sinks and even the power delivery systems' heat will not affect the coolers efficiency. The second system is the Cold Plasma Spray Coating (C.P.S.C.) technology. This not only gives the PH-TC14PE its range of colors, but Phanteks says it benefits the thermal conductivity of the cooler, raising the overall efficiency of this cooler. It looks like there really is no stone unturned with the design and implementation of technology into the PH-TC14PE from Phanteks.
Availability in the US is limited; in fact, they just showed their face on Newegg.com. As I mentioned, there are four versions of this cooler. The "vanilla" or white version is the cheapest of the four. The white one demands $89.99 at Newegg.com, while the blue, red, or orange versions demand $99.99. As one would expect with the premium quality and features implemented along with the five year warranty, the product wasn't going to come cheap! At this point at so close to $100 US dollars, Phanteks had better pack some amazing results in with the PH-TC14PE to justify this pricing. Hang tight, after some images of the packaging through the hardware, I will get right to the testing results so you can see for yourself if in fact the near $100 investment is worthy of your hard earned dollars.
With the system listed above, I apply Arctic Cooling MX-2 to all the coolers I have tested on the GIGABYTE motherboard to even things out with all the cooler manufacturers. To gauge the idle temperatures I allow the PC to run for a few minutes from the fresh reboot. I then open RealTemp and let things again settle as the reading spikes until the processor is again fully idle. At this point I get the reading and report it to the charts.
For the load testing, both stock and overclocked, we use Intel Burn Test to supply the system load. In this application I set it to work eight threads for 50 passes, and maximize the memory tested to over 3000MB to generate as much load as possible to the coolers. With RealTemp open for the entire run, I report the highest temperature seen during the test run. All cooler testing is done open air on a test bench with an ambient temperature of 25°C.
As far as the idle testing goes, I really am not that surprised to see the PH-TC14PE give the best results so far considering the massive amount of surface area to rid the cooler of any heat at this level.
This is just the proof shot for the dual fan testing with the overclock applied.
Again, just in case you don't want to believe the results you are about to see in the charts, here is the proof for the three fan testing results.
The three green bars show the stock run with two fans resulting in 55°C which is really good, tying the best results at this clock speed. The next mark you see is the 64°C of the overclocked results with three fans on the PH-TC14PE, and you can see it out performed the stock results of other coolers. As the cooler is shipped, I got a 67°C reading when overclocked.
Final Thoughts
In my position as a reviewer and one that gets to get his hands on just about everything case and cooler related, I am really torn with this review. On one hand, I sort of expect new companies to bring forward something completely new, not something modeled almost exactly to something we all know already. On the flip side of that coin, I do see a lot more engineering involved in the PH-TC14PE than the D-14 it resembles. Even though everything about this cooler including its packaging and its hardware screams Noctua, Phanteks does fill a void in the market, and with a cooler that took everything I could throw at it offering some of the best results with direct CPU testing. On top of the P.A.T.S. and the C.P.S.C. Phanteks steps in and offers four solutions to those with the comment of Noctua coolers having an unappealing color scheme. With the PH-TC14PE, not only do you get a kick ass huge cooler, you have the option to select a color to match the theme of almost any case build.
Some things to think about while pondering the purchase of the PH-TC14PE. On top of the fact that it is outright huge and can weigh up to 1250 grams, you need to be sure you have the room to house this monster. While I had no issue with the memory clearance, it did push the fan higher in my installation, and this could cause issues with the side panel in thinner cases. The last thing to consider is do you want the best experience and efficiency level by adding a third fan? Since the hardware kit is all inclusive for three fans already, you may as well go ahead and get one. I mean let's be honest here. If you are in the market for this beast to begin with, your PC doesn't sit at stock, and you are in the market for the best air cooling has to offer to even consider this cooler in the first place. So in that respect, why not add the third fan that showed an advantage of an additional three degrees of headroom to push your CPU to the bleeding edge.
I could go on forever about the aesthetics of the PH-TC14PE; in blue it looks like it is made perfect for any of the older blue GIGABYTE boards or any of the ASUS boards with the electric blue accents as well would look good under this cooler. With red, it brings in many other boards that would look great; orange is a bit more limited, but even the all white version would look good in an all white chassis. On top of that, the cooler is super easy to mount, even if the motherboard is still in the case. One thing to note is that the AMD hardware is not unidirectional, the cooler will only mount in the orientation of the socket, so pay close attention or this cooler will need to blow at the top of the chassis in many instances. All of the bits and pieces in the hardware kit will make this cooler as shipped go into any build with the minimal stress in how to get both fans powered or even lower the noise if desired.
Ringing in at the counter with a very premium price, I feel that is justified. If I could say that the D-14 was worth its price, but the PH-TC14PE is worth a bit more to many buyers simply based on the aesthetics between the two, and while I am spoiled and don't like seeing similar products, Phanteks went above and beyond with their offering and could quite possibly eclipse the D-14 I keep comparing this to. I wish all four versions of the cooler were demanding a similar price, but it will cost you ten more dollars if you want this in anything other than the white solution. As tested, the PH-TC14PE_BL is $99.99 at Newegg.com. There is one point that will hurt the overall score, but the limited availability is expected with a cooler so fresh on the market, so don't let that little fact sway your buying decision.
If you are looking for a cooler that offers everything you could want and then some more, you really need to give Phanteks serious consideration. If you can afford the premium pricing, there is no reason to go with another cooler when you can get the PH-TC14PE to match any theme and still deliver some of the best performance I have seen in air cooling!
quoted from "TweakTown"
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