With the PH-TC14PE, Phanteks has a very impressive cooler in its portfolio. Without fans mounted the cooler weighs in at 970 Gramms and you cannot only mount two fans you can even equip it with a third one. Furthermore Phanteks ships these coolers with five different colors. We're really curious to see what this monster is capable of.
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On the following pages we will show you what the Phanteks PH-TC14PE twin tower cooler is capable of.
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Preview
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Specifications and included in delivery
Specifications
| Model | Phanteks PH-TC14PE |
| Material | Aluminium / copper / nickel |
| Dimension (D x W x H) | 134 mm x 140 mm x 160 mm |
| Weight | 970 g |
| Fan | 2 x 140 mm x 140 mm x 25 mm |
| On the manufacturer's website | Phanteks PH-TC14PE |
Included in delivery
- Cooling block
- 2 x PH-F140 Fan
- Mounting kit for Socket 775, 1155/1156, 1366 and 2011, AM2, AM2+, AM3, AM3+
- Phanteks Thermal compound
- Mounting components
- Manual
The PH-TC14PE comes well protected from outer influeces, that none of the parts included will be damaged during transportation. Phanteks includes not only an Intel but also an AMD mounting kit. Therefore the cooler is compatible to both worlds right out of the box. Phanteks also ships this cooler with two fans in the delivery. You'll find their own fans which have the name PH-F140. Basically the cooler can be equipped with up to three fans. In this configuration the PH-TC14PE is absolutely huge.
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Construction and design
Construction
If we had to define the type of cooler the PH-TC14PE is, then we would say it is a twin tower cooler. This type of cooler comes with the advantage that manufacturers can realise a huge cooling area. The disadvantage over down-draft coolers is that no air is directed towards the motherboard directly, therefore non of the onboard components receive direct cooling. Phanteks manufacturs their PH-TC14PE from aluminium and copper. You can find a copper base plate which leads the dissipation power to five heatpipes which all have a diameter of eight millimeters. Altogether there are 44 fins soldered to the heatpipes for perfect heat transfer.
Design
We did not see any manufacturing mistakes on our sample, and it seems that it has been very well made which means that manufacturing is on an excellent level. The heatpipes do have almost indentical bending radius, which results in less vortex. Furhtermore this cooler comes with a total of 44 fins. Phanteks chose kind of a saw tooth design at the edges of each fin. In the center as well as on the left and right side the fins have been connected to one and another. This gives more stability to the entire construction.
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Mounting
Phanteks ships their PH-TC14PE with mounting kits that are compatible to the most common Intel and AMD sockets. Installing the cooler is quite easy. It is always a good sign when don't need to check the manual. This means that the mounting process is self explanatory.
On these pictures you can clearly see that the PH-TC14PE is a montser. Without fans installed it can be difficult to install a DIMM with large heatspreaders. If you should choose to install the maximum of three fans then you'll have to use memory with low profile heatspreaders.
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Testsystem and testroutine
Testsystem
| Mainboard | ASUS P6T Deluxe |
| Processor | Intel Core i7 920 2.66 GHz 4C / 8T |
| Memory | Kingston HyperX 3 x 1 GByte |
| Graphics card | Gigabyte GTX 285 |
| Hard disk | Samsung Spinpoint F1 640 GByte |
| Power supply | CoolerMaster |
Testroutine
The CPU is being evaluated using Real Temp and with Prime95 we reach nearly 100% load on the CPU. For measuring the noise level we use a Voltcraft SL-200 decibel meter, which is positioned one meter from the CPU cooler with the fan mounted.
- 2.66 GHz 12 volts load
- 2.66 GHz 7 volts load
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Results 2.66 GHz 12 volts
| Cooler / fan | Temp. diff. load | Absolute temp. | RPM | Noise | Price | Review link |
| Phanteks PHTC14PE - Triple Fan | 28 K | 57 °C | 1250 rpm | 41.3 dBA | CHF 124.- (EUR 103.-) | Phanteks PHTC14PE |
| Phanteks PHTC14PE - Dual Fan | 29 K | 58 °C | 1250 rpm | 41.1 dBA | CHF 99.- (EUR 83.-) | Phanteks PHTC14PE |
| Phanteks PHTC14PE - Single Fan | 30 K | 59 °C | 1250 rpm | 40.7 dBA | CHF 99.- (EUR 83.-) | Phanteks PHTC14PE |
| Prolimatech Megahalems Super Mega - Dual Fan | 30 K | 57 °C | 1400 rpm | 40.8 dBA | CHF 126.- (EUR 105.-) | Prolimatech Megahalems Super Mega Dual Fan |
| Noctua NH-D14 - Single Fan | 31 K | 56 °C | 1300/1200 rpm | 40.9 dBA | CHF 114.- (EUR 95.-) | Noctua NH-D14 |
| Cooler Master TPC 800 - Dual Fan | 32 K | 61 °C | 1400 rpm | 41.2 dBA | CHF 113.- (EUR 94.-) | Cooler Master TPC 800 |
| Gelid GX-7 - Dual-Fan | 33 K | 53 °C | 1800 rpm | 45.5 dBA | CHF 45.- (EUR 38.-) | Gelid GX-7 |
| Alpenföhn Nordwand - Dual Fan | 33 K | 57 °C | 1500 rpm | 43.0 dBA | CHF 103.- (EUR 86.-) | Alpenföhn Nordwand |
| Prolimatech Megahalems Megashadow - Dual Fan | 34 K | 58 °C | 1400 rpm | 40.5 dBA | CHF 79.- (EUR 66.-) | Prolimatech Megahalems Megashadow |
| Enermax ETS-T40-VD - Single Fan | 34 K | 57 °C | 1900 rpm | 42.4 dBA | CHF 43.- (EUR 36.-) | Enermax ETS-T40-VD |
| Noctua NH-C14 - Dual Fan | 35 K | 57 °C | 1250 rpm | 41.0 dBA | CHF 91.- (EUR 76.-) | Noctua NH-C14 |
| Alpenföhn Nordwand - Single Fan | 35 K | 59 °C | 1500 rpm | 42.4 dBA | CHF 79.- (EUR 66.-) | Alpenföhn Nordwand |
| Gelid GX-7 - Single Fan | 35 K | 55 °C | 1800 rpm | 45.0 dBA | CHF 45.- (EUR 38.-) | Gelid GX-7 |
| Coolink Corator DS - Single Fan | 35 K | 57 °C | 1900 rpm | 47.9 dBA | ||
| Prolimatech Megahalems Megashadow - Single Fan | 36 K | 59 °C | 1400 rpm | 37.0 dBA | CHF 79.- (EUR 65.-) | Prolimatech Megahalems Megashadow |
| Corsair H5O - Dual Fan | 37 K | 59 °C | 1600 rpm | 44.4 dBA | CHF 133.- (EUR 111.-) | Corsair H5O |
| Noctua NH-C14 - Single Fan | 38 K | 60 °C | 1250 rpm | 39.4 dBA | CHF 91.- (EUR 76.-) | Noctua NH-C14 |
| Noctua NH-U12P - Dual Fan | 38 K | 62 °C | 1400 rpm | 41.6 dBA | CHF 125.- (EUR 104.-) | Noctua NH-U12P |
| Corsair H5O - Single Fan | 38 K | 60 °C | 1600 rpm | 44.0 dBA | CHF 113.- (EUR 94.-) | Corsair H5O |
| Cooler Master Hyper 412S - Single-Fan | 39 K | 62 °C | 1200 rpm | 41.6 dBA | CHF 57.- (EUR 48.-) | Cooler Master Hyper 412S |
| Cooler Master Hyper 212Evo - Single-Fan | 39 K | 62 °C | 1500 rpm | 42.9 dBA | CHF 50.- (EUR 40.-) | Cooler Master Hyper 212S |
| Noctua NH-U12P - Single Fan | 40 K | 64 °C | 1400 rpm | 40.5 dBA | CHF 85.- (EUR 71.-) | Noctua NH-U12P |
| Prolimatech Samuel 17 - Single Fan | 56 K | 85 °C | 1400 rpm | 40.1 dBA | CHF 49.- (EUR 41.-) | Prolimatech Samuel 17 |
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Results 2.66 GHz 7 Volts
| Cooler / fan | Temp. diff. load | Absolute temp. | RPM | Noise | Price | Review link |
| Phanteks PHTC14PE - Triple Fan | 34 K | 63 °C | 750 rpm | 35.1 dBA | CHF 124.- (EUR 103.-) | Phanteks PHTC14PE |
| Phanteks PHTC14PE - Dual Fan | 35 K | 64 °C | 750 rpm | 34.9 dBA | CHF 99.- (EUR 83.-) | Phanteks PHTC14PE |
| Prolimatech Megahalems Super Mega - Dual Fan | 35 K | 62 °C | 800 rpm | 40.8 dBA | CHF 126.- (EUR 105.-) | Prolimatech Megahalems Super Mega Dual Fan |
| Noctua NH-D14 - Single Fan | 36 K | 61 °C | 1000/900 rpm | 37.2 dBA | CHF 114.- (EUR 95.-) | Noctua NH-D14 |
| Noctua NH-C14 - Dual Fan | 37 K | 59 °C | 800 rpm | 34.1 dBA | CHF 91.- (EUR 76.-) | Noctua NH-C14 |
| Cooler Master TPC 800 - Dual Fan | 37 K | 66 °C | 800 rpm | 34.2 dBA | CHF 113.- (EUR 94.-) | Cooler Master TPC 800 |
| Prolimatech Megahalems Megashadow - Dual Fan | 37 K | 61 °C | 1000 rpm | 38.9 dBA | CHF 79.- (EUR 66.-) | Prolimatech Megahalems Megashadow |
| Phanteks PHTC14PE - Single Fan | 38 K | 67 °C | 750 rpm | 34.6 dBA | CHF 99.- (EUR 83.-) | Phanteks PHTC14PE |
| Prolimatech Megahalems Megashadow - Single Fan | 39 K | 63 °C | 1000 rpm | 36.2 dBA | CHF 79.- (EUR 66.-) | Prolimatech Megahalems Megashadow |
| Gelid GX-7 - Dual Fan | 42 K | 62 °C | 700 rpm | 34 dBA | CHF 45.- (EUR 38.-) | Gelid GX-7 |
| Noctua NH-C14 - Single Fan | 42 K | 64 °C | 800 rpm | 33.5 dBA | CHF 91.- (EUR 76.-) | Noctua NH-C14 |
| Corsair H5O - Dual Fan | 42 K | 64 °C | 900 rpm | 37.5 dBA | CHF 133.- (EUR 111.-) | Corsair H5O |
| Cooler Master Hyper 412S - Single Fan | 43 K | 69 °C | 800 rpm | 35.8 dBA | CHF 57.- (EUR 48.-) | Cooler Master Hyper 412S |
| Alpenföhn Nordwand - Dual Fan | 43 K | 67 °C | 700 rpm | 37.0 dBA | CHF 103.- (EUR 86.-) | Alpenföhn Nordwand |
| Noctua NH-U12P - Dual Fan | 44 K | 68 °C | 1000 rpm | 38.0 dBA | CHF 125.- (EUR 104.-) | Noctua NH-U12P |
| Enermax ETS-T40-VD - Single Fan | 45 K | 66 °C | 650 rpm | 32.7 dBA | CHF 43.- (EUR 36.-) | Enermax ETS-T40-VD |
| Gelid GX-7 - Single-Fan | 45 K | 65 °C | 700 rpm | 33.5 dBA | CHF 45.- (EUR 38.-) | Gelid GX-7 |
| Noctua NH-U12P - Single Fan | 45 K | 69 °C | 1000 rpm | 37.4 dBA | CHF 85.- (EUR 71.-) | Noctua NH-U12P |
| Coolink Corator DS - Single Fan | 46 K | 68 °C | 800 rpm | 35.0 dBA | Coolink Corator DS | |
| Corsair H5O - Single Fan | 46 K | 68 °C | 900 rpm | 35.4 dBA | CHF 113.- (EUR 94.-) | Corsair H5O |
| Alpenföhn Nordwand - Single Fan | 48 K | 72 °C | 700 rpm | 36.4 dBA | CHF 79.- (EUR 66.-) | Alpenföhn Nordwand |
| Cooler Master Hyper 212Evo - Single-Fan | 52 K | 75 °C | 750 rpm | 35.3 dBA | CHF 50.- (EUR 40.-) | Cooler Master Hyper 212S |
| Prolimatech Samuel 17 -Single Fan | 67 K | 96 °C | 800 rpm | 36.2 dBA | CHF 49.- (EUR 41.-) | Prolimatech Samuel 17 |
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Conclusion
| General | + | - | |
| With the PH-TC14PE, Phanteks really shows a remarkable cooler. In terms of cooling capacity this cooler has been able to set a benchmark for others to come. But it's not only the performance that is on a very high level, also the build qulity of the PH-TC14PE is excelent. Furthemore we also like that you can get this cooler in five different colors, which are white, black, red, blue and orange. | -
Performance - Colors |
||
| Installation | + | - | |
| The installation process is easy and you can mount the cooler quickly. In fact we could mount it perfectly well without even looking at the manual. This means that unexperienced users should also have no problems installing this cooler. Furthermore Phanteks provides mounting brackets for all recent Intel and AMD sockets which makes this cooler a good allrounder. | - Easy and robust - Compatible with Intel and AMD sockets | ||
| Performance | + | - | |
|
In our tests we used the two fans included in the package and also a third fan (same model, PH-F140). At 12V the fans are slightly noisy while to 7V are completely silent. With only one fan set at 7V we reached 67 °C on our CPU, but adding the other two fans the heatsink has reached the top of the chart. Excellent results in both situations, at 12V and 7V. The ambient temperature was 29° C. |
- Excellent cooling capacity | ||
| Recommendation | + | - | |
|
If you're looking for an extremely well performing CPU cooler, then you'll do everything right if you go for the PH-TC14PE from Phanteks. Furhtermore also the price of the entire package is very competitive. For 99 Swiss Francs (est. 83 Euros). |
- Enthusiast - Gamer - Overclocker |
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Author: Chrictian Ney c.ney@ocaholic.ch Luca Rocchi l.rocchi@ocaholic.ch