45 replies to this topic

[Bosco]

Looks like there is a new Sheriff in town. Take a look at Mike's review on the Phanteks PH-TC14PE very impressive.

http://www.overclock...teks_ph_tc14pe/

[tacohunter52]

That's an impressive cooler, I'm impressed by how much it beat the NH-D14.

Great review Mike!

[bp9801]

Something weighing nearly three pounds with two fans attached has to perform well.

Nice review, outstanding performance for the money.

[El_Capitan]

Interesting, beats the Noctua and looks prettier! Still, I wish you guys could add an overclock at 4.0GHz or even 4.2GHz on the CPU cooling tests. The CM Hyper 212+ keeps good temps at 3.44GHz for just $20.

When it starts hitting $70+ for a CPU Cooler, I think it's being aimed at the overclocking crowd.

[Bosco]

Interesting, beats the Noctua and looks prettier! Still, I wish you guys could add an overclock at 4.0GHz or even 4.2GHz on the CPU cooling tests. The CM Hyper 212+ keeps good temps at 3.44GHz for just $20.

When it starts hitting $70+ for a CPU Cooler, I think it's being aimed at the overclocking crowd.

Thats coming on the new testbeds you will see that most likely starting in Jan.

[Stonerboy779]

I first saw the price and thought to myself oh another company trying to chase down noctura and then well my jaw just dropped those results I am just amazed that is all there is to it.

However all i wan't to do now is sit down and test both this and the noctura out to see which is louder at both idle and load then test the fans to see which pushes more cfm.
They are close but i wan't to know is it the fans the cooler or both that are resulting in this beating the noctura.

The reason being not only is the cooler slightly better priced (without sales or mir) but the fans are also a bit better priced for very nearly the same specs but still higher priced than I would like.

[airman]

I'm glad to see this immediate feedback, and was hoping to get a chance to make some more comments on this monstrous cooler.

I will say that I was just as surprised, if not moreso than a lot of you with these results. Being that I always have to do a sanity check on my results before they ever hit paper, I seriously couldn't believe my eyes. I always start off with an overclocked load test for every review to ensure stability of the system and that everything is set up as it should be before I have wasted time from potentially recording potentially bad/erroneous numbers. Of course, the overclocked load is the most impressive number which is where I was astounded. I bet if I had start off with stock idle or stock load, I wouldn't have been so shocked.

In hindsight, aside from the fact that never have I had a cooler excel so much and I'm just wasn't expecting the D14 to be dethroned, but looking up close at the engineering and design that went into the cooler should tell me that it could have a jump and an extra leg-up on Noctua. All of this cold plasma spray technology and antioxidant shields, visible solder on the joints, etc., (for you, Jesse) actually do mean something important when it comes to cooling. I'm very excited that I got to get my hands on a set of these and get to see the first-look results.

Chris, thanks for the feedback Troy, you're absolutely right! It actually weighs only 10g (.35oz) more than the D14 Both fit the idea of more mass: greater heat capacity & more surface area = better, heavy load temperatures.

Capitan - Yes, I'm sure you'll get to see more numbers from this cooler since its compatible with the next testbed components

Stoner - me too. I wasn't too excited about them except the fact I had four of them in four nifty different colors though I did expect DECENT performance from them seeing as how similar to the D14 they are. I still have some "unofficial" BF3 results that I need to gather under a request from my BF3 edition HD 6970 review, but if you like I can put some Noctua fans on it soon and run the tests again to see what happens if you like. From my conversion/calculations, using Noctua's specification of 110 cubic meters per hour, I found that's around 65cfm. Phanteks specify its fans as ~78cfm at ~19dBA versus Noctua's ~20dBA meaning that the Noctua is slightly louder with less airflow - on paper. Honestly I wasn't concerned with the noise level enough to comment on it in the review because I honestly can say it was never loud enough to hear over any other fans in the Graphite 600T. I doubt 10 CFM less could knock 5°C off of any of the tests, but we'll see!

[Waco]

They sent you 4 of them? Nice! That orange one would look good in a Clemson-themed build...

[MercuryDoun]

Holy crap!! This is the first heatsink that's come out that i actually want to replace my Megahalems with!! I want one so bad now!! My i7 has so much more head room than my Megahalems can give safely!

[Speedway]

Wow, def a new top dog in the air-cooling market! Like bp sd, I saw the size and wieght of it and figured it was going to be a beast. Still can't believe it beat the Noctura like that though overclocked, 5C

[airman]

They sent you 4 of them? Nice! That orange one would look good in a Clemson-themed build...

Yep, the orange one will be kept

[ispasion22]

I watched several Phantek Cooler reviews and is appreciated by all.
But I expected to arrive this monster, put him to work and found my CPU limits.
Of course, this review will help me understand what expectations to have.