Twelve CPU Air Cooler Roundup
Phanteks PH-TC14PE
The Phanteks PH-TC14PE is a massive twin 140 mm tower cooler. The two towers are separated by just over 25mm of space. This is Phanteks Premium flagship CPU cooler.
Specifications
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Brand
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PHANTEKS
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Type
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Heatsinks and Fans
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Compatibilities
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Intel Socket LGA 2011/1155/1156/1366/775
AMD FM1/FM2/AM3+/AM3/AM2+/AM2 (stock back-plate required) |
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Color
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Blue, White, Red, Orange, Black
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Material
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Copper (Base and Heat-pipes), Nickel Plated
Aluminum(Cooling Fins/ Top Cover) Patented P.A.T.S (Physical Anti-Oxidant Thermal Shield) Patented C.P.S.C (Cold Plasma Spraying Coating) Technology |
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Fan Model
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PH-F140 Premium Fan with PWM Adapter.
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Fan Size
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140 x 140 x 25mm (Dual Fans included)
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Fan Compatibilities
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140 x 140 x 25mm (3pcs) / 120 x 120 x 25mm (3pcs)
(Third fan clips and accessories included) |
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Bearing Type
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UFB (Updraft Floating Balance) Bearing
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Blade Geometry
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Nine White Colored Blades with MVB (Maelstrom Vortex Booster) Design
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RPM
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1300 ± 10%
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Max Air Flow
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88.6 CFM
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Max Air Pressure
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1.37mm H2O
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Acoustical Noise
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19.6 dB (A)
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RPM with PWM Adapter
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700 – 1200 RPM ± 10%
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Max Air Flow with PWM
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45.1CFM – 78.1 CFM
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Max Air Pressure with PWM
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0.45 – 1.21mm H2O
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Acoustical Noise with PWM
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13.4 – 19 dB (A)
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Input Power
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2.8W
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Current (Ampere)
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0.24A
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Rate Voltage
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12V
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MTBF
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>150,000 hr.
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Heatsink Dimensions without Fan
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134 x 140 x 160mm (LxWxH)
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Heatsink Dimensions with Dual Fans
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159 x 140 x 171mm (LxWxH)
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Heatsink Weight without Fan
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970g
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Heatsink Weight with Fans
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1110 / 1250g (Single/Dual)
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Package Dimensions
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167 x 214 x 190mm (LxWxH)
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Scope of Delivery
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1x PH-TC14PE Heatsink
2x PH-F140 Premium Fan PH-F140 Fan Accessories 6 x Rubber Bar, 12x Fan Clip Adaptor, 6x Fan Wire Clip, 16x Rubber Pad 1x PWM External Adaptor SoliSku mounting Kits for Intel and AMD 1x Y-Fan Splitter 1x PH-NDC Thermal Compound 2x Phanteks PH-TC14PE User’s Manual |
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Warranty
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5 Years
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The Phanteks PH-TC14PE shows a teaser of the cooler housed in side. This cooler comes in five different colors, instead of the four available on the other two Phanteks coolers on the previous pages.
Inside the box is the cooler, the installation kits for AMD and Intel, two PWM fans, the accessory kit, PWM adapter and instructions written in a few different languages.
Do you remember when I said this cooler was massive? The Phanteks PH-TC14PE has two 140×50.8mm towers that house five 8mm heat pipes.
The fin spacing on the Phanteks PH-TC14PE is of a similar design for all their coolers. The fin spacing and design allow higher air flow and lower thermal resistance.
The two towers of the Phanteks PH-TC14PE are only connected to each other via the heat pipes. The space between the two towers allow enough room to barely squeeze a 25mm thick fan in between.
Minor machining marks are barely visible on the base of the Phanteks PH-TC14PE.
The base does reflect our 1cm graph. The line are reflected nice and straight. The minor distortion present in the reflections are due to the machining marks.
The fans that come with the Phanteks PH-TC14PE are the same fans that come with the PH-TC14CS. These are 140x25mm fans and have a rating of 45.1-78.1 CFM at a noise level of 13.4-19 dBA.
The Phanteks fans that come with the PH-TC12DX feature blades that use the Maelstrom Vortex Booster design. The design allows for increased airflow by creating a vortex behind the fan and producing less noise while doing so.
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In order to install the Phanteks PH-TC14PE the cooler hold down bracket needs to be attached to the top of the base. This is the only additional step required as compared to installing the other two Phanteks coolers.
This cooler can be installed with either the fans facing front to back or top to bottom. I chose to use a front to back orientation for this test. To do so, the brackets needed to be installed around the CPU socket in the manner shown above. All three Phanteks coolers in this test use exactly the same mounting system and the parts are 100% compatible with each other.
After securing the CPU cooler to the retention bracket it was time to install the RAM into the motherboard. I was a bit concerned that the memory that I am using was not going to fit. However, there is just enough clearance to install the Kingston HyperX Beast memory kit.
While the memory fit under the heatsink, the fan is a different story. As the picture above shows, the front fan is slightly higher than the center fan, due to the memory. However, this isn’t all bad. With the fans at different heights, the dead spot directly behind the fan hub has changed.
For this installation I choose to install the fans in a push/push configuration. One fan is pushing air through tower one and the other is pushing through tower two. One thing to note here. The fans that came with our kit are 4 pin PWM fans. There was a splitter that was shipped that was a 3 pin splitter. The instructions say to plug each fan into the splitter then plug the splitter into the PWM adapter. However, with the parts included in this kit that turned out to be impossible. In order to use the fans, I used the PWM splitter that was included in the Phanteks PH-TC12DX.
Next we place the DeepCool Gamer Storm Assassin on the test bench.
