Introduction
Phanteks is an IT manufacturer founded in 2007 and located in The Netherlands. Phanteks is focused on producing CPU cooling solutions, fans and high quality cases. Phanteks established themselves on the IT market with the release of their first product, the PH-TC14PE CPU cooler which was a great success in the overclocking community.
Official product link:
http://phanteks.com/PH-TC14S.html
Packaging and accessories
The PH-TC14S model comes packaged in a black & white box with dark blue accents.
The front side of the box shows an image of the product, in the top right corner we find the name & logo of the manufacturer and the name of the product.
On the sides of the box we find presented the features & specifications of the product and a brief description of the product in multiple languages.
Accessories
The product comes with the following accessories:
– 4x User’s Manual
– 1x PH-F140HP PWM Premium Fan
– 1x PH-NDC Thermal Compound
– 4x Acoustic Rubber Bar
– 4x Metal Fan Clips
– 8x Fan Clip Adaptor
– Common Required Mounting Parts:
– 1x Mounting plate with Spring Screws
– 1x Mounting Plate Screw
– AMD:
– 2x Strip Adapter
– 4x Socket Screws
– 4x Stud
– Intel LGA 2011:
– 4x Socket Screws
– Intel LGA 155x/1366/775:
– 4x Socket Screws
– 4x Screw Nut
– 4x Black Stud
– 2x Strip Adapter
– 1x Back-plate
Specifications
Model: PH-TC14S
Type: Slim Twin Tower Heatsink with Fans
Compatibility:
Intel: Socket 2011/115X/1366/775
AMD: FM1/FM2(+)/AM2(+)
Color: Black
Materials:
– Copper (Base and Heat-pipes), Nickel Plated
– Aluminum Cooling Fins with patented P.A.T.S.
Fan Model: PH-F140HP PWM Ultra High Static Pressure Premium Fan
Fan Size: 140x140x25mm
Fan compatibility: 140x140x25mm/120x120x25mm (2pcs)
Bearing Type: UFB (Updraft Floating Balance) Bearing
Blade Geometry: Seven Colored Blades with MVB2
RPM: 500 – 1600 ± 250 RPM
Max Air Flow: 68.1 CFM
Max Air Pressure: 1.6mm H2O
Acoustical Noise: 25.3 dB (A)
Input Power: 2.4 W
Current (Ampere): 0.2 A
Rate Voltage: 12 V
MTBF: > 150,000 hr.
Heatsink Dimension (LxWxH) without Fan: 4.1×2.9×6.1 inches
Heatsink Dimension (LxWxH) with Fan: 5.6×2.9×6.3 inches
Heatsink Weight without Fan: 1.23 lbs
Heatsink Weight with Fan: 1.63 lbs
Visual inspection
The PH-TC14S model comes accompanied by a PH-F140HP premium fan, the cooler using six U shaped Heatpipes each measuring 6mm in diameter.
The 6(six) heatpipes are arranged in a U shape to facilitate the heat dissipation from the base of the cooler. Like the base of the cooler, the heatpipes are made out of copper and nickel-plated, this improves the cooling & reliability of the cooler, and also helps maintain the black & white color scheme between the base, heatpipes and the black painted fins. Like all Phanteks products, both the build quality and the materials used is very good.
The included PH-F140HP fan maintains the Phanteks quality, the wire is covered by a high quality white sleeve, the fan using a 4-pin Molex connector. Both the metal clips & plastic adapters make contact with the frame of the fan through 4(four) rubber washers, thus eliminating any vibrations.
Testing
The following system was used to test the cooler:
– Processor: Intel i5 4690K @ 3.9 GHz and overclocked to 4.5 GHz
– Motherboard: MSI Z97 Gaming 9 ACK
– RAM: 8GB Crucial Ballistix Tactical @ 2133MHz
– GPU: MSI GeForce GTX 660 OC Gaming
– SSD: Samsung 840 EVO 120GB
– HDD: Samsung SpinPoint F3 500GB
– PSU: Seasonic M12II-520 EVO Edition Bronze 520W
– Display: AOC i2769VM
– Case: Phanteks Enthoo Luxe White
– Thermal compound: Arctic Cooling MX-4
Software used for testing the cooler:
– AIDA64 Extreme Version: 5.00.3300 (12/8/2014)
– Intel Burn Test v2.54
– Prime95 28.5
The cooler was tested with the CPU at the default turbo frequency of 3.9 GHz and overclocked to 4.5 GHz with a core voltage of 1.187 V.
Also the included fan have been used at its maximum speed.
The room temperature was approximately 22°C (71°F), with 2°C margin of error.
The idle test consists of the CPU sitting idle at the desktop for 30 minutes, the temperature was measured at the end of the test.
The settings of the software used are the following:
Intel Burn Test v2.54 – Stress level: Maximum
Prime95 28.5 – small FFT
AIDA64 Extreme Version – Temperature monitoring.
Each test was conducted for 40 minutes.
Temperature
The noise level was measured at three different distances from the fans (10cm, 20cm, 30cm.) the noise was measured with a margin of error of ± 5 db.
The space between the DIMM slots and the front fan is approximately 40 mm.
Final thoughts
The PH-TC14S model stands out for its use of a 140mm fan in a slim format, thus offering a good performance in a slim format ideal for a mATX and mini-ITX system. The accessory bundle is rich, Phanteks offering one 140mm PH-F140HP high quality fan that offer PWM function and a tube of PH-NDC thermal compound.
In conclusion, the PH-TC14S cooler offers a good performance in spite of the small size. The only negative aspect of the cooler is the inclusion of just one fan in the bundle, this is probably due to Phanteks wanting to keep the cooler at a low price.
Update!
With the launch of the new AMD Ryzen AM4 socket generation, the PH-TC14S has been updated with the latest AM4 mounting system by Phanteks. The system looks like this:
