Phanteks PH-TC12DX Review

Phanteks PH-TC12DX Testing:

Testing of Phanteks PH-TC12DX will be accomplished installing the cooler into the test system mounted into a case, not a test bench. Most systems are built and mounted into a sealed (relatively) chassis, so this method will be used to generate the load and idle results to give a real world view as to what kind of cooling performance one can expect, based on the test system listed below. Of course, your results may vary, due to case design and ambient air temperature by several degrees. The CPU load is generated by Prime 95 version 27.7 for a period of two hours, with a cool down period of one hour, after the computer has returned to an idle state. Real Temp 3.70 is used to log the temperatures over the time frame with the highest and lowest averages across the four cores of the Core i7 2600K test CPU. Ambient temperatures are kept at 24C throughout the testing to minimize the impact of a variable temperature. Each cooler is tested with the manufacturer supplied thermal compound as delivered. Many of us have our own TIM favorites, but for the end-user without a half dozen tubes of thermal paste laying around, the supplied TIM will have to do and is how these coolers will be tested.

Testing Setup:

• Processors: Core i7 2600K @ 4.3 GHz 100 x 43 1.30v
• CPU Cooling: Phanteks PH-TC12DX
• Motherboard: Gigabyte Z68AP-D3
• Memory: Mushkin 993997 9-11-10-28 1866Mhz
• Video Card: XFX HD 7970 Black Edition
• Power Supply: Corsair AX1200
• Hard Drive: Corsair Force GT 240GB
• Optical Drive: Lite-On Blu-Ray
• Case: Corsair Obsidian 650D
• OS: Windows 7 Professional 64-bit
• Temperature:  24C

Comparison Coolers:

• Noctua NH-U12P SE
• Phanteks PH-TC14PE
• Sapphire Vapor-X CPU COoler
• Corsair Hydro Series H80
• Corsair Hydro Series H60
• Phanteks TC90LS
• Noctua NH-L9i

Under load at both stock and overclocked settings, the Phanteks PH-TC12DX kept the Core i7 2600K processor marginally cooler than Sapphire's latest creation, the Vapor-X Universal CPU cooler and our case test cooler the Noctua NH-U12P SE. It does so with a design that is dimensionally similar to the other two coolers. This brings to light the use of its proprietary P.A.T.S. (Physical Antioxidant Thermal Shield) and C.P.S.C (Cold Plasma Spraying Coating Technology) technologies as the point of difference.