Phanteks PH-TC14CS Review

Testing:

Testing of this heatsink will involve applying a load simulated by Prime95, using small FFTs in stock and overclocked scenarios, where both idle and load temperatures will be recorded. Load temperatures will be the maximum value displayed in RealTemp after running eight threads in Prime95 for one hour, and idle temperatures will be the minimum recorded value by RealTemp with no computer usage during a period of one hour. The temperature values for each of the four cores will be averaged and displayed in the graphs below. The ambient temperature is held at a constant 23°C throughout testing of the Phanteks PH-TC14CS as well as the comparison units. All the data shown in the graphs below is in degrees Celsius. The included thermal paste from Phanteks will be used during testing and thermal pastes from other heatsinks provided by their respective manufacturers will be used. The fan(s) on each cooler will be run at full-speed for these tests.

Testing Setup:

• Processor: Intel Core i7 2600K - Stock and @ 4.4GHz
• Motherboard: Gigabyte Z68 AP-D3 Rev 2.0
• Memory: Mushkin Blackline PC3 16000 9-9-9-24 1600MHz
• Video Card: XFX Radeon HD6970
• Power Supply: Mushkin 1000 watt Joule Modular power supply
• Hard Drive: 1 x Seagate 1TB SATA
• Optical Drive: Lite-On DVD-RW
• OS: Windows 7 Professional 64-bit
• Case: Corsair Obsidian Series 650D

Comparison Heatsinks:

• SilenX Effizio EFZ-120HA5
• Thermaltake Frio Extreme
• Thermaltake Frio Advanced
• Cooler Master Hyper 212 Evo
• DEEPCOOL Ice Wind Pro
• NZXT Havik 120
• Phanteks PH-TC14PE
• Noctua NH-D14
• Stock Intel

So, we see great performance from the Phanteks PH-TC14CS that matches that of the Thermaltake Frio Extreme and even ties up with in a couple of places with its bigger brother, the Phanteks PH-TC14PE.