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Over the years, Phanteks has created quite a name for itself among PC enthusiasts for creating some of the best air coolers and fans available. Last month at CES we got to check out their suite and get an early peak at some of their latest products. Today, we’re bringing you a review of one of the products we saw, the Phanteks PH-TC14S; a compact dual-tower cooler which promises to deliver nearly all of the performance of it’s bigger brother the PH-TC14PE, in a much smaller package and price.
Does the new PH-TC14S live up to the Phanteks name? We’ll find out!
PACKAGNG, SPECIFICATIONS, AND PRICE
The packing features a rather monochromatic color scheme with a nice illustration of the cooler itself, on the sides we’ll find another set of illustrations which show off the cooler’s low-profile design, and some specifications.
Pricing on the cooler is currently set at $54.99, which is in-line with other coolers in this class.
When we open the box we’ll find the cooler itself, packed neatly, and fully enclosed in a nice closed-cell foam packing material. Along the side, we’ll find a box with the included accessories.
The cooler comes with the fan and mounting plate pre-installed installed, this is an interesting approach as usually everything is packed separately. Inside the accessory box we’ll find four different installation manuals that are each double-sided to include multiple languages, for eight total languages available.
Then we’ll find three neatly packed and labeled bags which include both the Intel and AMD installation kits, as well as a tube of Phanteks PH-NDC thermal paste and an extra set of fan clips and rubber strips for mounting a second fan.
Review Overview
Design
Build Quality
Performance
Noise
Price
COOL!
The PH-TC14S delivers cooling performance that rivals the much larger and more expensive PH-TC14PE and other coolers in its class.
Nice work! A couple of questions; Where is the air temperature monitored? Is is only the room temperature or the needed cooler intake air temperature? Cooler intake air temperature is the important one, not the room temperature. Also the difference in noise level for 52dBA to 54dBA is not enough difference for most people to hear a change. I would expect 800rpm to be about 32dBA and full speed about 45dBA. Normally measurement are made with meter is 1metre away from noise source. What is your room base noise level?
Again, nice review!
Intake Air temperature is something we plan on doing in the future. Unfortunately we do lack the proper equipment to properly gauge the temperature of the air intake. However I do appreciate your feedback as this is definitely something we plan to improve upon further.
As for noise, we do in fact use a meter about 1metre away from the case. That being said, our ambient noise conditions are not perfect for testing, this is also something we plan on improving on.
Sorry if that doesn’t fully answer your questions. We hope to continue to hear your feedback going forward.
I, too, am interested in the intake air temperature. Thanks.
Please see the reply made to doyll.
Thanks for the feedback!
Monitoring cooler intake air temperature is easy and inexpensive. Give me your email address and I will supply details.
You can email me at donny.stanley(AT)technologyx(dot)com