Phanteks PH-TC14PE CPU Cooler Review

Final Thoughts and Conclusion

I like the Phanteks PH-TC14PE. Its built extremely well, performs great, is very quiet, looks good, but is a massive CPU Cooler. If this is a hint of what is to come from the folks at Phanteks I eagerly await their next cooler as they managed to do wonders with the first HSF that they brought to the market place.

When I first heard of Phanteks and saw images of the PH-TC14PE my first thoughts were “oh another Noctua NH-D14 clone”… um, no. From the way this is built, and designed I wouldn’t doubt if these were built by the company that is building the coolers for Noctua. I’m not knocking Noctua build quality one bit, they are awesome coolers, although I am not a fan of the fan color they use. Phanteks is quickly becoming a favorite as the cooler performs great and the color choices are nice. I don’t like the funky skin tone fans that come with Noctua coolers, so to have four great color options was a breath of fresh air.

Having the different colors available is nice. The blue is close to the shade used on most ASUS boards, the red would look good on a ROG or Formula V board. Gigabyte even has a board with a orange color scheme. With the stock white color would look nice in one of the white cases that have started to pop up as of late.

The Phanteks PH-TC14PE can mount up to all the current Intel LGA sockets and AMD AM2/3 sockets. It even comes with the hardware to mount up to the new Intel LGA2011. All you need is a case that is big enough to accommodate it. The Phanteks PH-TC14PE is a large cooler there is no doubting that. Its foot print is as big as it is tall, 160mm or 6.2 inches or little taller than a standard 12oz soda can. It also has some heft to it, tipping the scales at 1250g with both fans installed. Its not the heaviest cooler we have tested, but it is close.

I like the PH-F140TS fans included with the cooler. They are quiet for the amount of air they are moving. What is nice is that Phanteks has them in different colors to match the cooler body. You can also purchase the fans separately to outfit your case or to add a third fan to the PH-TC14PE. The fans when purchased separate come with hardware to mount the fan to the case either in a vent with 120mm hole pattern or off of a bracket attached to the expansion slots.

In all of our testing the Phanteks PH-TC14PE did very well. Leaving all air coolers behind and giving the Corsair H100 a run for the best performing cooler in our charts. Currently the PH-TC14PE is only available in Europe and is priced within 10EUR of the Corsair H100. Both are high end coolers and perform as such, but the PH-TC14PE is quieter at full speed than the H100. The only time where the H100 really put some distance between it and the PH-TC14PE was at 4Ghz and even then the 70*C that the PH-TC14PE come in at is very nice, and below stock cooling at stock settings.

I don’t have anything truly bad to say about the Phanteks PH-TC14PE other than its not on sale state side yet, only in Europe. So our friends in Europe can get a hold of one through Caseking.de for 79.90 EUR for the white PH-TC14PE and 84.90 EUR for the blue PH-TC14PE_BL, red PH-TC14PE_RD, and orange PH-TC14PE_OR versions. We here in North America on the other hand will have to wait a little while till Phanteks gets a North American distributor. We had this same issue when Noctua first come on the scene. As with Noctua, I eagerly await the next cooler from Phanteks and hope they current version is made available in America soon!

Legit Bottom Line: The Phanteks PH-TC14PE is a solid performing but massive cooler, and an awesome first offering to the cooling world. If you are in the market for a high end air cooler, and have a case that can handle it the put the Phanteks PH-TC14PE on the short list.