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Phanteks PH-TC12DX versus Phanteks PH-TC14PE **UPDATED**

3K views 25 replies 6 participants last post by  doyll 
#1 ·
New to air cooling.

System is a 6700K @ 4.6Ghz, 1.246 volts.

At 100% load using a variety of methods, the maximum temp I'm seeing is ~72 degrees.

I was considering the larger Phanteks cooler and was curious if anyone had the experience to estimate how much of a temp drop I would realize, if any..

Given the above, I think I'm safe for 24/7 operation at the current settings (thoughts?), but with a bit more cooling surface area I thought I might be able to get a little more out of the CPU without much an increase in vcore.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
 
#2 ·
Much depends on how well your case is optimized and supply cool air to CPU and GPU coolers.

When you put your CPU under a veyr heavy load does it jump up to aobut 50-60c then slowly climb to 70c over 20-30 minutes? If it does it's most likely because your case airflow is not good enough and CPU cooler intake air is being contaminated and warmed by CPU or GPU cooler exhaust air. My system peakin 2-5 minutes maximum. and cool back at idle in the same amount of time. You might find "Ways to Better Cooling' linked in my sig of interest. 1st post is index, click on topic of interest to see it. 5th topic so good place to start.
 
#3 ·
I get up to 82C with similar voltage and clocks on my 3700k and PHTC12DX, looks like you got a good chip or good cooler
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#4 ·
Case is a Phanteks Enthoo Pro.

I have 4 140mm Noctua NF-A14 case fans - two in front and two on top, all blowing inward. I Have the stock Phanteks rear case fan as an exhaust.

Temps climb and peak within about two to three minutes on Prime95 and then hold pretty much rock steady so I doubt airflow inside the case is an issue.

When I kill Prime95 my CPU reaches idle temps almost instantaneously - high 20s.

Again - on a single tower cooler with the specs mentioned in the first post I don't think my temps are bad at all.

I'm just curious how much the larger Phanteks cooler would improve things, if at all. I can get one for $65 so it isn't that big of an investment..
 
#5 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by Visceral1963 View Post

Case is a Phanteks Enthoo Pro.

I have 4 140mm Noctua NF-A14 case fans - two in front and two on top, all blowing inward. I Have the stock Phanteks rear case fan as an exhaust.

Temps climb and peak within about two to three minutes on Prime95 and then hold pretty much rock steady so I doubt airflow inside the case is an issue.

When I kill Prime95 my CPU reaches idle temps almost instantaneously - high 20s.

Again - on a single tower cooler with the specs mentioned in the first post I don't think my temps are bad at all.

I'm just curious how much the larger Phanteks cooler would improve things, if at all. I can get one for $65 so it isn't that big of an investment..
Wondering the same myself because I am looking for the next level. I've seen they can go used for as little as $25/shipped on eBay too.
 
#6 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by Visceral1963 View Post

Case is a Phanteks Enthoo Pro.

I have 4 140mm Noctua NF-A14 case fans - two in front and two on top, all blowing inward. I Have the stock Phanteks rear case fan as an exhaust.

Temps climb and peak within about two to three minutes on Prime95 and then hold pretty much rock steady so I doubt airflow inside the case is an issue.

When I kill Prime95 my CPU reaches idle temps almost instantaneously - high 20s.

Again - on a single tower cooler with the specs mentioned in the first post I don't think my temps are bad at all.

I'm just curious how much the larger Phanteks cooler would improve things, if at all. I can get one for $65 so it isn't that big of an investment..
Any reason why your top rear fan is blowing air in rather than out? If you had a fan blowing in from the top front slot it makes sense, but a fan blowing in from the top mount rear position doesn't make sense since you'd mix it into exhaust from the CPU cooler. I'd relocate that top front one to the bottom as an intake

You should aim to have a front to back airflow if you have front intakes.

Anyway AFAIK the PH-TC12DX cooler is not one of the best of the 120mm coolers unlike the PH-TC14PE which is one of the test 140mm dual towers. http://www.silentpcreview.com/article1332-page7.html
 
#7 ·
In the beginning I had both top fans, both forward of the cooler, as exhausts - that config was two front intake, two top exhaust, one rear exhaust.

In my current config I'm about two degrees cooler.
headscratch.gif


The Phanteks case allows for three 140mm up top, so I chose the two forward positions for my top fans. The entire back of my case is vented and you can feel the pressure coming out very evenly.

If I get the bigger cooler I'll have to make adjustments, but my rear-most top fan is just forward of my front cooler intake fan. It doesn't seem to impact the performance of the cooler at all.
 
#8 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by Visceral1963 View Post

Case is a Phanteks Enthoo Pro.

I have 4 140mm Noctua NF-A14 case fans - two in front and two on top, all blowing inward. I Have the stock Phanteks rear case fan as an exhaust.

Temps climb and peak within about two to three minutes on Prime95 and then hold pretty much rock steady so I doubt airflow inside the case is an issue.

When I kill Prime95 my CPU reaches idle temps almost instantaneously - high 20s.

Again - on a single tower cooler with the specs mentioned in the first post I don't think my temps are bad at all.

I'm just curious how much the larger Phanteks cooler would improve things, if at all. I can get one for $65 so it isn't that big of an investment..
I just wanted to be sure your case was flowing properly before I said you would get about 5c better cooling with the TC14PE
 
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#9 ·
Thanks man. I just bought the darn thing. What the heck. I can't go wrong for the price and I don't even have to change the mounting bracket. LOL..

I was reading your pinned guides, etc. Very nice and +rep. Very good information and very helpful.

When the new cooler gets here I'm going to install a third Noctua up top (just bought four more to outfit the wife's rig LOL..).. Guaranteed all top fans will be exhausts now.

Appreciate the help and I'll update once I get the new cooler installed. It should be here Tuesday.

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#10 ·
You should consider trying top two front fans as intake and back top fan as exhaust to avoid the recirculating issue AlphaC is talking about
 
#11 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by claes View Post

You should consider trying top two front fans as intake and back top fan as exhaust to avoid the recirculating issue AlphaC is talking about
As I read it top are intake and rear is exhaust.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Visceral1963

Case is a Phanteks Enthoo Pro.

I have 4 140mm Noctua NF-A14 case fans - two in front and two on top, all blowing inward. I Have the stock Phanteks rear case fan as an exhaust.

Temps climb and peak within about two to three minutes on Prime95 and then hold pretty much rock steady so I doubt airflow inside the case is an issue.

When I kill Prime95 my CPU reaches idle temps almost instantaneously - high 20s.

Again - on a single tower cooler with the specs mentioned in the first post I don't think my temps are bad at all.

I'm just curious how much the larger Phanteks cooler would improve things, if at all. I can get one for $65 so it isn't that big of an investment..
 
#12 ·
They're adding a fan up top and considering all exhaust up top
redface.gif
Quote:
Originally Posted by Visceral1963 View Post

When the new cooler gets here I'm going to install a third Noctua up top (just bought four more to outfit the wife's rig LOL..).. Guaranteed all top fans will be exhausts now.
 
#13 ·
Not a bad idea and I'll give this a try.

End result is I would have two 140mm front intake, and front top 140mm as intake, then two top 140mm and rear 140mm as exhaust.

I'm considering tearing the case down now and doing some more fiddling, but I'll wait for the other fan to show up.

Thanks.
 
#14 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by Visceral1963 View Post

Not a bad idea and I'll give this a try.

End result is I would have two 140mm front intake, and front top 140mm as intake, then two top 140mm and rear 140mm as exhaust.

I'm considering tearing the case down now and doing some more fiddling, but I'll wait for the other fan to show up.

Thanks.
It is a bad idea.
the top exhaust will be circling air from the intake next to it.
http://www.overclock.net/t/1491876/ways-to-better-cooling-airflow-cooler-fan-data/20_20#post_23159549

You will have one 140mm fan flow through cooler (stackings does not change total flow ability) so 1.5x 140mm intake is enough airlfow for it.
You have 2x or 3x 92mm fans on GPU so 1-2x 140mm intakes to supply it. This means 3-4x intake can give plenty of case airflow.
Any more is just wasted and generally does not improve flow .. but if you want more noise by all means use more case fans.
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#15 ·
We'll see. The noctua NF-A14s are dead silent at idle and at full load barely make any noise at all. If testing shows no improvement I can always use extra fans or replacement fans in one of my other machines. Once all this work is done I'll be pulling a water loop out of a 3770k machine so maybe I'll use them there.
 
#16 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by Visceral1963 View Post

We'll see. The noctua NF-A14s are dead silent at idle and at full load barely make any noise at all. If testing shows no improvement I can always use extra fans or replacement fans in one of my other machines. Once all this work is done I'll be pulling a water loop out of a 3770k machine so maybe I'll use them there.
You might keep them quiet, but if you put another in the top as exhaust it will be a total waste and may even lower performance.
 
#17 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by Visceral1963 View Post

Not a bad idea and I'll give this a try.

End result is I would have two 140mm front intake, and front top 140mm as intake, then two top 140mm and rear 140mm as exhaust.

I'm considering tearing the case down now and doing some more fiddling, but I'll wait for the other fan to show up.

Thanks.
What Doyll is saying is that if you have two top exhaust and one top intake you will be defeating the purpose of the top intake. The middle top exhaust fan will be pulling away any of the fresh air the front intake offers. This will prevent the CPU cooler from getting as much cool air as it could.

Your way:


The top intakes air gets pulled out of the middle/top before it has a chance to cool the CPU's heatsink.

A better way:


Here the CPU cooler gets fresh air from the middle and front top fans before it's pulled away by the rear exhaust fans.
 
#18 ·
What I am saying is


Around and around the air goes .. with no significant function being accomplished.
tongue.gif


In claes's better way pic, if the PCIe back slot covers are removed the air entrapment around GPU will most likely flow thru them moving the heated air around the GPU out of case. The design has 4 intakes and 2 exhaust .. meaning only half of the potential airflow of intakes will be utilized because case can only flow a total of as much air as the smaller of the two; intake and exhaust. Removing the PCIe slot covers add about 1x 140mm fan's additional exhaust airflow area, so we have 3x 140mm fans of exhaust instead of 2.
wink.gif
 
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#19 ·
New parts received and installed.

Fan config is now 5 Noctua NF A14 PWMs. Two front intake, two top exhaust, one rear exhaust.

Installation of the Phanteks cooler was very easy considering it's the first air cooler of this size I've ever installed.

On average, the new cooler is 7c cooler in a given test than the one it replaced so I'm very pleased with it.

Operation during everything except full on load testing is dead quiet. Full load is barely audible. I can run all fans at max rpm and still not hear my PC over my wife's stock fans in her Corsair 450D case across the room. Her new fans go in tomorrow.
 
#20 ·
7C is pretty good! It uses the same bracket as the 12DX right?
 
#21 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by Visceral1963 View Post

New parts received and installed.

Fan config is now 5 Noctua NF A14 PWMs. Two front intake, two top exhaust, one rear exhaust.

Installation of the Phanteks cooler was very easy considering it's the first air cooler of this size I've ever installed.

On average, the new cooler is 7c cooler in a given test than the one it replaced so I'm very pleased with it.

Operation during everything except full on load testing is dead quiet. Full load is barely audible. I can run all fans at max rpm and still not hear my PC over my wife's stock fans in her Corsair 450D case across the room. Her new fans go in tomorrow.
When I read it without drinking my first cup of coffee I thought you said it was quieter than your wife across the room.
tongue.gif

Quote:
Originally Posted by Vario View Post

7C is pretty good! It uses the same bracket as the 12DX right?
I'm only on my second cup, but isn't there only one?
12DX that is.
PH-TC12DX to be specific.
 
#23 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by doyll View Post

When I read it without drinking my first cup of coffee I thought you said it was quieter than your wife across the room.
tongue.gif

I'm only on my second cup, but isn't there only one?
12DX that is.
PH-TC12DX to be specific.
The hardware to install both coolers (the 12 and the 14) is the same. I actually mailed Phanteks and asked before I made my purchase.

On a side note, Phanteks customer support responded to my question within a couple of hours - very nice.
 
#24 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by Vario View Post

7C is pretty good! It uses the same bracket as the 12DX right?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Visceral1963 View Post

The hardware to install both coolers (the 12 and the 14) is the same. I actually mailed Phanteks and asked before I made my purchase.

On a side note, Phanteks customer support responded to my question within a couple of hours - very nice.
Phanteks CS is very good. I know some of their people so I can't use my own interactions as examples but I hear many who have received very good support.
thumb.gif
 
#25 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by doyll View Post

Phanteks CS is very good. I know some of their people so I can't use my own interactions as examples but I hear many who have received very good support.
thumb.gif
Good to know of another company that stands behind it's product range. Far better for the customer to get solid support on anything sold by them.

Still love Corsair for replacing previous faulty memory over the years, maybe Phantek should get into memory production as well and offer a similar brilliant replacement program like Corsair, shall buy heaps off them.
 
#26 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by Elrick View Post

Good to know of another company that stands behind it's product range. Far better for the customer to get solid support on anything sold by them.

Still love Corsair for replacing previous faulty memory over the years, maybe Phantek should get into memory production as well and offer a similar brilliant replacement program like Corsair, shall buy heaps off them.
My experience in UK is corsail has horrible CS .. only doing what law requires, and only if customer know the law. The label on many products is only the sellers's name, not the manufacturer .. even when embossed into product.
 
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