Phanteks PH-TC14CS CPU Cooler Review

1. Introduction2. Packaging and Bundle3. The Phanteks PH-TC14CS CPU Cooler4. Installing the Phanteks PH-TC14CS5. Testing Methodology and Performance6. Closing Thoughts7. View All Pages

Phanteks include an installation guide with the cooler which guides us through the procedure.  It's not the best guide we've experienced but it should be good enough for most users.

The mounting mechanism that Phanteks have used for the PH-TC14CS is very similar to the one they used for the PH-TC14PE.  While it isn't quite as impressive as Noctua's, it's still good.  In this section we will be installing the cooler on an Intel LGA 1155 based system.

The first step of the installation procedure requires us to push the bolts through the appropriate holes on the backplate and through the mounting holes on the motherboard.  We can then place the plastic spacers over the top of the bolts and secure the two strip adapters using the thumbscrews provided.

We have to be careful to get these the correct way round as detailed in the installation guide otherwise you could run into issues later on during the installation.

Then we can apply the thermal paste to the CPU and secure the heatsink down using the L-shaped hex tool provided.  This is quite fiddly as other components on the motherboard can get in the way of the tool when you're trying to tighten up the bolts.

Once the heatsink is secured to the motherboard, we can attach the fans to the cooler.  This requires us to push some plastic clips through the holes on each fan and then attach the wire fan clips on either side of the fan.  They also supply some adhesive rubber strips to the heatsink to prevent vibrations.

The fans can then be clipped into place on either side of the heatsink.

Those who want to use the fan in a space restricted environment can forgo installing the fan on the top of the cooler as this reduces the overall height by 25mm.  You'll need to watch out for RAM clearance issues as the heatpipes can conflict with tall RAM heatspreaders.  We weren't able to install our relatively low profile G.Skill memory in the slot closest to the CPU socket so we would recommend opting for RAM with no heatspreaders if you plan to install four sticks.

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