Cooler Comparison Testing
Cooler Testing Methodology
To best gage the quality of the system coolers under review, system CPU temperature and cooling system audio measurements were taken with the CPU idle and under load. To replicate CPU idle conditions, the system was rebooted and allowed to sit idle for 10 minutes. To replicate a stress system load on the Z77-based system, a combination of LinX and FurMark were run over a 30 minute period with LinX running for 500 loops with Memory set to All and FurMark running at 1280×1024 resolution and 2x MSAA in stress test mode. For the Z87-based system testing, Aida64 System Stability Test was used in conjunction with FurMark for 30 minutes per run. After each run, the system was shut down and allowed to rest for 10 minutes to cool down. Then the CPU cooler was removed, cleaned, and remounted to the CPU with fresh thermal paste applied. This procedure was repeated a total of nine times for each cooler – three times for the stock speed runs on the Z77 and Z87-based systems, and 3 times for the overclocked speed runs on the Z77-based system.
Temperature measurements were taken directly from the CPU thermistors using RealTemp v3.70. For the Z77-based systems, the highest recorded value for idle and load temperature were used for the run. Because of the volatile nature of the Haswell thermistor readings, the Z87-based system temperatures were measured in a different manner. For idle temperatures, the highest recorded value was used for the run. For load temperatures, a series of three values were notated: the average (high and low) across all cores, the average (high and low) across the single highest core, and the high temperature. To measure these average values accurately, the Realtemp readings were reset 20 minutes into the run while the CPU remained at full load. This allowed the software to measure accurate load high and lows for all cores over the last 10 minutes of the run with the three measured values taken from these readings.
Note that the temperature values are reported as deltas rather than absolute temperatures with the delta value reported calculated as CPU temperature – ambient temperature. For all tests, room ambient temperature was maintained between 26-28C. Sound measurements of the system cooler where taken with the sound meter placed 3 feet away from the system with all other devices in the room silenced. The Sound Meter Pro applet on a Samsung Galaxy S3 mobile phone was used to measure decibel level.
Intel Z77-based Ivy Bridge System Testing
CPU Stock Speed Testing
The CPU stock speed testing was conducted with the BIOS defaults set for the CPU and Turbo Mode disabled, equating to a 3.4GHz CPU speed, 1600MHz memory speed, and 100MHz base clock. The Intel Speedstep functionality remained enabled for the duration of the testing to get realistic CPU idle performance conditions.
The PH-TC12DX cooler performs on par with the other coolers with the stock speed Ivy Bridge-based CPU. While not coming in with the lowest temperatures, it does exhibit respectable performance characteristics.
CPU Overclocked Speed Testing
The CPU overclocked speed testing was conducted with known stable settings from a previous board review for the CPU with Turbo Mode disabled, equating to a 4.4GHz CPU speed, 1960MHz memory speed, and 105MHz base clock. The Intel Speedstep functionality remained enabled for the duration of the testing to get realistic CPU idle performance conditions.
Board voltage settings were configured as follows:
- CPU Core Voltage – 1.2750
- CPU I/O Voltage – 1.150
- DRAM Voltage – 1.6255
- System Agent Voltage(SA) – 1.0850
- CPU PLL Voltage – 1.7500
- PCH 1.05 – 1.0995
The PH-TC12DX continues to perform well with the Ivy Bridge at overclocked speeds, further proving its performance capabilities and its ability to scale under excessive heat load conditions. Proof of Phanteks design prowess comes with the fact that this air-based cooler was only bested by the XSPC cooler by a mere 3C under load.
Intel Z87-based Haswell System Testing
CPU Stock Speed Testing
The CPU stock speed testing was conducted with the BIOS defaults set for the CPU and Turbo Mode disabled, equating to a 3.5GHz CPU speed, 3.5GHz Ring bus speed, 1600MHz memory speed, and 100MHz base clock. The Intel Speedstep functionality remained enabled for the duration of the testing to get realistic CPU idle performance conditions.
The Phanteks cooler continues to perform well when paired up with the Haswell-based CPU at stock speeds. Haswell CPUs tend to run hotter than their Ivy Bridge counterparts with a smaller die size, making them very good proof of a cooler's heat dissipation capabilities. The PH-TC12DX proves here that it is no slouch.
Sound Testing
While not as loud as the Thermalright unit, the PH-TC12DX is audible over the normal case fans even if just barely. However, it is easily drowned out by the video card cooler fan while the system is under graphical load.
I own the PH-TC14PE and it’s
I own the PH-TC14PE and it’s the first air cooler I bought in a long time that impressed me. Moving from an AIO Asetek unit it was night and day, both temps and noise. The best part of their products is they all feel and look like solid pieces of hardware. At the time if this was available I would’ve probably gone with this one. Still I can’t complain it pushes my 2600K to 4.5GHz on stock voltage.
One question on sound part.
One question on sound part. Since this fans are PWM why is sound level same for idle and load .
It should of ramped down for idle unless you set it up in bios to run 100% ?
But that would not be fair as it seems corsair 100i does use lower idle speeds .
testing was done with fans at
testing was done with fans at full speed only…