Good air cooling heatsinks?

[doyll]

Now many CPUs are supplied with stock "tower" coolers.. and nothing being said about motherboard cooling comparability.

Really wonder how much one hand know about what the other is doing in computer industry. Think it's much more about selling and very little about how well things work in what combinations.

Down, sideways, up, back or angled I don't think it make a whit of difference to motherboard components. That said I do have to keep my extreme cooling cooler fans at 650-700rpm to supply air to mobo components.. any lower and components will run hotter at idle than at load.. but thats Northbridge being 53c idle and 48c load.

It's more about how well case airflow removed heated component exhuast and thus supplying cool air to component intakes.

 

[Bobnova]

I definitely like the top down coolers for motherboard cooling, they're definitely better that way.

The intake shroud came with P4s (starting with Northwoods specifically, I believe) and their higher power draw / heat output and was recommended/mandated by Intel as part of the ATX spec, which also place the CPU in the specific spot it's in now, so that the PSU could act as an exhaust fan and the shroud they put in the ATX spec for cases would line up with the HSF intake.

The only CPUs I've seen that come with tower coolers are the Really Super Extreme Edition Intel chips, and Intel's tower cooler throws air all over the bloody place, plenty for MOSFET cooling.

 

[doyll]

You may be right Bob. I haven't bought a CPU with stock cooler in donkey years.

Still think it's more about good case airflow pattern than cooler. If case is within a few degrees of room components generally stay cool.

 

[magellan]

I've used quite a few air coolers... TRUE, Megahalems, Noctua, Xigmatek, HR-02 but I think my favorite is the Archon. I've never tried any of the double tower coolers like the Silver Arrow, NH-D14 or the Phanteks. The original Archon was priced over your budget cap and I don't really know if they have come up f/s or have been offered used for ~$50 or less in the classifieds or not.

I like my Archon SB-E. The Archons are all very tall heatsinks so you have to make sure your case is wide enough that they will fit -- mine fits w/maybe 5 mm to spare.

 

[Tech Tweaker]

Well, I ordered a Phanteks PH-TC14PE, because I found it for a steal at $35 shipped.

Only problems are that a. it is missing some of the mounting hardware (no AMD hardware and no backplate) and b. it was apparently previously owned by a fairly heavy smoker and reeks of cigarette smoke. It's not the worst heatsink I've had that came from a smoker, but it's pretty close as far as smell.

It came in this morning.

Going to see how it performs, once I can find some hardware to use it.

Anyone know where I might be able to find hardware for a Phanteks PH-TC14PE?

 

[doyll]

A sink full of hot water and dishwashing detergent will clean it right up. Posting a pic and list of what you have would help us determine what exactly you need.

 

[Tech Tweaker]

A sink full of hot water and dishwashing detergent will clean it right up. Posting a pic and list of what you have would help us determine what exactly you need.

I actually had the heatsink soaking in hot water when I posted. Still soaking now. Never tried with dish detergent before though.

What I have is the load spreader bar, and the two Intel brackets (plus the standoffs for LGA2011 and the nuts that screw down the brackets from the top). I'm not sure if it uses the same standoffs for LGA2011 as it does for other socket types.



Stock hardware:
16x Rubber pads on fans-missing
12x Fan clip adaptors-have 8
6x Rubber bars-have 4
6x Wire fan clips-have 4
4x Nuts-missing
4x Plastic stand-offs for AMD-missing
4x Plastic stand-offs for Intel-missing
4x Screws for AMD-missing
4x Screws for Intel-missing
4x Screws for LGA2011-have
2x AMD mounting arms-missing
2x Intel mounting arms-have
1x Crossbar-have
1x Backplate-missing
1x Thermal grease-missing, don't need
1x PWM Y-cable-have
1x PWM external adaptor-missing

 

[doyll]

Helps desolve the smoke film on fins. Slosh cooler around every few minutes to help flush the gunk in between the fins out.

Where are you located?

Looks like most is missing:
16x Rubber pads on fans - not needed
12x Fan clip adaptors-have 8 - enough for 2 fans. Can make with zip-ties
6x Rubber bars-have 4 - all that's needed
6x Wire fan clips-have 4 - all that's needed
4x Nuts-missing - bummer, need them
4x Plastic stand-offs for AMD-missing
4x Plastic stand-offs for Intel-missing
4x Screws for AMD-missing
4x Screws for Intel-missing
4x Screws for LGA2011-have
2x AMD mounting arms-missing
2x Intel mounting arms-have
1x Crossbar-have
1x Backplate-missing - bummer, need it
1x Thermal grease-missing, don't need
1x PWM Y-cable-have
1x PWM external adaptor-missing - which fans do you have?

I suggest contacting Phanteks support and ask them for a mounting kit and PWM adapter if needed.

 

[Tech Tweaker]

Helps desolve the smoke film on fins. Slosh cooler around every few minutes to help flush the gunk in between the fins out.

Where are you located?

Looks like most is missing:
16x Rubber pads on fans - not needed
12x Fan clip adaptors-have 8 - enough for 2 fans. Can make with zip-ties
6x Rubber bars-have 4 - all that's needed
6x Wire fan clips-have 4 - all that's needed
4x Nuts-missing - bummer, need them
4x Plastic stand-offs for AMD-missing
4x Plastic stand-offs for Intel-missing
4x Screws for AMD-missing
4x Screws for Intel-missing
4x Screws for LGA2011-have
2x AMD mounting arms-missing
2x Intel mounting arms-have
1x Crossbar-have
1x Backplate-missing - bummer, need it
1x Thermal grease-missing, don't need
1x PWM Y-cable-have
1x PWM external adaptor-missing - which fans do you have?

I suggest contacting Phanteks support and ask them for a mounting kit and PWM adapter if needed.

Okay, I'll try out the dish detergent method.

I'm in the United States.

As far as fans, I have 2x Phanteks PH-F140TS.

Yes, I was thinking I might contact their support to see if I could somehow acquire a mounting kit from them (parts request, RMA, or buy a kit outright). I looked around at various retailers, and it seems I can't find any that sell the mounting kit on its own.

Unfortunately Phanteks Support is only open Monday-Friday 9:00AM-5:00PM PST, so I won't be able to contact them until at least Monday. I was kind of suspecting they wouldn't be open on weekends.

 

[doyll]

Indeed. Most business are 5 days a week.

If you have any problems let me know.

 

[Tech Tweaker]

Indeed. Most business are 5 days a week.

If you have any problems let me know.

Well, hit a snag. Phanteks support says I need a receipt or other proof of purchase from an authorized retailer for them to send me my missing hardware. Somehow I was expecting that.

Going to see if I can just buy a mounting kit from them outright I guess.

 

[doyll]

Plead ignorance and beg them to help you. Send pics of the cooler, preferably before and after cleaning to prove you have one and are trying to make it look good.

 

[Tech Tweaker]

Plead ignorance and beg them to help you. Send pics of the cooler, preferably before and after cleaning to prove you have one and are trying to make it look good.

Ah, I'm not going to bother with that. Both their telephone support and email support team told me I needed a receipt, invoice, or other proof of purchase and weren't accepting any excuses on that.

I'll just buy a new mounting kit, it's only $9.99 USD plus shipping. Price isn't too bad, I've seen some kits that were $20-25+shipping. I don't know why they don't just offer mounting hardware for sale on their website via a Phanteks store of some kind, as they apparently do accept direct sales to customers. They were pretty quick to send me an invoice once I explained that I couldn't locate the original receipt/invoice.

 

[doyll]

Ah, I'm not going to bother with that. Both their telephone support and email support team told me I needed a receipt, invoice, or other proof of purchase and weren't accepting any excuses on that.

I'll just buy a new mounting kit, it's only $9.99 USD plus shipping. Price isn't too bad, I've seen some kits that were $20-25+shipping. I don't know why they don't just offer mounting hardware for sale on their website via a Phanteks store of some kind, as they apparently do accept direct sales to customers. They were pretty quick to send me an invoice once I explained that I couldn't locate the original receipt/invoice.

Ah.. didn't know you could buy one. I've never seen them listed anywhere.

 

[Tech Tweaker]

Ah.. didn't know you could buy one. I've never seen them listed anywhere.

Apparently you can, though you have to contact Phanteks directly and ask to purchase one for your specific model of heatsink.

There isn't anything on their website that makes this known though, only after I asked someone from their phone support staff if there was any way I could get a mounting kit without a proof of purchase did they mention buying a kit directly from the manufacturer.

It seems they don't sell the mounting kits through any retailers though, and they can only be purchased directly from Phanteks. I'm not sure why they do it this way though, because I think they could make more money if they were to sell mounting kits through retailers (or they could make up their own online store, and sell mounting kits and other parts through there).

 

[Tech Tweaker]

Well, my new mounting kit showed up today.

 

[Bobnova]

That's a lot of stuff for $10. Go Phanteks!

 

[Tech Tweaker]

That's a lot of stuff for $10. Go Phanteks!

Yep, I was hoping they would send over all of the mounting accessories since I was missing almost everything. Looks like they included everything, so now I have some spares in case I break something.

Here's a shot of the heatsink, post cleaning. I'm really amazed at how big it is, this heatsink alone with no fans on it is the same width from the edge of the first tower to the back of the second tower as my TRUE with dual 38mm fans on it.

 

[doyll]

Phanteks sure got the bits you need to you quick. I've always had great customer service from them.

 

[Tech Tweaker]

Well, this Phanteks PH-TC14PE is a bit of a disappointment.

I mounted it on an E8400 C2D and at load the Phanteks PH-TC14PE with stock fans was 6-7°C hotter on each core than my TRUE with 2x Delta EFB1212SHE 120x38mm fans. I mounted the Delta's on the PH-TC14PE also, but temps only improved by about 1°C. Ambient temps were the same during both tests.

I remounted it with new paste four times in case I had a bad mount, but didn't get any improvement in performance. Each time I took the heatsink off it looked as though it was a good mount based upon the spreading of the paste, so I can't see why it would perform so much worse.