3-Way Low Profile CPU Cooling Shoot-Out: Reeven, Phanteks, & Noctua
by E. Fylladitakis on January 18, 2017 8:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Cases/Cooling/PSUs
- Noctua
- Phanteks
- Cooler
- Reeven
Testing Results, Maximum Fan Speed (12 Volts)
We'll start things off with a look at cooling performance with each cooler's fan running at their maxiumum 12V fan speed.
Right off the bat, when it comes to thermal resistance we can see that Noctua's NH-C14S cooler is well ahead of the rest of the pack. Which isn't too surprising given just how much larger it is than the other coolers we're looking at today.
| Core Temperature, Constant Thermal Load (Max Fan Speed) |
At a 60 watt load - roughly the TDP of most desktop CPUs these days - the results roughly mirror thermal resistance. That said, even the weakest cooler is only 13C over ambient, which is a good result here.
Ultimately with every cooler’s fan running at its maximum speed, the Reeven Steropes and the Phanteks TC12LS perform similarly, with the former showing a little better thermal performance despite its low profile 120 mm fan. This small advantage of the Reeven Steropes is being achieved via brute force, as its low profile fan is faster and disproportionally louder than Phanteks’ PH-F120MP. Comparatively, when compared to other advanced coolers that we have reviewed to this date, both the Reeven Steropes and the Phanteks PH-TC12LS can only be compared to the stock AMD Wraith cooler, and even then the Wraith outperforms them both. However, they do significantly outperform standard stock coolers.
Noctua’s NH-C14S is in an entirely different league. The comparatively huge mass of the cooler and the excellent NF-A14 fan offer the NH-C14S a tremendous performance advantage. As a matter of fact, the NH-C14S is a threat to many large tower coolers, outperforming the Cooler Master EVO 212 by a significant margin and touching the performance of the Grandis and the Dark Rock Pro 3, all while maintaining reasonably low noise levels.
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mm0zct - Thursday, January 19, 2017 - link
Came to the comments to say just this. I've been running my Phenom-II 1055t (95W) in a mini-ITX system with the Shuriken Big for almost 6 years now, very happily and quietly.edzieba - Wednesday, January 18, 2017 - link
For a low-profile cooler roundup, it seems odd to include the NH-C14S (at double the Z-height of the other coolers tested) but not the NH-L9i or even the NH-L9x65.80-wattHamster - Wednesday, January 18, 2017 - link
One works with the samples one has, presumably.jabber - Thursday, January 19, 2017 - link
Yeah I always love folks that seem to think sites have every cooler, ram module, case, CPU, GPU under the sun to test against each other. If you have an infinite number of monkeys with typewriters...jtd871 - Wednesday, January 18, 2017 - link
These may not be tall coolers, but they're not all super low-profile either. I'd be interested in seeing reviews of the Cryorig C7 and Silverstone AR-05.jtd871 - Wednesday, January 18, 2017 - link
Could you guys please update Bench with all these results?!Great_Scott - Wednesday, January 18, 2017 - link
It should happen pretty soon. Hey, Bench was updated with the new Core i3 results and there isn't even a review out yet!dreamcat4 - Wednesday, January 18, 2017 - link
Its worth noting that while this review doesn't seem to mention the Raijintek Pallas or the CRYORIG C1... shouldn't assume those are unworthy of pretty serious consideration also.creed3020 - Thursday, January 19, 2017 - link
Yeah the review is not apples to apples. In the world of SFF coolers there are the very tiny and larger solutions. The Noctua should be compared to coolers like the ones you mentioned.b4bblefish - Wednesday, January 18, 2017 - link
I'm really confused why the Noctua L9 or L9x65 wasn't used here since those would have been more relevant to this shootout?Basically instead of 3 comparable fans it's just 2 low profile ones and a large cooler which really shouldn't be compared to the other 2...