The 140mm Slim Tower CPU Cooler Roundup: Thin & Light Done Just Right
by E. Fylladitakis on May 24, 2017 8:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Cases/Cooling/PSUs
- be quiet!
- Noctua
- Phanteks
- Cooler
- Thermalright
Testing Results: Low Fan Speed
As most users don't actually need the fans of a tower cooler running at peak performance (and peak noise), let's also take a look at what kind of performance these coolers provide at lower fan speeds.
Broadly speaking, all four of the coolers that we tested for this review were capable of sustaining reasonable operating temperatures with thermal loads above 200 Watts, even with the speed of their fans greatly reduced.
There are virtually no differences between these four coolers in relation to our previous test, with the Thermalright True Spirit 140 Direct again displaying the best overall thermal resistance and excellent efficiency with the handling of low thermal loads. However, the Noctua NH-U14S greatly outperforms all other coolers when it comes to the handling of very high thermal loads, suggesting that it can maintain reasonable operating temperatures on overclocked processors alongside with virtually inaudible noise levels.
Once again, the Be Quiet! Shadow Rock Slim falls slightly behind the Noctua NH-U14S and the Thermalright True Spirit 140 Direct. The thermal resistance is only slightly worse but this time the Shadow Rock Slim also has no real advantage in terms of acoustics, as the difference between all four of the coolers is practically indiscernible.
| Core Temperature, Constant Thermal Load (Low Fan Speed) |
Finally, the Phanteks PH-TC14S displayed the lowest overall performance figures, with slightly worse thermal resistance than all of the coolers in this roundup review. Although the Phanteks PH-TC14S displays thermal performance similar to that of the other coolers at lower loads, the difference widens greatly when the thermal load is very high, suggesting that the cooler is at its limit in handling the excessive thermal energy flow.
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Ian Cutress - Wednesday, May 24, 2017 - link
Are you measuring the heatsink, or the product? A lot of these companies go to great lengths to 'optimize' their fan design.fanofanand - Thursday, May 25, 2017 - link
I see this same type of comment applied to GPUs and cases too. Products should be tested exactly as they are sold. If a company wants to get their price under $x and they skimp on the case fans to do it, the reader should know that so they can price it appropriately by adding in the cost of good fans. Conversely if a company's price is higher but out of the box has the performance you would achieve from changing out the fans then that should be acknowledged and the reader be made aware. The way Anandtech does it is absolutely appropriate and allows the reader to get an accurate picture of what they are getting for the money.snarfbot - Thursday, May 25, 2017 - link
right, and like i said that is good, but when it comes to evaluating what product is best at specific noise levels the picture becomes less clear.isolating the performance of each cooler by using the same fan on each would help in that regard, and would be a cogent data point regardless imo.
in your testing methodology page you didnt mention whether you were using the boxed tim, or something like arctic silver for all products, as it is commonly accepted as the standard by which other tims are measured against in tech circles. i prefer mx-4, because its easier to use, but its good to have a standard to measure against.
you might do that to eliminate one variable from your test, and the same argument could be made for using one common fan across the board for that reason.
Infy2 - Wednesday, May 24, 2017 - link
Some comment on the difficulty of installation would be helpful. The inlcuded Noctua cooler has repuation of being easy to install while the Thermalright is not.gradoman - Saturday, May 27, 2017 - link
Late reply, but Thermalright's installation method is pretty simple these days. I'd say a half-step below Noctua's mounting system, but you're not going to be struggling to pin down sprung screws.https://youtu.be/EDRNBCH1lRA?t=1760
sheh - Wednesday, May 24, 2017 - link
Would be interesting to know their weights.Sivar - Wednesday, May 24, 2017 - link
Thank you for the useful, thorough review!Daisho11 - Wednesday, May 24, 2017 - link
It would be interesting to see how these heatsinks perform when they all use the same fan. Maybe test them all with the Noctua fan or some other popular variant (Corsair, GentleTyphoon, SanAce, etc.)Lolimaster - Thursday, May 25, 2017 - link
The efficieny and temps of Ryzen are so nice that you don't need AIO or big tower coolers, most of the time the stock cooler is more than enough, and it's silent :DI think the best cooler for Ryzen is the Coolermaster Hyper 212X, everything else is basically overkill.
Lolimaster - Thursday, May 25, 2017 - link
This will probably be nice for Ryzen 9 monsters.