Initial Thoughts
The box is a little bit bigger than perhaps most, but it’s the right size to hold the cooler, the fans, and the accessories without a great need for extra packaging, so I can give that a
At first glance you’ll be able to see this isn’t just any old heatsink. The black metal has a nice sheen that goes well with the ivory-white fans. It let’s you know that you’re dealing with serious hardware, and I think that’s pretty neat.
All the parts are ordered niceley, and the tools and mounting brackets are safely tucked in their own individual sealed bags and marked according to socket type.
Closer Look
First, let’s get it out of the way: there are no LEDs on the 120mm fans. I know that may seem like kind of a letdown, but the structure and installation of the fans more than makes up for it. It’s not uncommon to come across a pair of fans that have ridiculously-impractical installation.
Some only give you rubber pegs to bend, cortort, and practically tear in order to fin between the fins, and if you’re lucky you don’t end up bending a pin or two. Phanteks eliminates that problem completely. All you need to do is put the rubber pegs in the appropriate slots, attach the metal clips through the peg holes, pull the clips forward, and let them cling on to the heatsink with very little effort.
Mounting is also (for the most part) effortless. The backplate is held in place by four bolts that are of course necessary to attach the mounting bars. It can be a little annoying as they can easily fall out if you’re not holding your motherboard upside-down, but it’s not hard just to hold them in place while you screw the bolts on. That’s the next thing that I’m really happy about. Again, some heatsinks do require more than a little assembly but no so much here. You can easily tighten down the brackets and heatsink within a reasonable level with just your thumb and index finger.
One more thing I should mention, Phanteks has added a little something special for the fans: a Y-junction coupling so you can plug both fans in and have them share a single cable. Not bad at all if you’re big on reducing cable clutter.
