Performance Testing
In addition to testing with the TIM (Thermal Interface Material) that comes with the Phanteks unit I used Arctic Alumina Ceramic 2, so as to allow direct comparisons between this cooler and others that I have tested with that paste.
I also tested this cooler with the fans it comes with, as well as with the fans off the Frio Extreme to allow an exact comparison of cooling powers.
In case that wasn’t excessive enough I also taped my Delta PFB1212UHE 120x38mm fan to the cooler and tested it with the Delta’s >250CFM of airflow. To cover the other extreme, I ran the cooler with no fans also.
First up, stock clock speeds. This is a bit silly really as the only reason to replace the Intel cooler if you’re running at stock is to reduce noise, and this cooler is woefully overkill for that purpose.
Like I said, it’s woefully overpowered for running at stock. The Phanteks “Diamond like” TIM appears to be decent stuff. It is worth noting that the Phantek fans make significantly less noise than the Frio fans.
At 4.1GHz the PC-TC14PE falls behind the Frio Extreme by a bit less than three degrees. That’s solid. Time for more clock speed and a lot more voltage!
At this higher heat level the Phantek cooler is equal to the Frio Extreme when used with identical fans. The Phantek TIM is still definitely better than AA. The Delta screamer fan doesn’t improve matters nearly as much as I expected, I’m rapidly coming to the conclusion that Ivy Bridge is a dubious heatsink testing platform as it just doesn’t produce a whole lot of heat.
The really interesting part to my eye is the fanless operation. 52.2 degrees over ambient sounds pretty bad, but consider that if you have an “average” room temperature that means that if you have roughly the same case airflow my case has (decent, but very quiet) your core temps will be in the high 70s range, just fine for an Ivy Bridge CPU! I’m quite impressed from that standpoint.
