Phanteks PH-TC14PE 3 fan testing (Surprise Result)

[jordan1794]

Hello all!
For the longest time I searched around for some information about running a 3 fan set-up on the Phanteks cooler, rather than the stock two fan, and I was unable to find anything.

Therefore when I got my third fan I went ahead and ran numerous tests, with varying fan positions to test the temperatures.

Below are screenshots of my data.
I am open to scrutiny, however I do wish it to be known that I am no scientist, and do not claim these results to be an exact science!

First, the results of the testing:

And here is all the data:

My conclusion from this is that the 3 fan set-up does net you about 1-2 degrees less, when running at the stock clock. At the stock clock that isn't much, however when overclocking a few degrees can mean a little more room for OC'ing(and after all, OC'ing is all about squeezing every little bit, right?)

I myself will be sticking with the Test # 6 position, to clarify this set-up is with the exhaust fan on the back of my PC first, about an inch behind that is a fan attached to the first heatsink, followed by the gap between the two heatsinks, followed by the second heatsink, followed by the second fan on the other side. Meanwhile, on top of the heatsink is the third fan.


I will add a picture of this in a reply.


Questions, comments, concerns?

 

[jordan1794]

Ok so when I did the original test for test #6, I had the fan just sitting on top of the heat sink.
Before taking a picture I used the clips(creatively) to hook the fan on the heat sink, this raised it about 1/2 inch off the heat sink, and improved my result.

Updated Result:

Picture of Set-Up:

 

[bmacsys]

Ok so when I did the original test for test #6, I had the fan just sitting on top of the heat sink.
Before taking a picture I used the clips(creatively) to hook the fan on the heat sink, this raised it about 1/2 inch off the heat sink, and improved my result.

Updated Result:

Picture of Set-Up:

Shouldn't there be a fan between the two radiators? I know every other dual radiator heatsink like my NH-D14 does. that looks really, really weird. One fan would be pushing on one radiator, the other would be pulling. The top fan will do nothing but make turbulence imho.

 

[jordan1794]

When I tested the way it is designed, with a fan between each radiator I got a average of 1.5 degree temperature drop.

Doing it this way gets me almost to a 2 degree drop.


This is how the air should be flowing, sorry for the crude drawing lol.

 

[jordan1794]

I think it would work better as designed, if there were more fresh air flowing from under the cooler, however my graphics card blocks most of that air...The top fan pulls air from the side intake around the graphics card, up into the heat sinks. Without the fan on top, and with the graphics card fans pushing air down, there wasn't any fresh air entering the heat sink except from the front of the case.


I'm no fluid dynamic specialist though, just my thoughts.

 

[The Orig Ralph]

i can see where that setup would give you that .5 degree of extra cooling - it's taking some of the heated air that's exiting the first exchanger and pulling it out of the system before its pulled into the 2nd exchanger, forcing the 2nd fan to pull in some cool or unheated air thru the 2nd exchanger

but i've got to ask, how much like a hoover vacuum does that set up sound like?

 

[jordan1794]

These fans are actually super quiet. Even when the fans run at max speed they aren't much louder than the case fans(and all of the noise generated by the computer is EASILY drowned out by the sound of my central air system when it's on)

 

[GeForce Junky]

I run one of these with just one fan in the the middle, blowing rearwards with no exhaust case fan (but a very open back and top case). It works very well for a 4670K @4.5GHz 1.275v. Tops out at 71deg running Prime with a quiet biased fan profile.

The one setup I would like to see is F-H-H-F with both fans running in pull with a side intake and also the front and rear case fans all running as exhaust.

 

[jordan1794]

I thought about that, but for my case at least, the side intake is lower than the cooler, and putting a fan on the side of the cooler would only leave about 1/2 an inch between the cooler and the side of the case(with the lower 1/4 of the fan nearly touching the top of the side intake fan)

Maybe on other cases that would be possible, but the case would have to be mammoth....the HAF-X I have is massive and this thing still almost fills it up!

I actually re-did my thermal paste with the paste included in with the phanteks, rather than the arctic silver I had bought and I saw a few degrees drop.
This may have been because I put a little much of the arctic silver though, I'm not sure.


I also have the fans running as designed right now, simply for aesthetic reasons.