Introduction

When I was introduced to Phanteks, their PH-TC14PE was all the rage. The real issue with seeing that cooler first is that it was highly unlikely that I would see a bigger or better performing cooler from them in the years to come. It seems I was partially right. While the twin-tower cooler had little room left to grow to increase performance values, Phanteks are now trying to find similar performance to their titan of air cooling, but in a much smaller, and just a quiet package.

That brings us to why we are here today. Since Phanteks had little room to go bigger, a more compact solution was needed to allow many more users to have the access to install it in smaller mid-tower cases, as well as not having to have that behemoth of a cooler tugging on the CPU socket. Phanteks has already shown they can be successful in the twin-tower design, even in the C-Style coolers and low-profile solutions, so a single tower to compete against the masses seems the most logical next step.

So today we take a look at the PH-TC12DX which should fit the bill of the "standard" tower cooler design from Phanteks. Along with this new design, Phanteks still delivers with the Physical Antioxidant thermal shield to ensure better long term performance, and has Cold Plasma Spray Coating that allows for better thermal transfer between the corresponding materials. It also keeps the same caliber of fans, the SoliSku mounting, and yes you get a large tube of their PH-NDC that uses Nano diamond-like particles to improve thermal transfer from the IHS to the cooler base.

With a mix of what has helped Phanteks become a household name, and a bit of tweaking to a "standard" concept, what do you get for their efforts? Continue reading and find out for yourself.