Phanteks is a fairly new company that was founded in 2007 by engineers and a Dutch design team. They first came to fame with their PH-TC14PE cooler. Since then, they have diversified by developing a case, fans, and several other CPU coolers. Today, they have sent over the PH-TC12DX the little brother to the PH-TC14PE. This cooler is based on the tower design, with four heatpipes, dual 120mm fans and a universal mounting system. Read on to see how it performs!
The only issue that I encountered when installing the TC12DX was attaching the cooler to the support brackets. The instructions say to tighten the screws until they stop; which is good advice to make sure they are on securely. However, when I was trying to attach the cooler to the brackets, it wouldn’t line up properly. I loosened two of the support bracket screws, and was then able to secure the cooler to the brackets. Afterwards, I could tighten the screws on the support bracket to complete the installation.
Same issue I ran into a couple weeks ago when I installed the Phanteks PH-TC14PE. What I ended up doing was pushing the retention bracket like a man possessed until the screw lined up and I was able to tighten it down. Your method sounds a lot better for the surrounding hardware.
My experience with the bracket hardware like that used on the Phanteks and Noctua coolers use the cooler side cross bar to check the gap between the two board side mounts. Saves a lot of headaches fighting the alignment with the cooler in the mix when mounting to the "in-between" sockets like 115x socket. There is some play in the alignment, not so much for the min/max sockets like 755 and 1366/2011.
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