Thermoelectric cooling is not new, however, for some reason, the rarity of this breed of coolers occupies a special place in our hearts. The concept of using a TEC board integrated in air coolers is something we’ve noticed before, but with the Voltair V3 and coolerMaster V10, we’re looking for more. This is basically due to its length and specifications, and the condensation is something huge in designs like this, we just think that temperatures deserve to have been even lower, but for protection reasons, the mass of buyers turned out to have gone through those refrigerators. . So it turns out we weren’t the only ones who had an idea of what we were doing at the time.
The explanation for why we welcome you here today is that a company we’ve just been introduced to, Phononic, has evolved over what a thermoelectric cooler is capable of doing in today’s market. However, apparently, Phononic is on to something. With what we’ve been explained to do, before accepting this cooler for testing, this cooler is designed to maintain speed with AOIs based on 120mm single radiators. Something the refrigerators discussed above may not work well. What makes Phononic’s design so exciting is that, unlike the other two refrigerators, its design is not a large machine, it is a compact and easy-to-use design.
The bar turns out to be quite superior to Phononic, and it’s only because of what we can see in their online documentation and from what we’ve been told about the HEX 2.0 thermoelectric cooler we offer today. Of course, we’ll make sure this cooler is up to its claims and we’ll see if this 92mm fan-cooled double tower design is capable of all the bass drums. Based on past experiments with TEC-assisted air cooling, our hopes are not so great, however, it is conceivable that enough time has passed and that generation and design have advanced far enough to make a cooler like this a success among the general public. Of course, we expect the latest, and as you’ll see, Phononic and its HEX 2.0 thermoelectric processor cooler seem to circumvent the regulations of what we know about TEC-assisted air cooling.
The table provided through Phononic is critical and tends to leave a lot of information, however, they cover the fundamentals that any cooler user will want to know before buying. In the connectivity aspect of the motherboard, they imply that the fan will have to be connected and, because the fan is encapsulated in relation to that cooler, they point out that a fan cable is provided to identify that connection. A 6-pin GPU power cable is also required from its power supply to force the integrated TEC and other electronic components. Since the HEX 2.0 comes with a dashboard application, Phononic also supplies this cooler with a mini-USB to USB 2.0 cable for the electronic functions contained in this cooler design.
The cooler has a total h8 of 125 mm, a width of 112 mm and an intensity of only 95 mm. This means that it can be used in many chassis form factors, not just in full and intermediate turns. The HEX 2.0 weighs 810 grams and is made of RoHS compliant materials. They do not imply that the 40 fins of the two towers are made of aluminum, nor that the most sensitive one of the cooler is painted black. They do not mention that there are 8 pipes of 6 mm diameter that are coiled under the towers and at the base. Phononic does not mention the fan fairing surrounding the cooler center, nor the CET force specifications used in the copper base. Oh, and Phononic also saw all the copper with a layer of black nickel, maintaining that dark and mysterious appearance from both angles of this refrigerator.
For the fan that cools this dual-tower design, Phononic uses the Ace Sans 92, in particular the 9S0912PfourF011. It is a 25 mm thick fan that is fed via PWM on four pins but on an internal cooler fairing head. The Ace Sans is designed to operate at 2650 rpm, delivering 33 dB (A) at its maximum. When the fan is operating at full power, it drives a four- and four-CFM airflow, with an astonishing static voltage of 3.1 mmH2O.
There’s also a bit of a surprise on the stickers related to this design, but if this cooler is as smart as Phononic says, it could be worth every penny. We are told that very soon, those refrigerators will be indexed exclusively in Newegg, when they are available to the general public, and that the MSRP was set at $149.99. It is a very difficult tablet to swallow with nothing to base a review on, however, we intend to test this cooler and see if you can maintain the speed with smaller AIO units, as we have been told. That said, we move straight to what the HEX 2.0 has to offer in its design and capability before addressing that dark shadow called price that lately hovers over this Phononic cooler.
The HEX 2.0 comes in a very thick and shiny cardboard box, which gives you the feeling that you are about to open something special. In this panel, there is the name on the left and your first look at the fridge included in the box.
When we move on to the next panel at the top, it mentions the thermoelectric component. Most of the panel deals with features, where we see mentions of exceptional warmth, traditional LED lighting of arrays, one-year warranty, ease of installation, the fact that there are no water leaks and that you can monitor this cooler through the software.
This aspect corresponds to what we saw in the first image, but it gives us time to face other things. First, there is a phantom representation of the cooler discovered below the call near the top. The moment is the one that is reproduced in the packaging, which can be seen below; and this green is a really eye-catching color to use.
The last panel shows the logo that Phononic and Silvercore use in their name in the middle of everything. Next, we place the slogan “Quietly Outperforms” and how to deal with the reading in the fridge or to locate the stand.
As for the back of the box, we place everything packaged safely for the trip. The appliance and accessories are kept at one end and cannot be moved, while the documents are carried to the appearance of the colder packaging. The cooler rests on a cardboard shape that surrounds the fins and protects them, while a layer of plastic extends over the cooler to hold it firmly in place. As for our sample, it is in the best condition and able to take photographs and perform tests.
The front view of the HEX 2.0 looks like many of the air coolers on the market. The sides are tilted backwards; there is a stack of 40 aluminum fins, and the 4 tubes of this tower are slightly distributed in the wing area.
In a typical installation, this would be the superior aspect of the cooler. Here we see that after the fin piece bent from the front, the aspects of those fins bent to capture and take better advantage of airflow. There is also a part of the black plastic cover that is used to cover the fan, located between the two towers.
The rear of the cooler has the same shape and design on the front, but this time we can see the rear of the fan inside, indicating that this is the exhaust of this design. The heat pipes are slightly distributed in the tower, but the tubes are much more bent at the base of that side.
Once installed, it would look like video cards. It is observed that the edges of the fins are bent to capture the airflow, but the fairing has changed. In this aspect, it is much softer and features a logo near the back that is backlit via LED.
Close to the most sensible of the same side, we see connectivity for the HEX 2.0. There is a 4-pin fan connection to the built-in fan with a mini-USB port just below to get the Array software on the right there is a 6-pin VGA force output, and that’s what forces the TEC as well as the small PCB running it all.
At the most sensitive of the cooler, the 4 tips of the hose are exposed on both sides of the bonnet, passing through the upper fins that are painted black. Speaking of fairing, we can also see some other logo implemented in this aspect, just below a hinge axis that allows the fan, as well as the meeting equipment.
To protect the nickel base, Phononic uses a giant plastic sticker that will have to be obviously visible. Of course, as with any other cooler, you will need to dispose of it before installation.
Please note that at the time of the tower this cooler; pipes are intended to cool the warm appearance of the CET when active. This means that if the processor is not under pressure, only part of the cooler works.
The input aspect of the cooler is where heat pipes are used to remove heat from the copper motherboard that touches the processor.
In the last two symbols, the base was polished to a mirror finish, however, this foreground symbol shows machining marks still present. The base is convex and the screws are well outside the contact area.
For the fan, you want to release two small tabs on the back of the cooler. Once this is done, the fairing is lifted, allowing you to release the steel hinge shaft from the groove in which we have noticed it above.
Phononic uses a 92mm Sansa Ace fan to cool this dual-tower design, which uses a 4-pin connection, but the cable remains very short, allowing it to lock on the cables that get in the way.
Inside the HEX 2.0, we see a 4-pin fan socket at the top, where the Sans Ace is plugged in. Below is the TEC control circuit, with various force cables for the TEC and the logo LED.
Since this cooler is designed to work quickly, you will surely notice the airflow direction in the fan fairing decrease component. Then, when it comes time to mount the cooler and knock down the fan, make sure that the arrow points in the right direction, in a different way, the cooler may be affected by its performance.
A full set of rugged hardware with the HEX 2.0 is sent to a simple meeting on AMD and Intel sockets. From left to right, we see Intel keys, Intel’s most sensitive media, and a universal backplane in the middle. On the right, we locate the amD upper brackets and AMD straps. LGA2011 users are also covered because the back plate uses screws that also have socket support.
In the first samples, it is the fan power cable and the duration of the USB control cable. We are told that for advertising versions, any of the cables would be longer to be routed cleanly and hide. We also have a bent screwdriver to mount the cooler, and it works on the top nuts because they offer Phillip heads, and that’s what is used to mount the cooler on those s.
With rubber tips on the ends of the back plate, and text on it denoting which side goes toward the motherboard for which socket. Both ends of the bracket are drilled equally, so you really cannot screw this up.
Above the motherboard, we install the shoulder straps, place the Intel mounting brackets above and under the socket to fit the cooler screws, and check with the nuts disturbed. Everything is forged at this point, and we are able to put the cooler in the processor.
As the HEX 2.0 reaches its maximum above memory, it’s easy to get an idea of the limited area this heatsink wants to deliver the effects we’re about to see. Although not the best for many SFF chassis models, it is small enough to be compatible with narrower housings, where the popular 120mm tower cooler may not be compatible.
Even though Phononic opted for a double-turn design, they did not invade the elements around the cooler while doing so. As for memory, all 4 places are transparent and easily accessible, which is a plus for many users.
We come across a small challenge and realize that the maximum motherboards are not built like our Sabertooth. However, we should not put the back of the fan hood back into position due to the height of the thermal armor on our motherboard.
We cannot know how compact this design is and what the HEX 2.0 is intended to be capable of. There is room to connect the power cable to 8 pins, space to connect the additional fan cable and also plenty of space to access the motherboard mounting screws, which is very important for Mini-ITX users.
This symbol shows the HEX 2.0 in all its glory, fully connected and able to perform the tests. A primary care is the location of connectivity. We are very close to the video card at the location of the moment as it is here, and with the Mini-ITX motherboards or GPUs in the most sensitive location, things can get complicated.
The Phononic HEX 2.0 Dashboard software can be downloaded from the site and works without installing it, which is fine. The software gives a status check at the top, where we see that the USB cable is detected and we are able to deal with the proposed commands.
There is a cooling force meter shown on the back left, which is adjusted when the CET is turned on and off, and the ability to choose from 3 TEC profiles. Finally, in the lower right corner, we are presented with a window that provides 64 color features to use with the backlit logo integrated into the fan fairing.
To help profiles, they use a code that is configured to search for secure metrics at a point where CET is needed and then activated. In popular mode, we saw the TEC gently rise to 39 degrees processor temperature, not to the central temperature. The cooling force meter adjusts to 3 power bars and continues to operate until the processor temperature reaches 37 degrees.
High ambient temperature mode is used when you may not have air conditioning. This is established to ensure that condensation is not a challenge and that the thermal diversity to force the CET increases. In this mode, we discover that the TEC starts with a three-fifths force when the processor reaches 42 degrees and shuts down at 40 degrees. Silly mode allows the TEC to gain full force, even if the meter does not involve it at the moment. Without the warmth of the CPU to the transfer that forces the TEC, it will not work, however, as long as the CPU consumes more than 35 W of force, the TEC will work, but you will have to meet safe situations to run this mode. .
When you click the button to set the senseless mode, it seems a precaution that the ambient temperature does not exceed 25 degrees and that the humidity is 50% or less. In fact, with TEC cooling once the dew point of the room is reached, your ECT will condense like a glass of ice water on a hot summer day.
I would like to thank ASUS, InWin, Patriot and Fractal Design for offering me products I can with.
To see our method and what is happening in creating our charts, see our article on the processor cooler and method for more information.
When testing all 3 modes, we set up the HEX 2.0 cooler on our 4770K processor at inventory load levels. In higher ambient temperature mode, temperatures were not excellent, but moderate to 55.75 degrees. The mode sends the HEX 2.0 up on the chart with a result of 53 degrees, and in crazy mode, the result of 50.75 degrees is very respectable.
With the build-up in place under the HEX 2.0, it turns out that our chips are heating well under control. The superior ambient temperature mode does not offer wonderful effects at 77.5, however, the popular mode gives us very close functionality to the much larger Voltair. However, when we let the beast run in crazy mode, the HEX 2.0 enters the realm of the H100i GTX in silent mode, and only the Liqtech 240. Although not a high-level cooler, the effects here say a lot about a cooler as compact as the HEX 2.0.
By avoiding connections and wiring on board, we connect the Ace Sans to our fan controller to compare the opposite fan to all other refrigerators in this table. With 7.5 volts going to the 92mm fan, we saw speeds of 1200 rpm, and the internal noise point of the cooler and under the fairing is limited to 23 dB.
With the fan at full force, we saw speeds of 2600 rpm and the noise point rose to 43 dB. It’s not the quietest cooler on our lists, but it’s also the worst-case scenario. When testing the modes, the fan on the PWM circuit rarely needed to succeed with all its strength all the time.
The Phononic HEX 2.0 is as impressive as advertising suggests. This cooler not only competes with the AIO based on an unmarried 120 mm radiator, but has also climbed the list and has also faced some of the AIO founded on 240 mm. Given the length of the HEX 2.0, we assumed that refrigerators like the V10 and Voltair would have had a definitive merit, as they had much more surface domain to burn the heat of the CPU and the TEC, however, we blew right in front of the Voltair in crazy mode. Popular mode is the maximum that will be achieved anytime, anywhere, and even with a feature drop of about 3 degrees when switching to this mode, we still think that the HEX 2.0 is impressive for its length. To the best of that, everything is well built, looks smart and it is undeniable that it is installed.
At the same time, we freeze some challenges that we encounter with a challenge or we can simply see that it causes challenges for some users. We spoke to Phononic on the phone, and we were told that in their tests, the location of the wiring on the HEX 2.0 is a challenge. At the same time, if we had used an incredible location for GPUs, we would have had to design a complicated way to force the cooler’s 6-pin GPU socket. The USB cable and fan head work well, but depending on the flexibility of wiring your power source and if the GPU has a more sensitive replacement board, things can get complicated quickly.
We also face the challenge where we may not completely close the fairing of our motherboard. Of course, our motherboard is the finishing height around the CPU socket, but that’s also why we decided to use it. In our mind, a heatsink deserves compatibility with all motherboards on the market, and the HEX 2.0 failed to accomplish this feat. On the other hand, we have achieved impressive results, even without absolutely containing the airflow, which says a lot about the design and power of this cooler.
Although everything that is intelligent is regularly accompanied by a higher value, we can appreciate the time and effort needed to expand such a compact cooler, able to carry a multitude of much larger coolers and win the day. However, we believe that the user base is likely to be a little shy when it brings the cause out to $149.99 for the HEX 2.0. While its main merit is AIO-level functionality without worrying about money on a PC, and we understand it, we’ve also noticed what happens when a CET goes wrong. So, essentially, you industrialize one thing for another, but in the end, the Phononic HEX 2.0 is an amazing cooler for your size, but too expensive for the maximum to need to adopt right now.
Perhaps if the value was in the order of $100, as is the maximum AIO at this point, the HEX 2.0 thermoelectric processor cooler could be more widely accepted among the masses.
Conclusion: for such a small package, the HEX 2.0 processor cooler oscillates for fences and surpasses many much larger designs, adding AIO. The problem right now is the maximum price, because with this kind of cost, you can buy the leading refrigerators.
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Chad Sebring
After a year of play, Chad messed up OC’s mistake. Overclocking requires increased cooling and Chad has had many air and water configurations. After a few years of PC parts abuse, he made the decision to check his luck and look for a review job. As an overclocking enthusiast, Chad is looking for the next step in RAM, cooling and devices.