Thoughts on the Phononic Hex 2.0 TEC cooler?

[The prime mediocre]

I recently learned about this cooler (by sorting PCPP's cooler list by highest price (lol)) and I'm curious about it. I read the review here at Tom's as well as some threads on other forums.

Here's the Newegg page. It's a dual-tower/radiator sink with heat pipes and a 92mm fan. But it uses an active Peltier device at the base plate. Peltier CPU coolers have existed for almost two decades, but they were (more or less rightly) deemed inferior to and less practical than standard air coolers. The main issue was condensation: the Peltier grew so cold that water vapor condense and sometimes pool in the CPU socket(!). They also require(ed) supplemental power.

Anyway: the Hex 2.0 appears to have cleared up the gnarliest issues with older TECs. Condensation isn't a threat in most climates, and power consumption is fairly low (40W is the highest figure I've seen, one review measured 20W). Obviously, $120 is 240mm AIO territory, and well beyond high-end air. It doesn't appear to be enough of an improvement over other 92mm dual-radiator towers to justify the cost. Pretty much the only scenario where it'd be a serious choice is high-end SFF--the Ncase M1 and company. But it's unique and looks cool.

So, uh, does anyone have experience with this thing? Thought about buying one?

 

[Aeacus]

If that overpriced CPU cooler would be any good, it would have far longer warranty than it's current 1 year warranty.
For example, NZXT Kraken x62 (king of AIOs) comes with 6 years of warranty,
specs: https://www.nzxt.com/products/kraken-x62

Same is with Noctua NH-D15 (king of air coolers), which also comes with 6 years of warranty,
specs: https://noctua.at/en/nh-d15

Even mid-sized CPU cooler, Arctic Freezer i32, which i have in use with my Skylake build (full specs with pics in my sig) also comes with 6 years of warranty,
specs: https://www.arctic.ac/eu_en/freezer-i32.html

So, even if the manufacturer of Phononic HEX 2.0 doesn't believe that their CPU cooler lasts longer than 1 year, i don't believe it as well. I'd rather buy one of the three CPU coolers mentioned above, pocket the rest of the money and be satisfied that my CPU cooler lasts at least 6 years,
pcpp: https://pcpartpicker.com/products/compare/4vzv6h,2RdFf7,dqjWGX/

 

[The prime mediocre]

Oh, cool, our Skylake builds are very similar (I don't have pictures, but there's a list if you roll over my avatar).

Yeah, one year is typical of consumer electronics (at least in the U.S.) but not high-quality PC components. The best manufacturers stand behind their stuff forever. I think my Rosewill Capstone PSU has a seven-year warranty. So it's definitely not the best choice for anyone outside the niche I described in my original post. If it wasn't clear, I'm not thinking of buying one; I'm just interested in the tech.

This TweakTown review (whatever you think of them) was one of the main drivers of my interest, as well as the history of Peltier coolers. The Hex 2.0 appears to be competitive with larger coolers, and much better than older TEC designs. In its "insane" performance mode, it keeps their test setup cooler than the D14 with maybe half the heat sink volume. I think this could be pretty cool if Phononic can get prices down (by quite a bit). While this specific cooler is not great, they seem to have refined desktop TEC cooling to where it could be a viable alternative to low-end/midrange AIOs and big air.

What would you think about a 120mm push-pull version of this thing for, like, $100?

 

[Aeacus]

Since i live in EU, bare minimum of warranty to consumer electronics must be at least 2 years, according to the EU law. If manufacturer doesn't want to give his product 2 years warranty then he can't sell his product in EU market, simple as that. When it comes to the PC components i put into any of my 3x builds (Skylake, Haswell or AMD), i expect to see more than 2 years of warranty for each component.

Though, 7 years warranty for your PSU isn't that big of a deal in PSU world actually. Older Seasonic units, e.g X-series also come with 7 years of warranty. While for example, my Skylake build is powered by Seasonic PRIME 650 80+ Titanium PSU and Seasonic offers it 12 years! of warranty. No other PSU OEM offers more than 10 years of warranty for their PSUs. Then again, PRIME Titanium is the best PSU money can buy at current date.

As far as that CPU cooler goes, it's price is too steep to justify it's cooling performance or the lack of it. Also, it's risks of causing condensation while being very inefficient are reasons why only few companies dare to use TEC for CPU cooling in the first place. AnandTech review sums it up nicely:

The technical description is that the two metallic with electronic junctions sandwiched between them. When electrical energy in the form of DC current is introduced, the device pumps thermal energy from one side to the other (Peltier effect), creating a temperature difference between the two sides. There are however a few problems when working with TECs:

1. Condensation. A typical TEC can produce a temperature difference of up to 70 °C between its cold and hot side. Assuming that a heatsink is mounted to the hot side and that it is capable to maintain a near-room temperature, the cold side of an uncontrolled TEC can be significantly colder than its ambient surroundings. That will cause condensation, which will be disastrous inside a PC.

2. Efficiency. TECs are generally inefficient, with an efficiency usually lower than 15%, which means that they consume disproportionally high amounts of electrical energy for the work they actually offer.

3. The electrical energy losses that the TEC inserts are converted directly to thermal energy and transferred to its hot side. Therefore, the heatsink has to deal with the thermal load of the system plus the energy losses of the TEC, increasing the size and performance requirements.

The thermal performance of the HEX 2.0 is a complicated matter. The presence of the TEC allows the HEX 2.0 to provide exceptional performance when having to deal with low thermal loads, but the performance degrades as the thermal load increases. For very high thermal loads, the HEX 2.0 is equivalent or worse than an advanced air cooler, hardly justifying its price and energy consumption.
That being said, while the HEX 2.0 is good for low temperatures in low power environments, it does add another 20W to the power consumption, perhaps negating the point of a low power system. It should work wonders if installed on a modern energy-efficient CPU, even with some moderate overclocking, but it cannot compare against top-tier air coolers and liquid coolers for advanced overclocking. Bluntly put, if thermal performance is your primary concern and space is not an issue, this is not a product for you.

source: https://www.anandtech.com/show/10695/the-phononic-hex-2-0-tec-cpu-cooler-review

If you have plenty of money to waste on CPU cooling, might as well go with LN2 cooling. Or if you feel that you'd like to be guinea pig for testing out TEC, you might as well go with one. But for my builds, the TEC doesn't meet the longevity, safety and cost targets for me to use it.

 

[The prime mediocre]

Yeah, the EU is pretty far ahead of the U.S. on [strike]almost everything[/strike] consumer protections. Though I think California is making progress--I believe we're close to instituting a "Right to Repair" law.

There's a comment on that Anandtech review that really gets it: "This is one of those times where you're reminded why coolers use the tech that they use." And you're right that it's still unrealistic for people with Big Boy Bucks. The most damning thing is probably that they ran an unsuccessful Indiegogo campaign (ten backers) and still released a product. One of the hallmarks of crowdfunding/silicon valley culture is definitely "bring back something old, make it look Real Good, charge as much as possible."

The ID and packaging quality were the things that made it hard for me to forget about. The cooler is much better than a TEC revival should be, and the finish implies a heck of a lot of confidence on Phononic's part.

Anyway, I was kind of hoping to catch the eye of past or current owners of this cooler. It's obvious that our conclusions, as skeptics, are as justified as they can be without input from someone with firsthand experience. Thanks for the replies, Aeacus.