3-Way Low Profile CPU Cooling Shoot-Out: Reeven, Phanteks, & Noctua

Today we're taking a look at horizontal CPU coolers from Reeven, Phanteks, and Noctua. Although horizontal CPU coolers are likely to always remain a niche market relative to their tower-style brethren, the continued growth in and shift to smaller form factor PCs has given them a higher profile among system builders as of late. Sometimes you cannot just buy the best cooler for the job for the simple reason that it will not fit into the system. This is particularly true for compact and/or narrow cases, especially those meant for ITX systems and horizontal placement. With the majority of typical CPU coolers being tower-type constructs, it is difficult to find one that fits inside compact case designs.

To that end we've grabbed a few horizontal coolers to take a look at this segment: the Reeven Steropes RC-1206b, the Phanteks PH-TC12LS and the Noctua NH-C14S. These three vertical coolers are all meant for desktop/HTPC designs but they also are significantly different in terms of size, giving users a range of options in trading off size with cooling capacity. The smallest of these coolers, the Steropes, starts us off at 60 mm tall, moving up to 74 mm with the PH-TC12LS, and jumping up to 115/142 mm with the NH-C14S.