Thermaltake v14 Pro

Value

At the time of writing, you can’t actually buy a Thermaltake v14 Pro on either side of the channel as it hasn’t officially been released yet, but judging by current pricing for the Thermaltake v1, which still sells for upwards of £30, we’d imagine this cooler will start at around £35, which considering the decidedly average thermal performance seems pretty steep to us.

For £10 less you could pick up an Akasa 966 Blue Aurora, which delivers significantly superior cooling, and if you’re looking for true silent performance, then your first and only stop should be the Noctua NH-U12P – the included fan is not only whisper quiet but still delivers very reasonable airflow too, although the price of over £40 is a little more than the Thermaltake v14 Pro, you’re getting a a much higher quality product.

Sadly it seems that with premium heatsinks you’re rarely getting good value and more often than not are just paying over the odds for a big pile of copper that’s comfortably outperformed by coolers half the size and half the cost. The Thermaltake v14 Pro doesn’t seem to be an exception – another very expensive cooler that fails to perform at any level to justify the hefty price tag.

Final Thoughts

While the Thermaltake v14 Pro isn’t a terrible cooler, it’s so mediocre that it’s hard to get excited about in any way. The thermal performance is worse than many of the better budget coolers we’ve tested, and is shamed by the excellent Akasa 966 “Blue Aurora”, which delivers much better cooling at a lower price point and at comparable noise levels to boot.

The Thermaltake v14 Pro, a bit like the Scythe Zipang we looked at last, is all about the shock and awe of its exterior performance. Its massive array of shiny copper cooling fans, enormous heatpipes and beefy fan all look the business and are bound to lure ill advised buyers in with promises of superb cooling performance, but in reality the v14 Pro delivers a cooling experience of dull mediocrity, that’s easily bested by a box load of coolers that in some cases are getting on for over three years old.

The poor high tension pushpin mounting system and decidedly dodgy build quality don’t do anything in the v14 Pro’s favour either and in the end we’re left with a cooler that while not necessarily terrible, is so convincingly beaten in every criteria by other coolers on the market that you’d be ill advised to pick one up considering the significantly better alternatives elsewhere.

• Features
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• x
• x
• x
• x
• x
• x
• -
• -
• -
• 7/10

• Performance
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• x
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• x
• x
• -
• -
• -
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• 6/10

• Build Quality
• x
• x
• x
• x
• x
• -
• -
• -
• -
• -
• 5/10

• Ease of Use
• x
• x
• x
• x
• x
• -
• -
• -
• -
• -
• 5/10

• Value
• x
• x
• x
• x
• -
• -
• -
• -
• -
• -
• 4/10

• Overall
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• x
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• -
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• 6/10

What do these scores mean?