The Champ: $41 Thermalright Peerless Assassin CPU Cooler Review & Benchmarks
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- čas přidán 6. 06. 2024
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The Peerless Assassin 120 CPU tower cooler ranges from $35 to $55, depending on which model you get, although it occasionally gets scalped for insane prices that you shouldn't pay. The Assassin 120 at its normal price of $40-$45 establishes itself as one of the best tower coolers on our test bench when compared at noise-normalized thermals and at 100% fan speeds alike. This testing and benchmarking looks at the best CPU coolers in early 2023 for noise, thermals, mounting hardware, and more.
Watch our other CPU cooler reviews in our playlist! • Liquid Cooling vs. Air...
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RELATED PRODUCTS
Thermalright Peerless Assassin 120 on Amazon: geni.us/SjIrJgn
Cooler Master Hyper 212 RGB Black Edition on Amazon - geni.us/DofSB5
DeepCool AK400 on Amazon: geni.us/Mr50z
Arctic Freezer 34 Esports Duo on Amazon: geni.us/mvdp
Scythe Fuma 2 on Amazon: geni.us/5qM0v
Vetroo V5 on Amazon: geni.us/9IAQF9
Noctua NH-U12S Redux on Amazon: geni.us/BnCTNY
Or if you want some liquid cooling there’s the Arctic Liquid Freezer II 280 on Amazon: geni.us/RJBy
TIMESTAMPS
00:00 - The Cooler Market is Hot
01:02 - Peerless Assassin Overview
02:47 - Physical Features, Hardware, Sizing
05:30 - Heatpipe Biasing Design
08:00 - Fan Spec, Cabling, & Packaging
10:06 - Mike talks Cooler Installation (AMD & Intel)
13:15 - Mounting Criticisms & Feedback
13:57 - Pressure Testing & Distribution
15:55 - Flatness Testing of Coldplate
16:48 - 198W Noise-Normalized Benchmark (R9 / i9 Equivalent)
17:52 - 198W 100% Fan CPU Cooler Benchmark (& Noise)
19:00 - 123W Noise-Normalized CPU Cooler Benchmark
19:49 - 123W 100% Fan Cooler Benchmarks (& Noise)
20:09 - Extremely Compelling Value
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Host, Writing, Test Lead: Steve Burke
Testing, Host: Mike Gaglione
Wriitng: Jeremy Clayton
Video: Andrew Coleman
Video: Vitalii Makhnovets - Hry
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I havve been eyballing the Zalman coolers lol. I like the retro look.
newest version is 7 heatpipes this looks like old 6 version.
I'm beginning to think they are trying to get your attention Steve with all descriptions for their products. 😂
@@jaggsta Yup, was hoping to see it tested against older model
I would be interested if you could acquire the Jiushark JF13K Diamond. Definitely rolls off the tongue nicely. It does have an interesting design.
The key differences between the PA 120 and PA 120 SE are:
-The PA 120 SE is 2mm shorter (157mm vs 155mm) and 30g lighter (730g vs 750g) than the PA 120 per the manufacturers specs. This is due to the fact that it has 3 less fins and lacks the plastic covers on the towers seen on the PA 120 SE, making it an easier fit in SFF cases like the NR200. However from my experience both will fit in the NR200 with the mesh panel attached.
-The PA 120 SE includes TL-C12C PWM Fans vs the PA 120 which comes with TL-C12 PWM Fans. Both fans are the same dimensions, provide the same air flow/pressure, use the same bearings, and operate at the same noise levels. The only difference is that the TL-C12C fan is 15g lighter (120g vs 135g).
-If you are interested in what the fan letters and numbers mean, I found this information on a reddit post. Example: TL-C12CW-S
C - Quality/Tier (B > C Pro > C > R)
12 - Size (height and width)
C - Clockwise Rotation
W - White
S - ARGB
Other Numbers and Letters
015 - Size (depth, used for a slim fan)
D - Round Corners (120mm spacing)
R - Reverse Airflow (not the same as clockwise rotation)
B - Black (no letter for color is usually gray)
L - RGB
I just bought both the white and black ARGB variants of this cooler the other day and was wondering what the difference was between the SE and non SE. This information is what I gathered from about 5 minutes of googling and it appears there is negligible difference between the two so just go with whichever is cheaper.
Another difference between the 2:
PA 120 SE doesn't seem to include LGA 2011 or LGA 2066 mounting hardware while the PA 120 does (I think it's the same hardware for 2011/2066), this was something I paid attention to recently as I bought the PA 120 for an X99 (LGA 2011-3) board
PA 120 SE on Taobao costs 12$
I bought the SE for 35€, its a beast of a cooler.
My PA 120 is beaten by the IDcooling 224-XT in the NR200, and it increases my GPU temps over the SE-224-XT because it takes up so much volume in the case, and inhibits the exhaust fan. But, I am running an OCed 5600x, so the 75W heat load definitely doesn't saturate the PA 120.
The original 011 Dynamic only supports 155mm coolers so get the SE and maybe prepare yourself to give it a bit of a squish down before you install to give you another mm.
I love cooler benchmarks. Can get an extremely great cooler for what used to cost double (~$80-100) for similar performance
For coolers its by far the most extreme
Coolers have gotten really good! Which is important, seeing as CPUs are also blasting power now.
I'm glad GN are doing these in depth scientific reviews now.
Genuinely considering getting one of these when I finally get around to going from a 3600 to 5700x3d at some point in my four year old rig.
Back In the 18:00 day you could buy a 212 for 17 quid at my local pc parts shop. I still have a few of the
Used in pcs. Not a big fan of water coolers
I’m so glad you’re reviewing these! My NZXT M22 liquid cooled died and I’m in need of a replacement. Someone told me to get the Noctura DH 15 to future proof if I upgrade my CPU (AMD Ryzen 5 5600). What do you think?
I just canceled my DH15S for this and saved $70! Thanks GN!
It's nice to see thermalright getting some spotlight again. They make some great products.
amen, you definitely are a 2000s era hardware veteran if you know that before Noctua came along; Thermalright was it for premium performance in aircooling.
Their pure copper coolers were things of beauty.
All they had to do is knock off the Noctua to get some of that spotlight back.
@@PJ-ku5lp DH-15 is on there, it's just got a lot slower fan speeds...
Then, again, they are 140mm. Which is stupid because it's a heatsink meant for 120mm fans. So much wasted air.
If you want a 140mm fan heatsink, make a heatsink that gets covered by 140mm fans.
That's why I prefer the Fuma 2 Rev B. I can replace the fans with whatever I want and beat all those on the chart. I already do.
@@JustAGuy85 By "knock off", I mean directly copy Noctua's proven design -which is what it appears Fuma does as well. Which is fine, that's how the cookie crumbles. Just making the funny observation that Thermalright only got some sunshine again by copying the other guy. A shift given they used to be that other guy getting copied.
Yeah, this thing really blew the entire market away, to the point that it's the only cooler I can recommend for midrange buyers. It's just that good.
As long as they have enough space in their case, but personally I think that this is a great example of why a larger case is better, but only one of many good reasons to buy a somewhat large case. I particularly like cube cases myself, like the Haf XB EVO, and it seems like there's been more mid-range cases with similar (or better) amounts of space, and with the same sort of two-compartment system. With the growing size of videocards and CPU coolers, horizontal cube cases are only becoming increasingly practical.
I'm sure that some people might think that such a large CPU cooler is excessive or impractical, but a big cooler like this is more likely to be able to run very quiet, and another nice thing about it is that you're very unlikely to ever need to upgrade it if/when you end up buying a more power hungry CPU later on. The thing about a good cooler, you can potentially keep using it for over 10 years or more, you just need to be able to get adapter kits for them to be able to upgrade their compatibility to work with different motherboard platforms in the future.
@@syncmonism
Air coolers are arguably THE most practical thing in a computer. Their structure is practically immortal and like you said, depending on brand they'll stay compatible with future generations of CPUs, essentially for free.
PC cases and air coolers are the only things in a computer that in theory could last you a life time. Everything else will sooner or later have to be replaced, even case fans.
@@syncmonism this cooler isn't that big and can fit most mid tower. its just wide
I wonder what the Gelid Phantom is like. A lot of underrated and obscure dual towers on the market.
Point is, there might be a lot more to explore than just Thermalright.
Yeah. The type works well - an older Scythe Ninja 5 for about $50 then is silent in a room, and happily cools an overclocked 3900XT crunching data at high load for years now.
The “giant cubes” in general are a great mix of value, utility, and are easy to work with when changing things.
Man, I bought the SE version of this cooler based off of the review you guys did for the Assassin Spirit. It has performed flawlessly for me so far. Really grateful for all the work you guys do for our tech hobby we all enjoy.
Got the same one for 35$ this thing is a beast for how cheap it is
The SE version is just slightly shorter than the original version and its performance is almost identical. If you can't get the peerless assassin for cheap, go for the SE version.
where I live there's such a massive price gap between the PA120 and PA120 SE(SE is ~$40 while non SE is almost $60), funnily enough the Phantom Spirit 120 which has 7 heatpipes instead of 6 was actually cheaper
@@rateater420 The number of heat pipes don't tell the whole story for how a cooler performs. The Peerless Assassin is still the better cooler with 6 heatpipes.
@@isoffice4409 the PS120 SE is actually the better cooler, at least according to the few benchmarks available by chinese youtubers.
This thing absolutely blew me away. Initially bought it as a holdover for a 3950X build while I was shopping around for a good cheap 280mm AIO, but it ended up doing such a good job that I scrapped those plans and stuck with this. Insane what it delivers for $40ish USD!
I love the new editorial style with a lot of time spent on explaning the preset and background of the test. Makes the whole test more complete (although parts are sometimes a bit redundant for long time viewers). 👍
Thanks to your earlier review of their products I have been using that exact model for quite some time and I really enjoy their performance.
I've been watching your videos for years and these are the ones that keep me coming back. Appreciate you guys
I love what you're all doing with the monitors in the back! Very professional
Finally the review for this cooler is here! It's constantly on sale for only $40 which is what I got it for and its price to performance is unmatched in my opinion. Especially if you get the SE model which performs the same and is only $36. It's wild.
@@danimayb i had a corsair a500 on my 3700x/now 5900x for 2 years and it was great, except for that it performed as good as a 30$ cooler lmao. i replaced it with an h150 capellix but i looked at these coolers for a while
The phantom Spirit is even better!
@@danimayb i suggest you take a look at the arctic p12 max instead of the noctua, noctua has been resting on their laurels for WAY too long now.
hardware canucks made a video about it recently.
@@danimayb I was just looking at grabbing that one for my 5600x! Thank you, this convinced me to pull the trigger! My 5600x runs hot but not extreme or really even bad but more than I would like and if it can help your 5800x then I feel confident it will do what I want on a 5600x.
@@mromutt Have the SE on a 5600x, gaming or work never reaches 60ºC. Edit the curve on BIOS for max silence, the cooler can manage the 5600x on the minimum fan speed without reaching 60ªC
Glad to see Thermalright's in the game again. Back in the day, their Silver Arrow and its variants were excellent coolers already going toe-to-toe with the Noctua NH-D14 for cheaper, and being way quieter. Hopefully, the upcoming NH-D16 will live up to Noctua's legacy.
Silver Arrow was better than NH-D14 noise normalised. And quality was really good.
p.s. to: Spammer-Scammer reply human-bot, f* off and get a life.
Upcoming NH-D16?... They are making one? There is zero reason or point to do so. The NH-D14 and NH-D15 are both like 14 years old now and still EXCEPTIONAL top-of-the-line performance and the most quiet.
I still am using my Silver Arrow that I bought for an i5 750 on my r7 5800x. I think it's one I can use for the rest of my PC life.
@@tomaszcodasz I would not say so. Their products are pricy and you would not buy most of their coolers for value.
But you have to admitt that some of noctua`s products are really fcking impressiv.
Yea they delayed the nh d15 next gen again, but for example look at the nh u12a.
its basicly a beefed up nh u12s with better fans, but that thing almost gets nh d15 level performance while being a single tower cooler.
Its expensive, but a godsend for people with smaller cases.
@@rideroftheapocalypse9953 Yes, they have impressive fans, but their radiators are so-so. There is some kind of mysticism when it comes to Noctua which hurts other great products like this Thermaltake. We need just open, unbiased tests, preferable on the same fans to see which radiators are really the best.
A bit of a tip, if the PA120 goes out of stock (which it likely will after this review,) Thermalright is also selling the PS120SE, which is virtually the same thing but with an extra heat pipe for another two dollars. Should perform comparably.
On another note, really grateful for the GN team in doing tests for these more midrange coolers. Good to know that I wasn't messing up when I recommended this one to new system builders.
this dropped at the right time!! been wanting to change my evga aio for noise reasons and this is perfect.
You guys do such great cooler reviews. I'm upgrading my PC and bought a Artic Liquidfreezer II 280 because of the glowing review you guys gave it. Awesome work as always! Would love to see you guys look at do more cheap case reviews. Back to you, Steve!
I knew of this cooler for quite some time now. It's nice for you to review it since it can be an absolute beast for its price.
Thanks for reviewing this. I took your advice and got one of these for my i9-9900K, which draws ~215W at max load. This replaced a Noctua NH-14S that wasn't doing the job. It was OK on the i5, but couldn't keep the i9 cool. Using Hydronaut thermal compound, the Peerless Assassin fits the case better, and tamed the heat, dropping temps over 20 degrees from previous, allowing the i9 and RTX 4080 to stay cool even under heavy load. Keep up the great work!
Super flat base plate is a big plus. Seeing it beat basically all of the other heatsinks and closing in on AIO territory in the $50 range is great value, especially compared to Noctua. Maybe we can see a TRUE Rev.4 review someday?
I tested this thing. It's really not as great as Steve let's on (definitely not beating the noctua) but it's an amazing midrange choice.
I don't know why his test shows such different results from literally everyone else.
@Mat-hr1dg
Cool story, bro. How about factual proof, otherwise the comment is useless.
@@Mat-hr1dgcope
I just picked up and installed a couple of these in client builds. This review definitely solidifies my choice even though my own testing showed really good results. My choice was based on GN's previous reviews on Thermalright's single fan CPU cooler. Thanks, Steve!
Thermalright's quality is pretty impressive. Very nice packaging and including accessories and screws...mine even had Radiator Screws...they have a 2.1mm h2o static pressure.
Is it durable ? I mean, I've had my Noctua since 2012 and it's still running like a breeze. Is it the same with TR ?
@@fridaycaliforniaa236 yes, i can only speak highly for this cooler
@@fridaycaliforniaa236 TR made high end coolers long before Noctua. Noctua fans are better but TR makes better heatsinks yeah
@@Dr.WhetFarts Is that the case bro? you have more info on this?
Literally bought this for a build a couple days ago.... The rest of the build I followed your advice for mainly midrange stuff i.e. Fractal Pop (great case for the money btw) getting back to this cooler, for the money, really can't fault it, very happy with the purchase 😊
Really hope you all do a year end best CPU Cooler video like the Case, GPU and CPU year end videos. That would be super helpful to use as a reference!
I hope you guys can keep the A500 in your charts for a long time. I love seeing that the engineering team took inspiration from the rocky mountains.
Awesome comment
I'm glad cooler companies have improved the installation experience over the years. Since this is a Thermalright cooler it reminded me of back in 2009 when I was trying to help my friend install a TRUE 120 and it ended up taking a couple of hours.
A true 120 minutes
This is exciting! It's always great to have someone come in and really show up with a high performance, inexpensive product to upset the balance of things. I'm using an Artic Freezer eSports cooler, which works really well. But for my next build in a couple years I'll be taking a serious look at Thermalright products.
awesome. This'll likely be my next cooler.
Thermalright was in fourth place these last few years, but they jumped back up to the lead today. glad to see it.
I bought this a after watching this review to replace an AIO that shit the bed after being run 24/7 on a DIY server. This runs only about 10C hotter on my 5950X in a pretty tight space and the fans no longer maxed out after the wife approval factor dropped. Very impressed and very appreciative of your content. We need tech jesus reviewers for all industries!
Maybe also test it's bigger brother: The FC140 (Frost Commander 140) or related coolers like FS140/TF140. There's also the Phantom Spirit 120 (PS120) which has even more heatpipes than a normal PA120.
Testing the smaller, cheaper singletower versions would also be interesting imo: AX120/AK120/BA120 series
FC140 and PS120 are newer, the PS120 is the newer and improved TA120.
I think would be great to see how the Phantom Spirit performs. It has 7 heat pipes so it is a good opportunity to see very similar heatsinks performance with the heatpipe difference.
@@dawinestrella191 czcams.com/video/JCH2na3gCNQ/video.html
Please review these FC140 FS140 PS120
Nicely nice set set up. It's nice. And the content editing change is...
Nice.
Thanks! (Steve)
Bought this product b/c of your video and the review on Tom's Hardware. Super happy customer, tks to you fellas!
"Thanks, Mike!" Great video GN. Seems like the whole staff has been really energized lately, love it!
For my first build, I went Noctua for most fans and CPU cooler. I love how silent they are, but yeah, those 120mm fans can get expensive quite fast.
I'm glad more options are popping out for cooling. I actually almost grabbed that AK620 but reports of coil whine from the fan kept me away from it.
Love to see you happy and smiling bro, cheers♥
Wish this had been around when I was shopping around for my cooler. I ended up with a Deepcool AS500 plus. Great information.
Thermalright celebrating 20 years. Thanks for making feel old Thermalright. I think my XP-120 is still cooling away somewhere today.
Thermalright made those insane heatsinks for just about everyhing, GPUs, CPUs, motherboard VRMs, northbridge, southbridge, RAM.
Remember the silver arrow that was as good or better than the first nhd15?
I've heard of them for a while but only ever had Noctua thingies. But from I've often heard, TR are really good at heir shit =)
What an amazing showing for the Peerless Assassin! It looks so much better than the Hyper 212 with its plastic back mount that cracked the first time I used it lol. I ended up just buying an EK Basic AIO after seeing it review well here, and haven’t had a single issue with it since. In fact, half of my rig is because of good reviews on this channel lol. The Lian Li Lancool 215 and the Arctic fans were both recommendations from here. Same as the 5600x!
Bought the pa120se after seeing this. Been needing a new cooler to replace an aging water aio. Thanks for the excellent reviews!
"And they're all out of hot paste."
Saving this quote for life.
I'm here to kick ass and apply hot paste. And I'm all outta hot paste.
As far as coolers to test goes, I'd really love to see how the BeQuiet top end and bottom end air coolers actually stack up against the competition, especially when noise is taken into consideration. On the low end, you have their Pure Rock Slim 2, and at the high end, you have their Dark Rock Pro 2.
Don't get me wrong, they have a _lot_ between those two, but frankly, they have so much between those two that I'm not sure that many of them really make sense.
I just got this cooler yesterday, it's been great!
Few years ago I had to contact Thermalright to get an AM4 upgrade kit for my Mach0, and even though it was out of the "free upgrade" period, they still send it for free.
Cool to see them back, hope their customer service is still top notch !
I'm so glad to see Thermalright make a come back. I remember my good old True 120 (that cost an arm an a leg back then). I believe I paired it with a Sflex fan for around $120...
It's really surprising to see costs come down SO much that now there's heavy fierceful competition that you don't see anywhere else. For all other components (maybe except for nvme's) the rule of thumb is "let's all increase prices".
They never left, they just never advertise their products.
I mean they've launched six series of dual tower coolers in the past ten years, and far more single towers and low-profile coolers.
I still use an ancient 90mm Thermalright Ultima-90 tower on my side PC: i5-3570, 1050 Ti. It originally came off my Core 2 Duo, GTX 460 from the year 2007! 😮😲🙀
You guys should check out the Frost Commander 140. It's supposed to be Thermalright's flagship air cooler at the moment and on par or better than the NH-D15.
Blown away - this is the cooler I was looking at, and then you install it on the exact motherboard I own, this cannot be coincidence 😄
I've been saying to review this dual-tower cooler forever. I snagged this for $37.30 back in Jan 2022. So happy to finally see this review happen. Thanks Steve!
I am so glad to see this review. I've loved the PA 120 for a few years now. I have one on my 13700k, another on my buddies 3900x and yeah another on my brothers 12700K... You really cant go wrong. Simple and effective
How do they do while gaming on your 13700k? Im looking at one for my 10700k
@@DragonQueefs Ur 10700k will be so fine with trpa
@Legend sorry, I didn't see this response. The PA120 has been bulletproof on my 13700K. No thermal issues at all and that's in a SFF NR200 case just above a 4090. Even on a 1 hr stress test the PA kept the 13700K under 85 the whole time. Full disclosure, this is stock settings and woth the Thermalright Contact frame as well
Hi did u get the PA 120 or 120SE
The irony that I just bought one of the SE versions of these a couple of days ago on Amazon (should ship soon and hopefully have it tomorrow). Looks like it was quite the deal at just over 35 (as the description notes, generally the lowest you'll find). Looking forward to the review giving everyone the full details on it.
Edit: The SE from what I gathered online before buying it, is that it's a just slightly less tall version than the original, but otherwise the same (aka a "second edition" thing).
I got that model. It does a good job at cooling my 5800x3d in a case with not great airflow.
After scouring the Web for a good CPU Cooler for my son's Gamer Box I'm building, and seeing your review of this CPU Cooler, I just had to have him order this one. And at $30 USD - $41 CAD this week it's a no brainer to try out. My son wanted to stay away from Water Cooling if possible this time around. We never would have thought of the Assassin without this video. Hopefully it performs for us like it did in your testing. Thanks.
Great review as always. They have already made multiple new versions of this cooler, so a review on the updated ones seems like a no brainer.
There's the Phantom Spirit with 7 heat pipes, version 2 of the fans, and adjusted dimensions.
And then theres the Frost Tower withe the "pro" edition of the fans and adjusted dimensions.
Thermalright coolers have always done well and have always gone under the radar. I remember using an Ultra 120 in the core 2 duo days and it ran my e6600 at 3.8GHz all day long till the board died and I decided to upgrade. Good thing they are still in the market!
Dude I had the Ultra 120 Extreme. It was a god of cpu coolers. It kept my q6600 G0 under 65C at an eye watering 3.6GHz overclock above its 2.4GHz stock clock.
I still have that cooler on my shelf. She served me well.
I would like to see the Scythe FUMA 2 Rev B on your charts. I don't think it will dethrone this champion but it would be nice to see how it measures up. They bumped the max RPM up quite a bit and may have made some other optimizations too.
I only looked back at this video because I was looking at someone's build online and they had this listed as $35 (what it currently is on amazon) and I vaguely remembered there being a review. It looks pretty tempting at that price.
Great and informative review thank you!
THANK YOU. I built an AM4 system with the $42 base model last year, and this is still my favorite part. I didn't experience the need to apply pressure to the screws, but that is a common complaint in Amazon reviews. Incredible performance for the price, and it matches my gray Noctua Redux fans. Even without the price difference, I preferred the Thermalright over the Scythe Fuma 2, which I returned. Honestly, the build quality of my Thermalright seemed higher than the Scythe.
Thermalright is awesome and they are (or at least were) quite popular in the diy pc market here in Germany - from a price/performance standpoint in the same ballpark as Scythe I'd say. I personally owned the HR-02 Macho Rev. B which cooled down my overclocked i7-6850k with ease while running pretty quiet.
I had both the old Macho and the new ones, the old brown fan was really ugly :D but the coolers were superb.
PA120 is the most popular cooler in China recently.
Great review. Just curious, when is fan data coming?
Speaking of warranty and support: One of the mounting screws broke when I was tightening it after a year of use (I may have overtightened it), but Thermalright was quick to offer a replacement with no extra questions being asked. Great product, great company. Highly recommended.
I actually bought this cooler with my 13700KF 3 weeks ago, its doing solid work. Glad I found it : )
The only downside for me is that I had to mount the outside cooler a bit higher cause the RAM was in the way.
What type of ram memory do you have, I want to know if a white coirsair argb can measure very high
@@nico-pm3kf G-Skill F4-3200C16D-16GVKB, Ripjaws V, hope that helps!
@@nico-pm3kf this wont fit.
Damn that's impressive. Not only for an air cooler, but any kind of cooler in general. It rivals even the budget AIOs. And that coldplate flatness - pure precise machining pr0n.
Just bought this one. Thank you forthe vid.
great video as always one thing i would add is show how ram fit into the setup once the cooler and fans are installed
Those are some impressive results!
I'm still curious if Noctua will be able to get back to the top in Q4 2023 with their next gen D15 launch.
Also, Noctua coolers usually outshine others at higher W, from what I can remember.
It's baffling that the Noctua performs worse in Steve's testing. Neither personal experience nor any other review was able to confirm this one and it doesn't make any physical sense either.
@@Mat-hr1dg The Noctua is just outdated and needs replacement, which it will soon
@@Mat-hr1dgNot only this test, but hardware cannuck also confirm that NH-D15 is only marginally better than this cooler.
And yet, thermalright already released new 140mm lineup after the video, which completely shut up the NH-D15 once and for all
Something you missed is that depending on your brand of RAM you *may* need to either mount the RAM-side fan higher up on the cooler or use a smaller fan.
I really don't know if this is the norm for these types of coolers but it gave me a slight heart dropping moment when I thought I wouldn't be able to get the fan on there while also clearing the side-panel.
I bought the Deepcool Assassin 3 about a year ago. Glad to see it on these charts too.
I'm really impressed. I'm a Noctua fanboi, but sometimes the size of the NH-D15 is a bit troublesome. I might use this cooler instead for my next build. Thanks for the videos, mates =)
Thermalright is extremely nice in terms of performance per dollar and they have outstanding build quality for this price segment. I am still using the magnetic screwdriver that was included with the Macho Rev B (40€ back then) as my main PC screwdriver. The Macho cools a 1600X 14nm at 1.375V in a friend's PC silently and without issues.
Had this on my 5600x for a while now, keeps it at 55C in cinebench with the fans only at 500 rpm (idle at 30C). Really been nice since i like a combination of silence, and chilly temps
(also watercooling scares me)
I have been using the PA 120 for about 2 years now, it still works perfectly! I upgraded the fan to c12 pro with lower speed for better performance and less noise.
Thanks for this great CPU cooler coverage GN team! Hey Steve, can you guys please review the bigger bother with 7 heat pipes, the Thermalright PS120 SE / RGB? Thanks!
Ive been using thermalright coolers for a few years now and when I need a good quality, good performing cooler I choose them everytime. The peerless assassin 120 SE is usually about $35 and the only real difference is that the top of the heatpipes are visible. The offset is really handy when youre using smaller motherboards so that you have clearance for the gpu. This all depends on the board obviously but it has been helpful in my use.
@larryrodriguez1977 Exactly, I would say the offset is by design and @GamersNexus has missed this important point. It is not to give more room to top case fans. The micro ATX GPU slot is closer to the CPU. The video card needs clearance. On my last build I could not use an NH-U14S and had to switch to a NH-U12S .
This GPU clearance should be part of the test results now.
Thanks Steve
Thanks for the great review. I just ordered one for $35 for use on a new 7800X3D build!
Where? They all seem to have risen in price here
Nice review!
I look forward to noctua's refresh of the famous nh-d15 later this year, but I'm sure you guys are tracking that.
just canceled my ak620 order for this cooler for 40-50 bucks thanks
Yeah it's absolutely great and happy to see you cover it. Just got the SE version in January for a 13600K and it's totally rocking that CPU. You can easily crank the PL1 from 125W to 160-180W and still be fine. For the price? Totally insane and the most impressed i've ever been with a CPU cooler.
I'm in the process of building a new gaming rig and I have settled on the 13600kf and I will most likely just do a one click OC to get whatever it gives me. How is this cooler handling the CPU after a few months of use? Do you think it will provide sufficient cooling under load for more intense gaming? I would like a simpler build with air cooling if I can get away with it, but I also don't want to see temps above 80c at the same time. Thanks!
@@yourshotsalwaysmiss The cooler is continuing to prove itself as amazing. Gaming is simply not something you need to worry about because it won't use all of the CPU by any means. But even in all core workloads the cooler is doing great, it can handle Cinebench R23 with only reaching about 80°C with long term power limits set to 180W which is pretty fantastic since that's an unreasonably intense load. Games see temperatures more in the 60s °C usually and power is more around 50-80W. That said, i'm only running slight overclock and massive undervolt (5.2GHz @ 1.12V) and so if you want to push the CPU harder you'll definitely draw more power, but even then you're only gonna run into problems when you're being really aggressive with your OC and/or if beyond gaming you're looking into heavy all-core workloads. In that case, it may be time to look at other coolers, but otherwise and in most cases this cooler is easily enough.
Is the SE cooler loud at all? I've seen someone complaining about a humming sound from it, and I'm trying to keep my pc as quiet as possible.
@@alter3352 I'm not using the stock fans (made the mistake of buying from a reseller and got a used one w broken fans, just get it directly from Thermalright if you get it) and also have custom fan curves, so i can't talk about the "completely stock" experience, but that said my experience has been nothing other than great. You can absolutely get a ton of cooling without a lot of noise. For reference, i sleep in the same room as the PC when it's running, and as someone who is extremely sensitive to noise it doesn't bother me even when it's doing video transcoding or similar at ~160W. You will definitely hear it under a hard load but i don't find it annoying, and if you're looking for actually completely silent with a high power CPU then air coolers are simply not the way to go anyway.
What RAM are you using? Will I run into any clearance issues if I use any RGB ram stick? I plan on getting this for the R7 7700X and Corsair Vengeance RGB DDR5 RAM.
I haven't heard of Thermalright since the single and dual core cpu days. They were the best air coolers to buy. I just might swap my Arctic Freezer 34 Esports Duo out for this one, pending measurements and the availability in white. Great video and thank you!
I love their ILM and have used it on all my 12/13th gen Intel builds. I used their white silver soul 110 on a 5600 on a recent build and it was great performance wise.
The Thermalright Peerless Assassin 120 SE version is smaller by 2mm and has 3 fewer heatsink fins, with total cooler height of 155mm (the non-SE version is 157mm), which almost matches the Schythe Fuma 2's height of 154.5mm. It might be a crucial difference for people looking to fit the best air cooler possible in an MFF case like the SAMA IM01.
This one is performing pretty good. Sadly not easily available in Europe. Would love to see some reviews of be quiet's cheaper coolers - the Pure rock and the single tower Dark rock. There isn't much variety in air cooling currently and apart from the very expensive Noctuas, these seem to be the closest in performance and silence.
It's now available in europe
Steve, the scythe fuma 2 is in the $80 -$100 range now. Thanks for your review, GN!
Thanks Steve and crew!!
I have used about 5 different models of Thermalright CPU coolers and they have all performed similarly as far as performance. The one I use the most is the Assassin X120 Refined SE for $20 and it's a killer Cooler for that price point. I use them on my budget builds that utilize the older Xeon X3440's which are overclocked typically to 3.4Ghz. It keeps it typically around 65C under full load.
what the is the best my friend PA 120 se or assassin sprit 120 plus ?
@@GohanSSJII it depends on the application really. What cpu do you plan to use the said cooler on?
@@raym7441 i want to use my new CPU ryzen 7 5700x (i have right now r3 3300x)
The Assassin Spirit 120 plus is better because it has the extra fan so it would cool the tower down much faster than the refined model. The tower itself between the two are basically the same. Given the fact you have the 5700x now I would go with the Assassin Spirit 120 plus incase you happen to multitask with that machine. It will provide you with more cooling overhead given it has the push/pull pulling the heat away from the fins faster.
Great video - as always
Highly appreciate the feedback!
: I have this cooler, too and for some time now. It outperforms my Thermal Right Macho on LM with just thermal paste and its stock fans as I use Corsair Fans for the Macho. It's absolutely baffeling how good this cooler is.
I've been rocking Thermalright's Silver Soul 135 (135mm tall 120mm dual tower) for quite a while and it's performance is fantastic.
This cooler is just amazing, performance wise and it even have multiple version including a rgb version which is rare for dual tower CPU cooler
even its price is pretty constant even in EU where pc components tend to be more expensive that in the US
Thermalright makes some seriously impressive products: their thermal pads and 12th gen contact frame are great. Now this tower cooler for air cooling is quite a good value.
Can you do a video onHoneywell PTM 7950? It's god tier cooling for laptop CPUs (low mounting pressure, high thermal delta) compared with ANY other TIM (NT-H2, Kryonaut, KPX, MX-5, etc)
I just installed one of these in my PC 2 days ago. It's a beast!!
This cooler has the bottom of the fins notched like the Fuma for memory clearance,if you have room in your case you can also raise the fans,or also go to bigger fans.this worked well cooling my socket 2011 Zeon.
It would be handy to have a stock cooler or two in the comparison charts to see if its worth upgrading at all.
I use 5600x, with the stock cooler can get to 80c while playing dota 2 which is cpu demanding. Bought a cheap $15 cooler and it went down to 65c, yes it's worth it. Im planning to buy this peerless assassin if I get the money.
@@accretianGood to know, I have a 5600 non-X CPU, and although none of my games hit the CPU that hard, I'll definitely consider getting it, mostly because I just can't stand the noise the stock cooler makes.
You guys always make me want to build a new computer, but I have no reason to! 😆
My little micro optiplex serves it's purpose, even though it's the most boring computer I've ever had.
I love keeping up with the PC parts market, so you guys have always been my favorite source 👍
I am using a Thermalright Frost Spirit 140 and it works wonders. really love how beefy it is
It would be awesome if you guys could take a look at Thermalright aios. They seem extremely price competitive against brands like Veetro and id-cooling. So it would be interesting to see where these place
The Phantom Spirit SE (PS120 SE) is the step up from the Peerless Assasin. Only a couple dollars/euros/pounds more and comes with slightly more thermal mass and an extra heatpipe. 7 vs 6 6mm heatpipes on the PA120. From a few reviews I've seen, its a slight improvement on the Peerless Assassin. Knocking off upto a few degree's which should make it one of the top air coolers you can get right now.
Might be one worth reviewing if doing a cooler head to head or review.
i dont find any release date on this cooler in my country (France).. Is it already out somewhere ? i can wait a bit before changing my cooler if the release is coming soon enough, do you have some information mate ?
@@falcox16 There's some on stock in Amazon (FR). I typed in "Thermalright PS120SE" in search and found some results including Amazon themselves. Failing that you could always buy from Amazon UK and import one from there.
Looks like the RGB variant is in stock. Which are a couple Euros more than the standard non RGB one.
@@hinchlikescake7592 thank u i mistyped the reference
Thank you Steve and Gamers Nexus for your benchmarking of every part of a pc, great stuff
Especially the grammar benchmarking.
@@pirojfmifhghek566 If that's an attempt to criticize the grammar of OP's comment, then it's rude, and not even right. It's grammatically correct.
@@MuffinTastic Nah, it's because Steve was making fun of the grammar on the packaging.
I use this cooler and you're right about the mounting screws/springs. I was terrified my screw driver could come off the screw and destroy my motherboard from all the pressure. It's been a very good cooler though
Nice to see thermalright still making awesome coolers after all these years (owned a couple back in XP Barton core days) 😅 Slightly dated myself there.
And have to remember the old school mounting... taking a flat head screw driver into the side of the mounting clip on the heatsinks and pushing down with a scary amount of force to where you could slide out and nick your motherboard. Always had to make sure to wear my brown pants.
@@Nforce87 True story! Our cores had no heat spreaders. No lids to de-lid!
Nice to see Thermalright back at it