Best CPU Air Coolers We've Reviewed (2023): Thermals, Mechanical Design, & Value

[@GamersNexus]

Leave a comment and tell us what coolers you want us to test first on our new test benches! REALLY excited about our new benches coming out! We have a ton of cool things we're implementing now that we've had 3 more years to refine this. The biggest introduction will be the acoustic chamber for ALL cooler tests. The next is testing both AMD and Intel IHS designs, which we think will help a lot of people. We'll be running 4 CPUs, with each cooler being tested on at least 2 of them (e.g. high heat AMD and Intel or low heat AMD and Intel). SUPPORT GN's WORK! Grab a GN Modmat, Solder Mat, or Toolkit for 10% off for the next few days: store.gamersnexus.net/ Check out our Best GPUs round-up: kzbin.info/www/bejne/e3uql4Rrdsx1ack And our Best CPUs round-up: kzbin.info/www/bejne/sJjKf52foKuFg7M

[@commanderoof4578]

Its so irritating you never do low profile coolers!! Seriously why have a PC as large as my bed cabinet when i can have a PC thats about the size of a PS5... Low profile coolers are super important to test and add to these types of videos and yet... they are flat ignored

[@GamersNexus]

@@commanderoof4578 Rather than tell us how irritating it is, why not request specific coolers for us to look at? That'd be more productive and give us a better idea of what you want tested.

[@antimatt_r]

I like value for money and would like to see a couple specific Thermalright coolers - BA120 is a basic single tower design but shoves in another heat pipe to hit 6 total (would be cool to see if/how that changes things). The Ultra 120EX V4 is another I've been wondering about - apparently it's an older single tower design with two fans slapped on and I'm curious why they've kept it around so long. The stock fans on it (TL-B12) are intriguing as well Their Assassin line has become pretty popular and it has me curious about some of their other coolers as well

[@commanderoof4578]

@@GamersNexus cryorig c7 graphene there is a way to screw it in to have it at 90 degrees rotation offset for AM4 ask for details big shuriken 3 Thermalright AXP90 X53, AXP100, AXP120 ID cooling IS-55 I believe testing these would be a good start as they are mostly at the top end of what low profile coolers can do while ranging in comparability with bormal height ram or having a low profile ram requirement

[@sudd3660]

how about Noctua NH-D15S, it has all the features: 150mm fan, offset so you get better airflow out the back of the case. i have bought this cooler for all my pc's over the years.

[@dawsonpoe]

One category that I think should be added to this would be best low profile coolers. I think it would be interesting to watch for sff case users

[@GamersNexus]

Good idea. Maybe we can start testing some for the next round!

[@drog]

@@GamersNexus Jiushark JF13K *mini* would be really cool to see

[@joel6513]

@@GamersNexus ID Cooling IS-67XT or 55 would be nice.

[@kevadu]

Problem is, there's no standard for what 'low profile' means. An NH-C14S is lower profile than any tower cooler but still kind of massive compared to some of the options out there. But...if you can fit a NH-C14S in your case then it's going to perform much better than smaller coolers.

[@nbates66]

@@kevadu yeah thats the only really niggly part about wanting to do this sort of listing.

[@LordCohliani]

A low profile cooler category would be appreciated. For fans that are efficient given their case clearance in compact ATX builds.

[@GamersNexus]

We'll add that at least as a one-off round-up!

[@LordCohliani]

@@GamersNexus thank you!

[@jackhoward8]

@@GamersNexus Could you also please test new AIO's? benchmarks for AIO's are so rare. Like the new popular ones such as Lian Li Galahad II Trinity, Asus Ryujin 3 or EK Nucleus CR360

[@fahadmalik8862]

​@@GamersNexusI know you don't like SFFPC's but please Steve. Being able to transfer more heat off the ihs in a smaller size shows massive engineering advances and actually pushes thermal engineers to be creative.

[@Troynex]

@@GamersNexusWhich air cooler for 7u00x3d?

[@TamiyaGuy123]

With the past few years showing good air coolers being pushed towards the dreaded three-figure price range thanks to RGB, 'blackout editions' and... just because, it's so awesome this year to see some proper, effective air coolers providing simple, efficient cooling without sounding like a jet engine and without breaking the bank. Nice to see a move away from a half-decent heatsink costing 25% the price of your CPU. And, as always, it's awesome to see you guys giving some really deep analysis into what makes a good cooler good - particularly the frequency analysis you've been doing recently (almost like you've resurrected the spirit of SilentPCReview!).

[@GamersNexus]

Long live SPCR! Mike Chin did phenomenal work to establish that part of this industry. We've loved working with him to learn about acoustics!

[@ziudra91]

Mistake first time builders make. Focus too much on esthetics rather than performance.

[@Z4KIUS]

I don't think anyone released a decent one this year sure, with busy stroad behind the window and roaring AC over the head they may seem fine, but for proper home use they are not

[@PSYCHOV3N0M]

​@@ziudra91Aesthetics. NOT esthetics.

[@chuck7952]

​@@PSYCHOV3N0M #INCORRECTLYCORRECTINGOTHERPEOPLE Esthetics (or aesthetics as it is sometimes spelled) is rooted in the branch of philosophy that is directly related to the relationship between the senses and matters of beauty, art, and taste.

[@JackDangerous]

I have the black Peerless Assassin on a 5800x3D and it's fantastic, can definitely recommend. Not having RGB fans is a big plus.

[@Avendesora]

Just got this exact setup yesterday! It's working fantastic so far, but I don't exactly have a lot of data yet obvs

[@sirmonkey1985]

yup have the same cooler on a 5800x3D after i saw GN's review, great cooler.

[@imnotusingmyrealname4566]

Thanks for thr recommendation but it's literally completely unavailable in Europe. Is it out of production? The last sellers to offer it stopped months ago.

[@prrocker9637]

Same I picked up thr peerless assassin SE when I got my 5800x3d because of their review the fact a $35 cooler is throwing hands with $100+ coolers made it a no Brainer

[@Avendesora]

@@imnotusingmyrealname4566 Probably just a region thing, since they're fully available on the US market.

[@ishiddddd4783]

Thermalright came in swinging, peerless assasin, phantom spirit, frost commander, all rivaling the very high end coolers available while costing (at least here) a fifth of the price

[@fluphybunny930]

Bought a Phantom Spirit 120SE. For £30 it is amazing how good it is.

[@UncleButterworth]

@@fluphybunny930 It really is great. Every review shows it being better than the peerless, but both are perfectly acceptable.

[@ravinkrishnan3183]

But thermalright fans don't last nearly as long as noctuas and other competitors right??

[@UncleButterworth]

@@ravinkrishnan3183 Then just buy fans? You'll still end up saving money.

[@erraldstyler]

​@@ravinkrishnan3183 Just replaced the fan on my Macho Rev B. Bought it used like 5 years ago. It started rattling and didnt spin over 50% anymore, but well it lasted a long time. Especially since my PC is *never* off. Just hooked a 120 Arctic on it. Could have bought a Noctua NF-A15 for 30 bucks which is a 140 with 120 mounting points, but had that 5 bucks Arctic 120 hangin around in a box... Yes, Noctua stuff is top notch, with long time good support, but its literally 2-3x the price while doing exactly the same.

[@GuyMassicotte]

I listen to you for more than 6-7 years. Got to tell you. The job you do is awesome. All the datas. You are by far my favorite tech reviewer 👌🏼

[@georgeristo]

i love the aggressive b roll of a 2 dollar cpu cooler

[@gucky4717]

Air cooler: Thermalright Peerless Assassin 120SE or Phantom Spirit for 35-50€ period... AIO cooler: Arctic Liquid Freezer II 240 65-75€. 280/360 for 75-90€. Those are the best price AND performance coolers on the market in germany FYI the Phantom Spirit has one more heatpipe and is potentionally better then the Peerless Assassin. P.S. I use the Gletscherwasser AIO from Alpenföhn, a local german brand. They have a silent (at 80% RPM) pump in their AIO.

[@brunoagostinho3539]

Just in time... ahaha... bought a 5700X To replace my old 4790K and I put a cheap cooler just to hold it and search for options... *literally* just in time this video

[@GamersNexus]

The 5700X is a great value CPU right now. The 4790K feels so recent still!

[@brunoagostinho3539]

@@GamersNexus I gave the 4790K a good farewell, it was a delided cpu with liquid metal @5Ghz... but the 5700X even with a crappy cooler gave me 50% more fps in Shadow of the Tomb Raider (one of the benches I tried)...

[@BGraves]

Why no amd wraith?

[@raiban0]

​@@BGravesit doesnt have it in the box

[@Keiseru]

​@@brunoagostinho35395ghz is a really good OC on a 4790k! Not a lot happened for many years after haswell... Even my 9900k loses big to the much cheaper x3d CPUs today. And there's no upgrades on my socket either. If I had bought a 3700x instead i could've upgraded to 5800x3d on the same motherboard! 😢

[@Y0URGRANDMA]

One thing to consider in value (especially on higher end) should be that because air coolers like these basically last forever whether or not the company has a history of offering cheap mounting kits going froward for new motherboards so you can continue to use it.

[@elikirkwood4580]

Based on your review of the Thermalright PA120 I picked up the black version on sale for the same price as the gray one. It was about a 10 degree drop compared with my hyper 612 v2 while running at a higher turbo. You guys are the best tech journalists in the world in my opinion and the work you do is invaluable to the community

[@ShiroKuroh]

I did the thermalright Peerless Assassin 120 with the Am5 thermalright contact frame with a 7800x3d and a b650 motherboard. Set board to 90, can manage 5.1 GHz with PBO setup per individual core. 20-30 minutes of tuning. Almost identical performance to Noctua NH-D15, Premium CPU Cooler with 2x NF-A15 PWM 140mm Fans on a 7800x3d with identical contact frame and 4 hours of tuning PBO per core to hit 5.2 GHz. Severely underrated cooler, glad you shown it some love. I don't have one, haven't had my hands on the deepcool Assassin IV, but that one looks hard to beat for best tower air cooler in that range.

[@NostalgiaXV]

YES YES YES THIS IS THE EXACT VIDEO I WAS HOPING FOR! I plan to retire my good old Wraith Stealth soon, and this helps so much!!

[@Quillraven]

Very happy with my Phantom Spirit on a 7900x. Very silent operation and keeps the CPU very cool. Can recommend it

[@UncleButterworth]

Yeah, it's hard to not recommend that cooler to people unless they genuinely don't need it, but you're only saving like 10-15 bucks so why not??

[@Yuumizada]

Just got and installed the Thermalright PA 120 today, due to this channel's recommendation, working wonders, really. I just wanna thank you all for the hard work, you really help a lot of people choose the right parts with these tests (well, at least helped me and it worked lol). Keep them coming!

[@nttinvis]

Thats the one at 54.1 C at 8:11?

[@Yuumizada]

@@nttinvis yes, that one!

[@nttinvis]

@@Yuumizada is the rgb one the same?

[@Yuumizada]

@@nttinvis There is a ton of editions, PA Black, White, ARGB, SE... Basically the Black / White versions can come with or without RGB (the RGB is only on the fans AFAIK), and there is little to no difference between SE and non-SE versions (this guy has a small chart showing them - watch?v=M4AAqbv4m1A ).

[@nttinvis]

@Yuumizada i noticed it covers the ram, any good cpu coolers that dont?

[@J_D_Adama]

I've used ID Cooling in quite a few PC builds. They make some excellent coolers and fans for the cost.

[@jamesm568]

Way better than Corsair crap.

[@alrecks619]

Have you tried the SE-207-XT? i've been considering them beside Thermalright Phantom Spirit/Peerless Assassin.

[@J_D_Adama]

@@alrecks619 I have not used that one. But I have used the 224-225-226, they all worked very well on a few AM4 builds I have done, from 2700x CPU up to 5700x, cant really recall temps going over 60 celcius either workstation or gaming. They all come with 1x 120, PWM fan. The build quality and noise is far superior to the popular Arctic fans. On most of these coolers they come with extra clips to mount more fans should you choose. The Id cooling fans are perfect though, no need to switch them out.

[@someShadow]

If GN keeps being sponsored by Thermal Grizzly Kryosheet maybe you guys should actually do a review on this thermal pad as there is no info/review right now about its performance. It would be very informative to compare Kryosheet to TG Carbonaut, IC Graphite Thermal Pad, the thermal pad that is rumored to be the same thing but sold by the actual manufacturer Smart High Tech under the name FrostSheet and some commonly used thermal pastes like TG Kryonaut, Noctua NT-H2 or Arctic MX-4. Also, a comparation to Honeywell PTM7950 would be cool as that is supposed to be the ultimate TIM to use on CPU/GPU dies with performance similar to liquid metal but without most of the downsides and with very long lifetime without degradation.

[@jduvel]

Nice to know my Dark Rock Pro 4 is still up there. Always wondered why GN never took a look at it, so it's great to see the results at long last. Such a quiet, performant cooler.

[@thealien_ali3382]

Noctua dh15 for the win baby

[@FenrirAlter]

Costs way too much for getting outperformed by 40-50€ Coolers and also problem with AM5 platform

[@jduvel]

@@FenrirAlter What's wrong with it on AM5? I saw bequiet said they don't need a conversion kit for AM5? Also, I'm very impressed with these new cheaper coolers, but I bought it years ago and they either didn't exist back then, or were not well covered by reviewers and i had no idea of them. I'm just happy it is right up there with a nh-d15, which was the main alternative at the time (peak covid times).

[@FenrirAlter]

@@jduvel it doesn't have a good contact on am5. The noctua has a 5€ kit that reduces temps by a lot. Also if u normalize by sound. You can legit just reduce the fan speed of louder coolers and they will still cool better than the be quiet!

[@vqa33]

@@FenrirAlterthis video don’t include the Be quiet! Elite…

[@thestrykernet]

Always love seeing these end of year roundups as it's great information and sometimes might pickup on something otherwise missed. In terms of coolers to test it'd be really great to see Thermalright's Frost Commander and Phantom Spirit, Thermaltake's TOUGHAIR 310/510/710, Cooler Master's MA624 and MA824, EKWB's Nucleus AIOs, Lian-li's Galahad II Performance AIO, SilverStone's IceMyst AIO (with at least one of the extra fans), Deepcool's LT series AIO and maybe some of their lower end air coolers for folks not in a place that can get Thermalright easily. If it's at all possible it'd be great if you could talk about the OEM for any AIO pumps you all end up testing. Also hoping Intel's forthcoming CPU design changes don't mess with the validity of your new test rigs!

[@StirfriedGerman]

It's rare to see such a clear winner across the board, thanks for making that clear ! Bought a PA120 ARGB for $19 ... local price where I live in China.

[@fateunleashed9680]

I recently got the Arctic esports 34 dual fan for my 7800X3D and love the price to performance it has. I vote to test this cooler on the new test benches just to honor a great cooler from before!

[@V0LK4N]

are you having spikes ? sometimes my 7800x3d jumping 75 very fast nad later going 60

[@joe9893]

I think one of the most impressive things is that the D15 is 9 years old. Nearly a decade since its release and it’s still within a degree or two of the most recent coolers. Not to mention you get two Noctua fans with it. I’m excited to see what their new D15 accomplishes.

[@kosmosyche]

I'm still rocking my NH-D14 from 2012. If memory serves me right, that's when I bought it for Core i5 - 3570k, then it worked with i5-8600k, now it is cooling AMD 7800X3D, and doing a really fine job (although this CPU is surprisingly easy to cool and non-overclockable, so it's an easy job)! Just had to order new brackets for AM5 platform. Original fans still work like new, quiet and efficient. You know, I sometimes feel bad for Noctua, I imagine it's not the best business model to make something this good, so it just keeps working and working forever. I paid them once in 11 years (apart for AM5 brackets which were less than 10 bucks) and don't see any reason to buy anything else cooler-wise from them or anyone else. 🤣

[@joe9893]

@@kosmosycheyeah I forgot to even mention the fact they send you new mounting equipment for free. They are definitely a company that focuses heavily on quality and cares about customers.

[@kosmosyche]

@@joe9893 Yeah, I didn't even bother with that. lol I think they need some sort of receipt, which is long since gone (I never thought this cooler would serve me that long tbh).

[@bliss_gore5194]

​@@kosmosychedont think theyre losing themselves out. Their coolers so good fellas might buy fans from them for their pc and so and so...

[@Z4KIUS]

two ancient fans that would be long deprecated if not for lack of a successor sure, they are decent, but they are far behind A12x25 in overall quality

[@blundy1]

The $2-$3 cooler is amazing for what it is. I could see it being modified for other purposes at that price.

[@DJFPaul]

Except it's not 2-3$ as the price it disguised in the shipping. It's a 18$ cooler. And you're not gonna combine cart with any of those "special" prices.

[@blundy1]

@DJFPaul Even at $18 its still cheaper than an Assassin X.

[@endless2239]

​​​@@blundy1you could get it for $8 with standard free shipping (for new users), or even $6 with a very shady shipping company XD

[@jay-rus4437]

Bought the peerless assassin 120 just because of your previous reviews. I just didnt want water cooling, and this was a very good add to my build. Im 51, have no background in pc builds, but watched lots of vids, read, planned ahead, and then executed the build. Has all been successful as Ive been running the pc for MSFS (with lots of addons) for 10 months now. No issues at all

[@SamLoki]

Great refresh Steve, amazing tests. You HAVE to take a look at the Thermalright Phantom Spirit 120 (successor to Peerless Assassin). It's an insane cooler!

[@andersjjensen]

Thanks for the tip about that one. At $60 it looks like a direct assault on the Noctura NH-D15 Chromax Black.

[@TheJgredsund]

I'm about to say the same thing. Phantom Spirit needs to be tested.

[@DavidLeAsdf]

@@andersjjensen $60 USD? shows as $40 on amazon for me (or $50 for the EVO)

[@ska042]

The frost spirit 140 is also very close in format to the NH-D15, it has a 140mm center fan. 120mm on the ram side though, which does help with RAM compatibility compared to the NH-D15. In the hardware Canucks tests, the FS got slightly better temps than the Peerless Assassin at low noise levels, but the PA ramped up further, so it got a bit cooler but also a lot louder. The FS was extremely similar to the D15 in those tests.

[@SamLoki]

@@ska042 the phantom spirit 120 does what frost spirit 140 does in a cheaper and smaller package. It's nuts!

[@deuswulf6193]

Picked up the Thermal Right Peerless Assassin as a cheap temporary solution awhile back for a 7950x3D build. It was so good I never bothered replacing it.

[@apollo-3744]

Went with the peerless assassin after watching your previous review. Absolutely amazing. My 5800X went from a very uncomfortable high 80s with the wraith prism (even after giving it a full clean and new thermal paste) to 52c max at full load and keeping there after 2 months. It was also ridiculously cheap. Really happy with it.

[@dt35591]

@@noir-13 I'm on a 5700X, but I had even lower temperatures (45C max iirc, definitely under 50C) with the PA when I was running it stock hitting ~4.1ghz all cores in Cinebench R23. After getting the overclock set I'm now hitting 4.8ghz all cores and maxing out around 69C, which is pretty nice. I'm guessing they had their PC in a pretty cold room like me and hadn't overclocked it.

[@alwaysemployed656]

Any air cooler brand is fine as long as you know how to set up the fans. I'm using the Cooler Master air cooler fin tower you can buy at any Best Buy to cool my i9. My fan configuration is I stack the fans on top of each other and screw them together through the corner screw holes, it's like they are soldered together. Think of it as a tunnel with multiple fan blades inside the tunnel spinning. I got 3 fans at the front of the fin tower to pull the air in and 4 fans at the back of the fin tower to pull out. Why 4 at the back and 3 at the front? Simple. The 1 extra at the back gives it more pull power to also suck in air through the side of the fins while keeping up with the 3 fan push coming from the front. My temperatures are exactly the same with open case and closed case because the Pull In and Pull Out power air exchange is very powerful, so open case makes no difference. My non-overclock temperature is always a steady 24c and my overclock temperature never goes over 70c. So "which brand this and which brand that" is more of a snake oil sale. It's all about the fan configuration.

[@burnament]

I wonder where the Thermalright Frost Spirit 140 would end up in the charts or which Thermalright cooler performs best overall.

[@GamersNexus]

If people want to see that one, we can probably run it in the new round!

[@shredman59]

@@GamersNexus Yes, would like to see Frost Spirit and Phantom Spirit. Thermalright seems to be killing it.

[@burnament]

@@GamersNexus Would be nice, lets see what happens

[@ACE112ACE112]

@@ByTorAndMe why do different cpus have different best coolers when intuitively the coolers' performance shouldn't change based on the cpu

[@etyrnus]

@@ACE112ACE112 they address it in their video, and it would be interesting to see Steve and GN's take on it as well. A big factor appears to be the heat pipe placement on the contact plate.

[@vogue43]

I ordered a 7950x3d kit yesterday and went with Noctua NH-D15. My old rig, a i7-3960X system, has been running Noctua fans non-stop for 12 years without a hitch so I thought they've earned some brand loyalty.

[@evilleader1991]

Foolish

[@TVAlien]

Not at all, with upgraded brackets, which Noctua will continue to give you when you buy new products, you get really quiet fans and great performance at that low noise. Beem using mine for years and I just keep getting new brackets for new sockets. 4790k->3950x and beyond!

[@braunlajon]

I got 7900X3D and Im waiting for new NH-D15, gave my old system with ND-D15 to my gf.

[@evilleader1991]

Brand loyalty is so stupid, I sold my D15 and got the PS120 and it performs better, is smaller in size and is less than half the price of the ancient D15.

[@vedajanitra8199]

@@evilleader1991imagine judging what people buy with their hard earned money

[@MikeDaveYapOfficial]

For everyone setting eyes on the budget Thermalright Peerless Assassin 120, I highly suggest you spend a bit more to its better successor, the "Thermalright Phantom Spirit 120 SE 7 heatpipes". With the prices I see online, spend a bit more and you'll be able to get the ID-Cooling ZOOMFLOW 240XT Budget AIO

[@AliYassinToma]

One of the best videos ive watched all year.. only improvement id say is a shorter intro.. but thats my personal preference and i can see people getting confused if they are not that tech literate..

[@mileshigh47]

The Peerless Assassin has been my go to! I have probably installed 20 or so this past year, insane value! Hard to believe my NH-D15 was quadruple the price. 🥴

[@jamesm568]

NH-D15 is still my go-to air cooler, but it is expensive, but it is also the best from a more well-established company.

[@colesym84]

There are still swathes of people who will either recommend only either a D15, or a Hyper 212 for budget. Aside from personal noise profile preferences, there is very little reasoning.@@jamesm568

[@bocahdongo7769]

​@@jamesm568It was crushed both thermal and acoustic by newer Frost Spirit 140, with only $50. Seems like Noctua going way tooooo comfortable on its seat

[@3ndlessPain1984]

the spirit is only a few dollars more and cools better overall

[@jamesm568]

@@bocahdongo7769 Depends on your build as some people don't like non-premium brands to be seen in there premium built PC. Got a lot of quality choices out there though.

[@Rey_Fantasma]

i bought a deep cool ak620 thanks to this man this year, been working fantastic

[@sylvie_v2939]

I'm quite glad the Noctua Passive Cooler has won the thermal design category. I can definitely see the use case for high-dust environments where either passive cooling or a 0 RPM option would totally be suitable. I've worked on computers that are completely clogged with dust in industrial or pet settings and no amount of filters will help.

[@ruuukuxp]

I got the Thermalright Phantom Spirit based on your recommendation of the Peerless Assasin. My i5-12400 with Intel stock cooler went from 100 degrees running HD2 to 60 degrees. 40 degrees difference! Thanks for your hard work in testing all these coolers out there.

[@spilledmonster]

I’ve started researching pc parts again to build my partner their first pc and these round up videos have been a huge help!

[@spentcasing3990]

Picked up a Thermalright Phantom Spirit when I upgraded my pc. Performs better then my Noctua for 1/3 the cost

[@Flying_Jorts]

I just put together a 7800X3D build with a Noctua U12A. Keeps the chip super cool with the offset mount. Expensive though.

[@LawrenceAngeloVargas]

got the Deepcool AK620 because of Steve's review last year. then suddenly felt out of place this year because of Peerless Assassin, but yet again we have Phantom Spirit. Still glad we have this improvements on Air coolers.

[@ericjodoin7682]

For Thermalright, could you do a review on the Phantom Spirit 120 (7 6mm heat pipes instead) and the Frost Commander 140 (4 8mm heat pipes)? Also to consider for low profile installation: SI-100 (75mm), AXP120-X67 (67mm) and AXP90-X53 (53mm) I know Noctua would be better but Thermalright prices them about to 35-40% of Noctua's prices

[@tarron3237]

Small correction: The FC140 has 5 8mm pipes

[@manoftherainshorts9075]

The best thing is Noctua would NOT be better. Even Peerless Assassin 120 is better than D15 noise normalized testing. Noctua didn't design new top-end coolers in a long time, it's time for them to finally do something, they are just too outdated and too expensive.

[@meltedfusitediy6625]

Purchased the Thermalright Peerless Assassin 2x120. Replaced stock cooler on an I7 13700 , went from 80c to 43c steady after an hour of gameplay. Thanks for the review.

[@dremy746]

Another great cheap cooler is the Thermalright Phantom Spirit 120 SE. It's pretty much just the Assassin but with an extra heat pipe, which leads to better thermals, and it's about the same price as the assassin (~$33). I bought one to cool an i9 9900K and it has worked well.

[@UncannySense]

the number of heat pipes doesn't neccesarily suggest better cooling as it pertains to the abilty of making contact with the specific CPU. Performance is about the same, so it just comes down to price and aesthetics really.

[@MeneIwen]

While the Phantom Spirit indeed performs a bit better than the Peerless Assassin, a extra heat pipe is no "magic less degrees", it's all about a balance of Size, material, Placement too which matters as much (& more) than quantity of heat pipes!

[@Caesar2001]

@@MeneIwen Tell that to Noctua engineers, their new cooler will have 8 heat pipes. Stfu when you don't know anything about cooling but listen to youtubers telling you that more heat pipes = bad. Obviously the pipes need to be put in a good place to work well Einstein

[@MeneIwen]

@@Caesar2001 I'm sorry heat pipe man I will never have a balanced opinion ever again and now want 50 heat pipes on my fan cooler, thank you for the knowledge!!

[@Caesar2001]

@@MeneIwen DARN RIGHT!!

[@Letstryscience]

I used to have 5 mountain bikes and had to downsize to 2 as life goes on. My computer also went from a O11 Dynamic to a 15L m-itx build because it takes up less space and the metal side panels do better than tempered glass and withstanding whatever my toddler managed to pick up and throw at it. In his defense his justification of, "I felt like throwing it." is pretty solid. I'd love to see some low profile coolers targeted to the m-itx crowd for those of use who had to downsize out of necessity. Thermalright AXP120-X67 Noctua NH-L12 Ghost I.D. Cooling has some 67mm and short coolers. Tower coolers will still be the majority of reviews but a few of these sprinkled in would be nice.

[@doner69]

Just bought the Phantom Spirit 120. Such a great cooler!

[@GamersNexus]

Need to look at that variation on it!

[@walrider]

Yeah it's better than the Pearless and only costs 5-10€ more on Amazon where I am

[@ventilate4267]

​@@GamersNexus it's supposedly slightly better than the peerless

[@Hagop64]

@@GamersNexus It's 7 heat pipes instead of 6. It's the successor to the Peerless Assassin and I'm kind of surprised you haven't used it since it's been out for a while now.

[@ACE112ACE112]

how good is the thermalright phantom spirit 120 vs. the thermalright phantom spirit 120se

[@thaddeuscosse9527]

Its one of the few things in the PC space that you genuinely have budget options. I'm running a Thermalright Assassin X 120 se for 15 bucks. Just amazing value.

[@jake..A]

I've custom looped my pc for the past 10 years and had to temporarily go back to air cooling for a few weeks and picked up the thermalright peerless assassin to cool my 13900k & for the cheap price of $30 I couldn't believe the performance it gives at that price compared to a lot of expensive air coolers on the market.

[@NO0BIE659]

Seeing the Noctua passive cooler reminded me something, have you guys considered using the schlieren imaging on what how static vs airflow type fans flow through a radiator, for AIO and/or custom cooling, just as a side project or for fun? Although I think it would be too time consuming to set it up, especially with all the work going on behind the scenes.

[@plaidygami]

Thank you so much for posting all of these Best of 2023 videos. It's really great to have heavily-rested results to help us make better informed decisions and purchases.

[@FirestormX9]

NH-D15 still performs within around 5-6 degrees in most cases relative to the current best performers. After over a decade. Holy freakin shit, what a design!

[@kimnice]

Wonder what the next gen NH-D15 can do when it launches Q2/24?

[@FirestormX9]

@@kimnice yeah I am really looking forward to it

[@Cinetyk]

"blown away" by the CPU coolers... I see what you did there :) Cheers and thank for all the excellent work over the years.

[@FlyingShoe]

"Blown away" I see what you did there Mr. Punny man

[@CoolArrow78233]

Glad to hear it. Heard good things about it here and online. Absolutely satisfied with my peerless 120

[@flankenstein9467]

Would love to see the Noctua NH-U12A added to the testing, with 1 and 2 fan setup. Mine is paired with 2 Phanteks T-30's, keeps my 11700K all core 4.9ghz, under 82C at full load while drawing 249 watts.

[@Kiwirnango]

The way you divided up the GPU list based on price ranges was much better than these category awards.

[@Lucas-hz4um]

I was really hoping to get some data on the new thermalright phantom spirit. I just bought the 120 evo version and it's a beast

[@HecklerUK]

Just installed a Peerless Assassin 120 that cost me about £30 in the UK. It replaced a 10yr old Noctua NHU9 that cooled my mediaserver. I needed a smaller cooler with 92mm fans in my old silverstone HTPC case at the time. Was also running on the AMD FX platform and later on a Ryzen 5 2600X. But when I upgraded my system to a 5800X3D, I swapped the old 3800X into my server and it couldn't cope without ramping up the fans to VERY NOISY :) So I ended up underclocking the 3800X to 3ghz and lowered voltage to 1v... Still more than powerful enough for serving up and transcoding media. To allow the CPU to be run at stock speeds, I bought the PA120 based on your review of it. Unfortunately, as I removed the noctua cooler, it pulled the 3800X out of the socket and then dropped it onto the socket/board... bending a few pins. I couldn't repair them (some one probably could)... So I ended up getting a 5600G to replace it, and removed the GPU from the system altogether. So a more efficient CPU and lower overall power draw for the system with the IGPU. The old notctua kept the 3800X (at 3ghz) around the 40-41ºC mark at idle on silent mode with the fan speeds lowered with the inline resistor adapter, but would spike to 55-60ºC at times even when not doing much and that caused the rest of the PWM fans (Corsair & Noctua) in the system to constantly ramp up and down, which was noisy and annoying. The PA120 keeps the 5600G at 35ºC in silent mode... and because temps aren't spiking at all now, the rest of the fans run silent too. Thanks for the recommendation... I didn't however take Patricks recommendation via email for the new server case. Instead opting for the thermaltake core V70, as I needed lots of HDD bays and 5 1/4" bays for a BDrom (yes, some of us still require them for ripping media).

[@Densoh]

Would have love to see a "Best Low-Profile" air cooler given the popularity of mini-ITX systems. Maybe next year!

[@cjm5002]

Your reviews have been pretty critical in my business as of late. I may not agree with some of your views and such but I want to still thank you for the testing you do! I've been able to expand my skillset to multiple areas in PC building due to that, like air cooling being a thing again with coolers like the peerless assassin. And thanks to this very review I now have a cooling solution in mind for my friends studio computer 9:39 ... keep it up gents!

[@br0wnbrownbrown]

Hey GN, unrelated to the video but when is the full steam deck OLED review coming? Looking forward to it!

[@GamersNexus]

Patrick's been working on it. He had a vacation planned right when it dropped, so we had a pause in the middle. We're hoping it's done this week, but will see!

[@viarr824]

MIssing: Thermalright Frost Commander 140 Mine is great!

[@00wheelie00]

I watch this cooler videos every year, yet my NH-D15 has been functioning flawless for years now.

[@I_saw_that956]

I was looking at getting one myself, I hear the longevity and performance is amazing, does it live up to the hype in your opinion?

[@conorstewart2214]

@@I_saw_that956 if you haven’t gotten it already then hold off and wait for the new version on Q2 2024.

[@nunuu88]

I bought the peerless assassin 120 SE rgb a week ago for a r5 7600 and I can only say that the work it does is amazing, I'm very satisfied

[@chuck7024]

I just got the white one, super happy to hear that lol

[@stalkholm5227]

I don't know if this is too much to ask: Could you add *fan* normalized testing to your suite? It would help discern how much of the cooling performance is from the cooler, and how much is from the included fans.

[@justwinclassic]

GREAT IDEA

[@iuhere]

this one video had a lot more information that I could watch just once, yes its long but useful and informational. THanks for sharing this one adn good luck for future ones.

[@AlexanderAhjolinna]

still happy with my Scythe Fuma 2 ...I do wonder when the reviews of Scythe's new models will arrive, it would be nice to see how much has changed

[@3D_foos]

i was coming to say "still happy with my Scythe Fuma 2" glad to see i'm not the only one. it is starting to show it's limitations but it's been a contender longer than most.

[@stevenvanderkolk3613]

Fuma 3 has been reviewed on Hardware Canucks

[@TriggerBlister]

Built my first rig over a year ago the Peerless Assassin 120 still cooling my 5800x below 54* C. I also maintain a clean dust free case which helps. I used Thermal Grizzly Aeronaut paste in case anyone was wondering.

[@Kostek]

I'm using Noctua NH-D15 and it's really great.

[@farrellbeast]

I love my D15. Happy that the air cooler market is finally catching up, but still a bit sad seeing the D15 pushed down the list a bit

[@Kostek]

@@brentsmith7013 i'm using it currently on a test bench with 14700k.

[@Gilgame22]

The only problem is that the NH-D15 is one of the most expensive air cooling options, costing about $80 more than the Peerless Assassin and it performs slightly worse. The NH-D15 has been around for ten years and it has had to accommodate changes to computers including overbuilt VRMs and CPU 'buckles' that hold the CPU down. There are new issues arising from design flaws, or other issues that complicate cooling. The 1700 socket in particular has an issue with inconsistent pressure across the surface of the CPU, which means that the coldplate at the bottom of the heatsink and the CPU itself have imperfect contact, even with correct application of thermal paste. It seems that the Peerless assassin does a better job with this, at least with AMD CPUs.

[@stuffmcstuff399]

I use the peerless assassin 120 SE with a 5800x3d on a msi mag b550 MB with 64gb ram at 3600mhz. I use the Corsair 4000D Airflow case with all Notcua case fans (except for the cpu cooler) and I get 27 degrees Celsius idle and 60 degrees Celsius under 100% cpu load with -20 on the curve thing when underclocking. Really love this cooler, Cheap and God tier.

[@jubuttib]

This would have been great to know on FRIDAY... Nah just kidding, awesome review compilation! I've had my D15 for years and years now, and it's kinda awesome to see that finally the rest of the industry has caught up and even surpassed it, at a better price too. =)

[@amacielbr]

Yeah. I've been using my NH-D15s for 5 or 6 years it's good to know that I can replace it for something better for a fair price.

[@TheMrZ100]

My mom is overhearing me watching this review. She is impressed with your level of detail and was wondering if you could review different pizza ovens for her XD

[@DrBreezeAir]

I run an NH-U14S that's over 7 years old now on my 12600K, Noctua sent me the LGA-1700 adapter for free. It performs perfectly. I've never seen temps over 64 C degrees. I have plans to upgrade to a 13700K, hopefully, it'll be enough.

[@fnx427]

Same here. Got it for my 4770K, then 3700X, now 5800X3D and I expect to use it on my next upgrade too.

[@MikeMatzke]

The Noctua NH-U14S is working great on my LGA4677 system, its just HUGE!

[@whitebox96]

Do you think that the Scythe Fuma 2 is no longer a good purchase?

[@gufostanco220]

Yesterday I was wondering when you would upload a video on this topic. Here it is!

[@scip11]

The best value cooler is the Noctua NH-D15S, bought it for my Athlon x4 750k 8 years ago , then used it on a 5820k, now it is on my AM5 7600X. Only had to get a new mounting kit, the fan is still working flawlessly.

[@jasonh9523]

I've had an SE-214 White ARGB on my daughters 1600AF build for over a year. It keeps it nice and cool at 4.2GHz. Very solid cooler. The Thermalright AssassinX120 SE ARGB on my other daughters build w/ a 2600 at 4 GHz is also a solid cooler for basically the same price.

[@terrytaylor2104]

Very interesting, I may have to rethink my air cooler. I could have sworn you had reviewed the MA824 this year which had a strong rating. Was there any particular reason why it didn't make this year end round up Steve?

[@Dan-Simms]

That Peerless Assassin sure is a chart topper, I was so happy when you guys tested it too b/c it was the top performer on many other channels I watch too. Will def be getting one if I upgrade my CPU soon.

[@thewildcard600]

apparently it gets slightly outclassed by the Phantom Spirit which is also a Thermalright cooler xD who knew

[@TigonIII]

@@thewildcard600 It would seem that the Phantom Spirit is the successor to the Peerless Assassin with an extra heat-pipe and a slightly different fin-stack design. Else everything looks the same.

[@andersjjensen]

@@TigonIII For the non-ARB version there also looks to be a different top cover that gives the thing a bit less barebones look.

[@petedeffner7002]

⁠@@TigonIIIThere are so many versions on Amazon. Is it the 120 or the 120SE?

[@barrelrole]

is it possible to put too many fans in your case? i just use a stock wraith cpu fan.

[@GamersNexus]

Yes, definitely. Great question too. If you don't have them pointed the right way, you can end up exhausting cool air before it hits the CPU (or just running it in an unoptimized way, especially for noise)

[@barrelrole]

​@@GamersNexusThanks for the reply GN . I always appreciate the high quality investigative work you guys do! It helped me enormously in buying parts and building my ryzen pc the last 3 years

[@PikkaKok]

I have the same fan whine with the DeepCool AK620 from last year. It was a bit of disapointment since pretty much no reviews mentioned this back then. Thanks for acknowledging it!

[@aylim3088]

Blown away, huh?

[@Gamecapturevideo]

Thanks Dad Steve.

[@isaacr7416]

Phew i just bought the thermalight peerless assassin bc of your similar video a year or so ago. Glad its still on top!!!

[@marks9233]

Thank you! You rock for doing these thorough tests! For the new test benches --> The Arctic Liquid Freezer III is supposed to pants the AF II. The Deepcool LT520 AIO is supposed to rock too. Also ThermalRight's Phantom Spirit SE air cooler shows up on a lot of bests, instead of the Peerless Assassin. Also, the AMD 7000 series chip is supposed to behave differently, so would like to see the newer 7000 series chips tested and perhaps Intel's upcoming new chips Rocket Lake (?). Or explain why it doesn't matter? More people probably want to know what to put on their new builds. THANK YOU for all your hard work and attention to detail! It shows! Excellent!!

[@Mira-bt3zx]

Happy to see that I bought the right cooler last week. Bought a Peerless Assassin for the 5800x I bought on Black Friday.

[@MrSmitheroons]

Would love to see attention on the budget coolers, since the $40 and up range seems to be spoiled for options *and* coverage, while the $30 and below aren't being reviewed so much! I love the stuff you've already reviewed, would definitely be excited to see those on the new test benches. Other than the ones you've already reviewed... Ones I want to see from Thermalright: - Assassin Spirit V2 (is it still good like the original you've tested? Any difference at all?) - "Evo" series from Thermalright (sure, ARGB fans and gamer styling, piggybacking off the 212 Evo's fame, whatever... But the fans have more RPMs, too! Does this make a difference? Are they just loud for no reason??) - Assassin X (non-refined) V2 (this has a solid contact plate, no direct-touch heatpipes! What gives? Also the fans have rubber on the corners now.) - Assassin King MINI V2 (This one is slightly shorter and with a "mini"er fin stack than most 120mm towers. Still way taller than a downdraft though. Quirky and weird. Any good?) - Silver Soul 110 and 135 (some of the shortest upright tower coolers that I know of. Dual tower single fan. Any good?) - Assassin King, Burst Assassin (These have 5 and 6 heatpipes, respectively. In a small single tower. Why??) Ones I want to see from other brands: - Deepcool AG400/AG500 (Is it as good as the expensive and better-looking AK400/AK500?) - ID Cooling SE-224-XT/XTS (HardwareCanucks really liked this one a while ago. Still good on LGA1700/AM5??) - ID Cooling FROZN series (These look good aesthetically, from a historically good performing brand. Any good?) - Thermaltake ToughAir 310 (On sale at the moment. Did well when HardwareCanucks tested it a while back. Still any good on LGA1700/AM5?) - Thermaltake UX200 SE (honestly just looks good and a well-known brand. How is the performance, though?) - Gelid "Rev 5 TranQuilo" (I have one of their fans, and it's been going strong for ~13 years, quiet and cool, and really like them for that reason. How about their heatsinks?) - Gelid's "Glacier Black" (dual-tower dual-fan option.) - Cougar Forza Essential 50 (silly brand name, vague sports car company vibes... any good?) Curiosity for mini 90mm tower coolers: - Thermalright Assassin X 90 SE / Assassin King 90 - Gelid "BlackFrore" - ID Cooling SE-914-XT - Arctic Freezer 7X - Pure Rock Slim 2 - Jonsbo CR1400?? (4 heat pipes version) EDIT: Some more 90mm ones that seemed popular on PCPartPicker: - Noctua NH-U9S (single tower chunky90mm) - Noctua NH-D9L (tiny cute dual-tower single-fan) - Cryorig M9i (single tower single fan) and M9 Plus (same tower, 2 fans, I think) - Various downdraft actually low-profile (non-tower) coolers, I'm not that interested in these for performance reasons, but if they perform better than I expect, I will start being more interested in them for sure. I will be super happy to see any mainstream reviewer joining Hardware Canucks on the LGA1700 / AM5 train, since that's realistically where a lot of CPU purchases are going to be in the very near future! (Although... AM4 is honestly still going very strong! Crazy to see it even after AM5 has been out for a while.) Thanks for considering at all, and good luck with the testing!

[@junk3996]

i picked up a deepcool ak400 zero dark plus model for $50 CND when i put this rig together (8months-ish ago). very happy with the asthetics and performance

[@reignman30]

Just bought that exact cooler myself. Almost cut my gaming temps in half compared to the stock 5600x cooler.

[@InsaneFirebat]

You made me want to watch the NH-P1 video again. That's cool to hear you're still using them.

[@EmblemParade]

This video is such a journey. :) Most of us do quick research and buy a cooler and that's it. You guys make this decision confident. Have a great end of year, GN, you are a treasure for PC builders.

[@sethdou10]

I know the best overall one must be PA120, so many of my friends using this one. Really nice!

[@yukisnoww]

Another banger to finish off my sunday, thanks steve.

[@HAFBeast91]

Thanks Steve

[@JonathanRLight]

Always love the year end content from GN, best of and worst of the year type videos. I have a D15 and a Peerless, and if I'm only looking at the temps I don't think I could tell the difference. I do like the way Noctua over-engineers everything (not sarcasm), but the price just isn't even close.

[@duckzor]

That quiet room looks so dope! Congrats on your accomplishments, and can't wait to see what the future holds! This is my favorite KZbin channel, so thank you!

[@MisiuAcademy]

I still have the Be Quiet Dark Rock Pro 4. Incredibly happy and is keeping my 14600k cool and silent! Been going strong since 2020 when I got a 10500!

[@PsychoStreak]

Would love to see these best coolers tested on the new platforms. It would let us know which of these would be feasible to carry forward to a new system. That and more tests of low profile coolers. with so many sandwich stype ITX cases out there, as well as older cases that don't support tower coolers, it's an area that doesn't get enough coverage.

[@Johnny2Gats]

The thermalright coolers have been my go to for PC flips. I’ve probably bought 15-20 of the spirit and assassin combined. Such an improvement over stock cooling options, and when buying used CPUs they usually don’t come with a stock cooler anyway

[@manoftherainshorts9075]

ID Cooling and Thermalright are competing very hard on a market right now

[@Wahinies]

Thank you for this analysis GN, continuing on into 2024 with quality content makes papa proud

[@albe8479]

currently in process to select my new PC components, this came up incredibly useful. But in the end the peerless assassin reigns supreme for stock or mild overclock. Will do great for my 7800X3D

[@Jamesssssssssssssss]

Love that you make videos like this. Love you guys!