TINY Beast: Thermalright Peerless Assassin Mini Cooler Review & Benchmarks

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The Thermalright Peerless Assassin Mini is the next in Thermalright's seemingly never-ending avalanche of CPU coolers, and we're reviewing and benchmarking it vs. the original Peerless Assassin. The full Peerless Assassin 120 (PA120) has earned its spot as one of the best CPU coolers in 2024 (so far), and 2023, and 2022, and just generally one of the best value in recent years. This smaller variant cuts a fan, reduces the size, but keeps other elements the same to try and keep Intel and AMD CPUs cool enough while fitting (at least slightly) better in some ITX or smaller form factor cases.
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RELATED PRODUCTS [Affiliate Links]
Thermalright Peerless Assassin Mini on Amazon: geni.us/UjUa438
Arctic Freezer 36 on Amazon: geni.us/YPd6asm
Thermalright Peerless Assassin air cooler on Newegg: howl.me/clFOhwtvZxG
Thermalright Peerless Assassin air cooler on Amazon: geni.us/SjIrJgn
DeepCool Assassin IV on Newegg: howl.me/clFOiYOuW6V
Arctic Liquid Freezer III on Newegg: howl.me/clFOfj4zl7i
Arctic Liquid Freezer III on Amazon: geni.us/wXZd
TIMESTAMPS
00:00 - Thermalright Has a Cooler Addiction
02:35 - Silver Soul 135 vs. Peerless Assassin Mini
04:24 - Competition & Alternatives to the Peerless Assassin
05:15 - Mechanical Design
07:15 - Testing Plan
07:55 - Thermals: 200W Noise-Normalized
10:00 - Thermals: 200W Full Fan Speed
10:59 - Thermals: 123W Noise-Normalized
12:38 - Thermals: 123W Full Fan Speed
13:06 - VRM Thermals: 200W Noise Normalized
13:58 - Pressure Scan Testing
15:20 - One of the Best Pressure Scans
16:20 - Peerless Assassin Installation Instructions (Intel & AMD)
20:28 - Straight-Forward
20:45 - Conclusion
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Steve Burke: Host, Test Lead
Mike Gaglione: Testing, Host
Vitalii Makhnovets: Video

[@GamersNexus]

Begun, the bot war has. Again. Not sure why some videos attract more than others -- they seemed to really like this cooler! In the meantime, check out our review of the new Arctic Freezer 36 cheap tower cooler here! kzbin.info/www/bejne/fGanoGStjaufn7c

[@shaneeslick]

G'day Steve, I saw this Cooler recently & wonder if you have it added to your list "APNX AP1 ARGB" apparently it has a 245W capability & down here is priced similar to DeepCool AK620/NZXT T120/Thermaltake TOUGHAIR 510/Cooler Master Hyper 622/Deepcool LE500 AIO $80-$90AUD at PCCG

[@KC-nd7nt]

Curious about the performance if you remove the paint on the cooler . Maybe some acid would strip it easily . Back to you

[@truckerallikatuk]

Could you add a 4u server case to the tests? Just to see if it'll fit inside with the lid on. A really cheap, basic one will do the job just fine, just set a junk board with the cooler on onto the standoffs and see if it would prevent the lid closing.

[@henrythegreatamerican8136]

Seeing all these boring videos about coolers seems to cool my enthusiasm to view Gamer's Nexus content!

[@salmon131]

8:42 suggestion for charts like this: Was trying to look at other air coolers to compare it to & found the right-justified text made it a bit harder. Could you split the single text box for each cooler into several columns with the key stats? Kinda already half there with [fan count] [liquid/air] name - xxxxRPM So you'd have a column for fan count, one for liquid/air etc

[@Rayndalf]

Color coding liquid vs. air coolers could make the charts easier to read at a glance.

[@ThePiprian]

That is a very good idea!

[@Zyxlian]

I was just about to comment this. Maybe like a water droplet or something might work if color doesn't make sense.

[@Pareloxia]

I had the exact same thought because the AIOs are in the chart, but weren't being mentioned as direct competitors. Colors would be easier to pick out.

[@GalileoAV]

What about light blue for air and dark blue for water? Would still match the rest of the effects

[@syzer4]

I agree

[@deepfriedlettuce851]

This mini model makes a lot of sense in the Chinese market. The silver soul has been really popular with a lot of the ITX cases from the small shops which happens to fit coolers exactly 135mm tall

[@darkienescariot9361]

I am unironically hoping that the Steve Burke Award for Technical/Engineering Excellence is an actual industry standard one day. Thanks so much, man

[@sarimsalman2698]

Even if it's unofficial, it means a lot for a product

[@Epsi1ong]

I want to at least see an official Better Than Dell award someday

[@bazooka712]

Thanks Steve

[@sarimsalman2698]

@@Epsi1ong That award will have literally 0 prestige attached to it

[@TheChach]

And you if you win you have to begin your acceptance speech with, "Thanks, Steve."

[@fredsorre6605]

Thermalright has been the budget king for while now

[@MakeYourVision]

Same in the past. I used TR coolers for over 15 years and they always had excellent budget and not only models.

[@Anarcho-harambeism]

loving mine for my 5800x

[@ACE112ACE112]

phantom spirit 120 se and non se seem to be good

[@andersjjensen]

Winning "overall best" when shooting for the "best value" category is pretty damn good. It's usually the quality of life things, like a sane mounting kit, that are the first casualties on all-value products.

[@mevans4953]

They’re on equal footing with Noctua now, and just getting better. Noctua is just a brand now, all they have is the brown color and apart from themed builds I don’t know anyone who wants them. Every time I see one in a PCPP list I fix their cooler and put in an AIO or Thermal right instead

[@nostreborelyk]

Love the sarcasm, as usual. One suggestion. When the credits pop up at 0:45, and the three icons indicating where the device came from, its difficult to actually read the icons and their respective text. Lots of background noise, things get lost. Maybe add a background for those icons and text, similar to the credits animation. Your call, its your videos. Clever way to make that part known though, I like it.

[@GamersNexus]

Will do! Thanks!

[@Edgemaster72]

Glad I'm not the only one who had difficulty with that overlay

[@ThatKoukiZ31]

Oh yeah I didn't even see that in this video. Nice catch

[@MrCommunistGen]

I think a plain background is a good solution! My knee-jerk thought was to make the options that aren't applicable to the product semi-transparent. But that'd probably require more compositing/rendering time (I know next to nothing about video production).

[@TheBrister123]

Thanks for posting that. I remember a while ago Steve was asking the audience about putting icons up to categorize videos. I understand the idea for categorization sake, but now we have to lookup what the icons mean and I'm not sure it adds anything. There is no way to select videos with this categorization either.

[@RangerAmateur]

Was really looking forward to the comparison to the SS135, but I guess I'm asking too much for a niche product. Worth noting that 135mm is considered the golden standard for many ITX/MATX cases with "reference configuration", like the OG Ncase, Meshroom D, C4-SFX (to some extent), and that's why Thermalright has these products.

[@marksulloway5669]

Me too.

[@joeyknock0]

+1 for a SS135 comparison.

[@saadqamar9237]

someone has already made a comparison on youtube dont remember the channel or the vid sorry

[@GLoK-OG]

Best tech channel on KZbin! Great work GN Steve.

[@GamersNexus]

Thank you for the kind words!

[@GLoK-OG]

@@GamersNexus sometimes the facts are kind. No problem.

[@aftermax01]

​@@GamersNexusThanks to all the team

[@tomferguson9250]

NGL Steve is rocking the hint of gray in those luscious Fabio-esque locks, like LANDalf the Grey

[@AliciaDestiny]

awwwww it's so cute and adorable !! As someone that used the coolermaster geminiII S cooler I'm definitely gonna consider this if I'm ever need a low profile cooler. Most of my builds have been white themed PCs as of late as well.

[@chucklos391]

😂😂😂

[@larryrodriguez1977]

I have used the silver soul 135 about half a dozen times on budget itx systems. 9600K, 16gb ram and a 2070 usually in an NZXT h210. For the price it was a great cooler. Now I will have to look at the assassin mini because I love the full size version. As always a great and informative video. Thank you for what you do!

[@dianaalyssa8726]

Thanks for all the testing. I do love the TR coolers, have a few of them.

[@grantsparks6554]

Recently bought a VCR/DVR/HTPC style case for an old build and an ID Cooling IS-55, selected for the perceived performance while staying under 70cm tall. Since the whole case is only about 100cm tall externally, so a flat tower/low profile cooler was essential. Thanks for reviewing the Jiushark previously, helped inform me of some of the more "exotic" options on the market. Seeing some IS-50/55 competitors in the sub 100mm range would be cool, especially at that ~120 W TDP that the 5800x3D and 7800x3D like to run at during full boost.

[@richardfarmer6570]

Thanks for reviewing this since there aren't many reviews out on it. This is a great cooler for specific cases like the Ncase M1 EVO.

[@2400Baud]

The Silver Soul 110 and 135 are some of my favourite Thermalright coolers. Both my work PCs are running the 110s (i7-6700K and a Xeon E3-1241 V3) and I have a 10th gen i7 system I crammed in an old beige industrial desktop case with a 135. My first Thermalright cooler was one of their Macho series nearly a decade ago, and I've stuck with them ever since.

[@saadqamar9237]

The price to performance from thermalright is actually impressive. I am using Peerless Assassin Mini and works perfectly for me as I have mid tower case and the 135mm is a sweet size.

[@dakon2154]

I hope we will also see a review of the new EVO. Great video as always. Very informative!

[@singular9]

Built a customers pc today with a peerless assassin 120. Perfect value and great performance. Thanks for the review.

[@vampula12]

Dude, i just LOVE air coolers. Thank you and the team for doing the review.

[@RANDOMNATION907]

Oh wow, very timely. I was just about to buy the Silver Soul. I have repurposed an old Dell mATX tower with a Zen+ build in it to serve as a backup system. I have 149mm of clearance to work with. This video is right on time. Thanks Steve.

[@blackasthesky]

I honestly like the small variant just from the looks, idk what it is. Very cool, thanks!

[@PaintMasterPoE]

24:51 theres few interesting ones, including thermalright lol 1. Thermalright Assassin X 90 SE - 119mm tall, $20 2. Thermalright Assassin King 120 Mini - 135mm tall, $20m. Seems like its fairly new as well 3. ID-COOLING FROZN A400 - 123mm tall, $25 4. Jonsbo CR-1400 EVO - 130mm tall, $25 5. Thermalright Silver Soul 110 - 110mm tall, $28 6. ID-COOLING SE-914-XT - 131mm tall, $30 7. ID-COOLING SE-207-XT SLIM - 135mm tall, $35. This one has 7 heatpipes, when coolers above 4-6. 8. RAIJINTEK DELOS RBW - 136mm tall, $40. Really weird looking double tower. Nothing interesting above $40, and starting at $45 theres bunch of 240mm aio most of which are thermalright

[@noloboy]

Perfect timing! This will fit my 4U case with a 12700K CPU. Gonna try it out. Thanks Steve!

[@konradsikorski1646]

One thing that I would love to see (or rather hear) is a short segment of frequency graphs and audio samples of the fans and/or water pump. Kind of like what you did with the Arctic LF3 for the VRM cooler and water pump. For example you could maybe play a sample of the 35dB noise-normalized test. I personally also consider the noise-type and expected “soundscape” (specifically when idling on desktop without headphones on) when choosing computer parts.

[@johnpaulbacon8320]

Thanks for this comprehensive review.

[@TechModProjects]

I feel like the mounting process often gets overlooked when is deserves praise. Frankly having a cooler with such good contact aa well as being easy to work worth in itself has plenty of value. Great video as always GN

[@G3BEWD]

The soul 135 is so good, I can't believe no one has reviewed it yet.

[@marksulloway5669]

Works well with Ryzen 5950X.

[@reinulf656]

It looks interesting. I'd appreciate a review as well!

[@nkozi]

Machines & More has, but i think he's the only one.

[@azza5056]

the soul 135 or pa120 mini? Which one is the best?

[@marksulloway5669]

PA120 has deeper fins & greater mass & should provide additional cooling. SS135 will be easier to fit in smaller cases.@@azza5056

[@marksulloway5669]

Thank you for this. Have been using the same height but lower mass Thermalright Silver Soul 135 without issue with a Ryzen 5950X in the 10 liter Lazer 3D prototype LZX-10 case. One item to note: At least on the SS135 and probably with the Peerless Assassin Mini is that ordinary 25mm wide 120mm fans will properly mount between between the two fin stacks. You might want to select a standard 120x25mm fan to further identify the ultimate cooling potential of these air coolers. As to downdraft coolers - the Thermalright SI-100 would be a good candidate for testing.

[@lastink444]

The most confusing part for me in these tests is the "temps over ambient". I mean I'm looking at a 63 C in charts and be like -- nice cooler, and then I'm reminded to add 21 C more, and at the 84 C it feels a lot different. Great review as always!

[@berkertaskiran]

Why would you add 21C? Pretty sure they don't do tests at 0C, lol.

[@benjaminsonksen4451]

@GamersNexus we absolutely need a shoot-out of air coolers shorter than 148mm overall height that can use 120mm fan or fans. They could be compared as they come; however, since we replace fans any way they should definitely be compared using the same exact fan in single fan push and double fan. Many builds I've done for people for home use computer upgrades with moderate gaming have been at that height due to case dimensions, as well as Mini-ITX builds in cube chassis, and more common 150mm+ tower coolers are too tight. ID-Cooling SE-207-XT Slim, Noctua NH-D12L, Thermalright Peerless Assassin Mini, Silver Soul 135, Assassin X120 Refined SE, Cryorig H7 Quad Lumi (if you can find one), and whatever else may be out there like maybe the Arctic Freezer 4U-M. Probably use a 30mm fan like Phanteks T30 to show which coolers it will fit, plus another fan choice at 25mm. Not much out there on this except from Machines & More. Most other comparisons online don't bother testing them using the same fan, which is critical. If a cooler performs poorly, it could be a good cooler that comes with a junk fan. It may seem like a tiny little niche, but is much more common than realized especially since being overshadowed by gaming rig attention. Thank you for what you do!

[@opraiderman904]

I was just shopping for a new cooler for my Inwin A1, perfect timing!

[@DazTheMe]

I absolutely loved Thermalright back in the day....they ruled the air cooled world when it was Athlon vs Core2Duo and Core2Quad days ect. I had the Thermalright Ultra Extreme 120 then moved over to the Thermalright IFX-14 Which had a rear cooler to cool the back side of the CPU socket as well. I doubt you'll see this but it'd be amazing if you could do a small series on trying to find and modify old CPU coolers to see how they would perform on modern CPUs, such as the Thermalright ones mentioned along with early 2000's stuff like the Tuniq Tower, the old Zalman spiral or flower coolers, The Coolermaster v8,v10,v12 ect. Probably loads more I can't think of

[@sannie892]

I m a fan of your channel and follow you guys for over a year now. I watched all your videos since then and you, together with @JayZTwoCents, helped me in deciding wich components to choose for my last build. However , i am kind of disappointed to see that nobody even mentiona the MSI MEG CORELIQUID S360 . I have decided for my last build wich was early 2023 for this AIO and i must say for a 13600K it may even be overkill with max OC(max OC that the silicone alows). I keep asking myself why is it that nobody even mentions this AIO, much less review it 😞. Greetings from Germany and keep up the good work 👍👍👍

[@FrodeBergetonNilsen]

I only got the Noctua NH-U9S in this height class. It is an old design and not really that great. I only have the single fan option. But there is one thing that I would like to point out: It has an open fin stack on the sides and is fairly wide. This allows for running it in a dual push mode, which on that particular cooler is really interesting. I only have a single thick fan, so I am running a dual slim setup, and it seems to outperform the thick single fan quite a bit. I think. I did reapply the paste. Anyways, running a signgle tower as if it was a dual one, in dual push, is a quite an interesting option, as it actually makes a ton of sense. In dual push, which these slim noctua 92mm fans, it runs incredibly silent, using a 7700 ryzen. Back in the day, the dual tower one performed worse than the single tower one, so if anyone back then had just flipped one fan, the difference would probably have been even greater. I keep on hinting about this, but nobody seems to get this. It works as heat is not stacked. Also, the volume is increased, so the hit experienced as to the increased impedance, is less than the gain. Lets see if anyone gets it this time. I will release a video about, shortly. This is like a last call to fame. I probably also should stress that I use ducts on mine, so the temp difference is really great.

[@kaseyboles30]

Steve is getting very good at introducing things. By Name.

[@Watsmypwrlvl]

The installation was a nice touch to the video

[@Elavationproductions]

This channel is the goat. Never change

[@CirynthLighthammer]

Thanks Steve and GN!

[@boydolson5350]

This cooler handles my 7800x3d at stock setting in the ncase m1evo with a dell 4090 blowing hot air through it. Im incredibly happy with it

[@jamescheddar4896]

yeah 7800x3d tends to not overclock well but its already like 5x the capabilities of 7800x

[@boydolson5350]

@@jamescheddar4896 moreso indicating that I didn't undervolt to get better tempz

[@Perforator2000]

I found that the Thermalright Silver Soul 135 was exactly the right size for my mini ITX build in a 10 liter Cubeor Aski 2 case. It's on a Ryzen 7 5800X and it seems to be doing okay.

[@Sightbain.]

Couple things I am looking for in these reviews / charts is a brief talk of what each step in wattage correlates to in terms of current gen CPU's, a stock cooler for comparison especially at the lower watt comparisons and some differentiator for air coolers and liquid coolers so the charts themselves are more readable. Thanks!

[@brianrobinson3961]

I’ve been using this cooler in NR200P with 13700K running stock. Pretty happy with the performance. I do have a side exhaust and 2 slim intake fans at the bottom with 4080 Super.

[@qlimaxmito]

Thank you for the review. I'm chiming in to offer my perspective as a potential buyer: I have a Micro-ATX case which on paper can fit coolers up to 160mm in height, but with a fan mounted on the side-panel (which I do have) compatibility drops to medium-thickness single-tower heatsinks and only if mounted horizontally (i.e. vertical airflow), otherwise they collide with the side fan. 160mm clearance - 25mm side fan thickness = 135mm, exactly this cooler's height, so this form factor is the perfect fit for my setup. This said I think it'd be interesting to see how it compares to a tall/thick downdraft cooler such as the Thermalright SI-100 or the Noctua NH-C14S as they occupy a similar volume.

[@neutronpcxt372]

So I just saw on another comment reply that you ordered the Thermalright Phantom Spirit. Did you order the regular one or the EVO variant? If you did order the EVO variant, you could also swap fans with the Peerless Assasin to see how much the fans help.

[@ZAKKORD]

It's not just the fans, EVO has a different coating, people have tested EVO with the normal fans from regular PS and EVO was a bit better

[@neutronpcxt372]

@@ZAKKORD Perhaps, but unit to unit variance means this could just be a difference down to the build.

[@depression_daily]

How long do you think it would take you and the team to review EVERY Thermalright air cooler?

[@GamersNexus]

Hahahaha, I think they might release coolers faster than we can review them!

[@axelNodvon2047]

@@GamersNexusPlease do their aios 🙏

[@crookim]

That table would be super confusing with the amount of assasins! 😂

[@OneShotCS]

@@axelNodvon2047 Air coolers are where it's at :)

[@ErynTzun]

Another GN channel entirely Thermalright reviews. lol

[@QuiteLunacy]

That intro was great!😂

[@guerrinlove69]

I just installed a Phantom Spirit evo on my 5800x3d, and I will say that Thermalright has made installation so easy. I was dreading it, as I've only ever used 212's over the past decade for the dozens of computers I've built for family and friends. I hope Thermalright is here to stay for a while and continues to kick ass in the budget cooling sector. Their 140mm case fans are also cheap and perform well above their more expensive competition

[@Andrew.K64]

Bought this and installed it today! It was super easy and fit perfectly in my Corsair Carbide Spec 05. It gave me a 10+ celsius improvement in Helldivers with a Ryzen 7 5800X3D. Had a Corsair H60 for years. Had no clue it was one of the worst performing CPU Coolers especially for the price :/ Thank you for the review Steve this was perfect timing for me!! Already loving this thing!

[@mikekleiner3741]

I own four of their coolers and love them all. Can't believe the value they offer, got three of their U120EX for $20 each. Just the fans are almost worth that alone.

[@HighlightReel]

I saw that you tested the NH-D12S, but did you test the NH-D12L? I am curious how that performs, particularly in the use case of 4U rackmount server cases and small ATX (I have one I'm about to put in a Cerberus X). It's expensive but has a way lower height clearance and space for an additional NF-A12x25r, so there's two possible configurations there too. As always thanks for the very rigorous work testing!

[@opraiderman904]

Wow, truly end of an era with the new new case test bench!

[@Ramshackle6984]

I'm interested in this for my new build aesthetically. I just used their Burst Assassin ($25) on my 7800X3D with a CO -20mv and full load it's ~65*C. The Burst is doing its job well for a single tower, single fan, 6 pipe. This white Assassin Mini would look trick on my ASRock B650E Steel Legend motherboard and matching 7900 GRE. Thermalright is killing it in the air cooler market!

[@ethancrosby2573]

Very neat backplate on this one! Maybe uncessarry complication, but certainly cooler than just having the elonged hole style on some other coolers

[@ShimejiiGaming]

Thermalright just said WRITE THAT DOWN For the Peerless assassin master :P

[@prajwalnoronha2818]

Peerless Assassin already has a successor i.e Phantom Spirit 120 (aka PS120SE). Which improves on the already impressive PA120.

[@JikoMuskato]

Looks very similar to the Noctua NH-D12L, too. That one's a not really old Noctua cooler itself, released like two years ago, which is pretty new by Noctua standards. :D

[@fairycat]

Nice review.

[@3silver702]

Scythe Big Shruiken 3 is a 5 heat pipe low profile cooler I have on my ITX PC in my living room. Works good. Give it a go on the bench.

[@Kaesarx]

Should definitely compare the PA Mini to the Silver Soul 135, Silver Soul 110, and SI-100.

[@Milkshakman]

Reviewing this cooler honestly feels incomplete with no comparison to the SS135.

[@bismuth7730]

ID cooling has some smaller models that look really interesting and have an almost cult following online.

[@elvisliu5852]

especially for ITX coolers, only Thermalright and ID-COOLING have the full range to cover almost any height between 27mm to 67mm.

[@esotericjahanism5251]

@@elvisliu5852 I just hope Thermalright brings more of their coolers to the NA market. Ever been to their ALiexpress store front? like half their coolers don't even make to the US

[@shaneeslick]

G'day Steve, The Peerless Assassin Mini is available for Aussies at Scorptec for $65AUD which is a little cheaper than the original Peerless Assassin 120 $69AUD

[@heclanet]

I bought a Cooler the same but from ID COOLING, it's a dwarf version of a normal Cooler, the model is ID-COOLING SE-207-XT. I only realized it until I put it on the PC

[@ko_tech]

Comparing it to the Noctua NH-D12L could also be interesting. It's a bit taller but it's probably their closest competitor to this cooler.

[@nocturnal101ravenous6]

I have to say the engineer that came up with the mounting method and the overall design did a fantastic job. Simple solution that works and works well and is cost effective.

[@bladecreed9965]

Nice Video. Please consider to test the Thermalright Frost Commander 140, i think it is the bigger brother of the Pearless Assassin and it has a special touch with its 8mm Heatpipes. Sadly the FC 140 is so overlooked.

[@chanod4060]

Hello! Nice review! But what about the thermalright liquid coolers? Couldn't find this level of testing in coolers like the Frozen Notte or the Frozen Magic Scenic v2, it'll be good to have this amount of testing in those types of more affordable liquid coolers

[@natsumi3058]

My 5600x3D has never been happier in my ITX case with this cooler. Great work ThermalRight.

[@RemFreeman]

Would love to also see a review of the Noctua NH-D12L, maybe even the new Chromax version that they just released, and see how these two low profile coolers compare.

[@RinoAP]

Cannot wait for review for their Spirit EVO

[@SuicideNeil]

I rebuilt my rig recently, i5-13600k, 32GB 6000mhz DDR5, 4TB M.2, Asrock Z790.... still rocking my Titan Fenrir cooler though- it was a beast in its day and still works great now, ~10 generations of CPU later! :D

[@Raxiel497]

I recently fitted the (even smaller) Silver Soul 110 to a system with an i3-12100f. It has the same mounting and I found that fitting those top brackets was a real pain They had a tendency to creep out of the centre position as the screws bottomed out, leaving the spacing of the heatsink mount points slightly off, requiring a number of readjustments before they were properly aligned. I was fitting the cooler to the board while it was still inside the case, on its side, half way under a desk, instead of Mikes much more sensible work area, which no doubt contributed to my difficulty. Even so I'd recommend doing a test fit before applying the paste. It was fine once fitted though.

[@Wahinies]

Jfc that peerless assassin master pic had me imagining a duel with scythe under the cherry blossom tree at dawn

[@eyescreamsandwitch52]

No review for the Phantom Spirit yet?

[@GamersNexus]

Only just ordered it, so no, not yet.

[@kaydog890]

Clearly not. There no such thing as a stupid question. Just stupid people.

[@toufusoup]

@@GamersNexus I own one, one thing of note, at least from when I swapped from the peerless assassin to the phantom spirit, is that the clips for fans were exceptionally easier to clip onto the cooler compared to the PA. Unsure if that’s just build quality variance but maybe something of note 🤷‍♂️ at the end of the day it keeps my 13600K running cool and runs quiet cuz I replaced the fans with Chromax 120mm Noctuas

[@eyescreamsandwitch52]

@@GamersNexus Thank you for the response. Looking forward to the review!

[@reloadingdontshoot1]

I have one as well, and it puts most 360 AIO's to shame, for only $45 CAD

[@johnpapas3509]

Had a friend whose stock intel cooler on his 11700 was dying (over 70c at idle). 90+ w shutdown under any load. He had a “gaming pc” think those Best Buy/walmart style “gaming PCs” that came with a 1050 and to an ATX case that didn’t look ATX (width was smaller then standard). As a fan of the peerless assassin (used in over 10 builds last year and 1/2 for myself and friends. This was perfect because after he sent me pics with the Mini in there was no doubt the larger version (reguardless of manufacturers) wouldn’t have fit. Anyway tempts went from 70 on fresh on idle to 32. So this is a great choice for those questionable prebuilts that don’t use standard sizing. I also sent him this video to help w install. So a guy w zero tech experience he watched the install portion and w a. Little time the manual installed it himself (friend lives in opposite side of country). Rambling now but great cooler, and as always great video from gamers nexus!!!! Ty Steve and staff!!!

[@michaelnager6059]

@Steve A suggestion for you, it would be great if you included which paste you are using AND what the difference is in temps testing a representative cooler two weeks after initially applying the paste.

[@DarkraiReaper]

Sounds like a good idea to split the 120mm or below and 121+mm in two categories, though for a start, you could easily color-code them to show which ones are which size in the megathread. Having the larger Peerless Assassin 120 myself, I can highly and thoroughly recommend these or whatever iteration they make up next week(!)

[@BrianPardee]

14:00 @GamersNexus ah, nice! I was always very curious about how you do the pressure testing. That's neat! Could you please also tell me more about your cooler tests? I saw one was marked as depreciated from 2023 but you still have this cooler comparing against it. Is this due to now having your sound chamber and doing tests in there (different environment)? How are you having the same 26 noise floor? Do you intentionally produce it in the chamber to try to be accurate to the depreciated method test settings?

[@albey1816]

Hey Steve - Comparisons for the Silver soul 135 vs P.A mini vs Noctua D12L vs Silver soul 110 vs Noctua U9S. It would also be good if you could test the P.A full size cooler with just the middle fan.

[@chasedown26]

I would love to see you do more Thermalright coolers, I have a ARO-M14G if you want to test it! it was a am4 exclusive cooler large single tower. Always wanted to see if it preformed better than a cooler designed for both.

[@arunchristopher86]

Thanks for the review! About right time for me. I am building a compact microatx which maxes out cooler height at 136mm. Looking to choose between this one, Thermalright Silver Soul 135, ID-Cooling SE 914 XT ARGB, Jonsbo CR1400 EVO ARGB, Thermalright Assasin X 90 SE, ID Cooling SE 207 XT SLIM and Be Quiet Pure rock Slim 2

[@neruske]

Will you also be reviewing the thermalright AIO options? love to see their performance for their price compared to the other brands.

[@DJBillionator]

I need that Ice Giant Prosiphon Elite test video against top air coolers!

[@Pitraptor]

I do want to see a video going over options for small motherboards. The spaces I most often work with have space availability at a premium and I've never been fond of water cooling solutions in any of my personal rigs.

[@ailluinthethyra6139]

You can look at the other Thermalright coolers like SI-100 (100mm height) & SS 110 (110mm height). Thermalright AXP120-x67 (67mm height) has also great potential.

[@itsdeonlol]

This is awesome!

[@slizgi86]

I remember buying Thermalright Ultra-120 eXtreme Rev.C for i73770K, it was one of the best, if not the best back then. It is working till today on R2700X.

[@samuelrave]

I just bought the black version of this CPU cooler. I'm amazed by its performance and design! Looks way more expensive than it actually is

[@DebasedAnon]

I think a good thing to do with reviews for any of the more miscellaneous parts of PC's, like air coolers, would be to review the top selling ones from various sites like Amazon. I know a lot of the time when I'm looking for PC components that aren't GPU's/CPU's I end up checking the most popular ones then finding reviews on them.

[@erisdelta5950]

I would personally like to see you test the "Thermalright Burst Assassin" which is a single tower cooler with a 154mm height but does come with 6 heat pipes and is currently 22$ on amazon

[@kevadu]

In terms of other lower profile coolers to test I would be really curious what you think of the Noctua C14S. It's basically a tower cooler on it's side, turning it into a downdraft cooler. It's much larger than typical downdraft coolers but will still fit in a lot of cases where a full tower might have issues. Not exactly cheap though...

[@kinaceman]

12:43 - max fan speed chart - where's the bequiet dark rock pro 4 that was in the earlier normalized chart? do all the charts have different (random) coolers in them?

[@stathisbikos6563]

I'd be interested to see if hooking the fan to the front stack (so that the pull through side is gap-less, and the push through side has the slight gap) makes any difference to load thermals. It probably won't have any significant effect but I'm itching to see.

[@charlesg5085]

I put a silver soul 135 on a 7800x3d and it cooled as good as a peerless assasin on that very efficient chip.

[@mhj360]

I recently downsized my 8700k/1080Ti ATX build into a mITX NR200P case. The Thermalright PA120SE seemed to be the most popular choice for compatible tower coolers

[@ethancrosby2573]

Just watcher der8aurs vid on the 14900ks. Looks like you guys need to add a 425W heatload next! 😅

[@EmbodiedRevenant]

Those drink glasses n hoodies look sharp😎

[@NemusDark]

Steve have you seen the thermal right liquid coolers ? They are really well priced but i don't know if they are good .

[@Louie_M]

I would get zero benefit from a cooler upgrade but they look so neat that I want a new one.

[@Luna5ama]

Is there going to be a review for Thermalright FC (Frost commander) 140? that seems to be their flagship air cooler at the moment.

[@alecjahn]

I was hoping for some slightly better results, but for the application this seems like a nice enough choice. I'm still looking at the regular Assassin as my next purchase since I'll have ample room for one. I'll probably be sticking with my ancient GeminII 2x120 on my upcoming bargain upgrade build for the time being, at least to check out how it compares on a more modern platform (gosh, I've gotten some mileage out of that thing, lol)

[@LeitoAE]

Low profile cooler recomendation for tests: Thermalright TR SI 100. I have one of these in a china motherboard with laptop engeenering sample CPU, that many people complained about VRMs temps, but in my case, combined with this cooler - no overheating issues. Also - could you please test how the MINI works when added second and third fan? I guess that some 92mm fans should fit even considering VRM and ram heatsinks.