Thermalright Peerless Assassin 120 SE $35.90

maro

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https://www.amazon.com/Thermalright...prefix=peerless+assassin+120+se,aps,99&sr=8-4

I've been hearing good things about this massive cooler lately, and while I'm happy with my NH-U14 I've been wanting to play around with one and regretted missing the prime day deal.

It looks like it's sold from the Thermalright Amazon storefront and shipped by Amazon. It's been at this price all summer but $36 plus tax is a good deal for this heatsink.

12-2-22 edit: Corrected the link to the PASE120, again, still $35.90
 
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https://www.amazon.com/Thermalright-Peerless-SE-Aluminium-Technology/dp/B09LGY38L4/ref=sr_1_3?crid=1S8IZQNK73VFJ&keywords=peerless+assassin+120+se&qid=1659499563&sprefix=peerless+assassin,aps,105&sr=8-3

I've been hearing good things about this massive cooler lately, and while I'm happy with my NH-U14 I've been wanting to play around with one and regretted missing the prime day deal.

It looks like it's sold from the Thermalright Amazon storefront and shipped by Amazon. I don't know how long the coupon is good for but $37.42 plus tax seemed like a good deal.
I recently grabbed this as an upgrade from my CM-212 and it has been very good. I just happened across a review on Hardware Canucks, a fellow Canadian YT channel, and was shocked at the performance for the price so I grabbed it for $55 CAD and consider it a steal. Your pointed out Amazon deal is so cheap it makes me wonder why Thermalright is being so competitive? Is it to gain mind share as Noctua is so strong?
 
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Nice. May have to grab one to have. I don't see how they can keep selling it for ~$40...that is less than a 212 for waaay better performance.
 
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I recently grabbed this as an upgrade from my CM-212 and it has been very good. I just happened across a review on Hardware Canucks, a fellow Canadian YT channel, and was shocked at the performance for the price so I grabbed it for $55 CAD and consider it a steal. Your pointed out Amazon deal is so cheap it makes me wonder why Thermalright is being so competitive? Is it to gain mind share as Noctua is so strong?
Im not sure why but they do this every year or so with some of their best coolers. Its as if they have a glut of stock and need to off load it. They've released a bunch of new coolers recently so that's my theory at least. When the le grand macho rts were going for $40-$50 it lasted for about a year for what its worth.
 
Im not sure why but they do this every year or so with some of their best coolers. Its as if they have a glut of stock and need to off load it. They've released a bunch of new coolers recently so that's my theory at least. When the le grand macho rts were going for $40-$50 it lasted for about a year for what its worth.
Even list price is very aggressive considering where it stacks up.
 
I recently grabbed this as an upgrade from my CM-212 and it has been very good. I just happened across a review on Hardware Canucks, a fellow Canadian YT channel, and was shocked at the performance for the price so I grabbed it for $55 CAD and consider it a steal. Your pointed out Amazon deal is so cheap it makes me wonder why Thermalright is being so competitive? Is it to gain mind share as Noctua is so strong?
Thermalright used to be the number one, decades ago. Could be.
 
I'm just curious - why would this cooler (or any similar one) have any less performance than the infamous Noctua DH15? Fan speed?
This has 10 pipes, Noctua has 12, this is dual fans, so does Noctuas. Does the 2 extra pipes really make THAT much of a difference? As far as size goes - I was under the impression that the majority of heat stays at the bottom portion of the heatsink.
 
I'm just curious - why would this cooler (or any similar one) have any less performance than the infamous Noctua DH15? Fan speed?
This has 10 pipes, Noctua has 12, this is dual fans, so does Noctuas. Does the 2 extra pipes really make THAT much of a difference? As far as size goes - I was under the impression that the majority of heat stays at the bottom portion of the heatsink.
follow my link above to see it out perform the d15...
well, a screen shot anyways.
 
I'm just curious - why would this cooler (or any similar one) have any less performance than the infamous Noctua DH15? Fan speed?
This has 10 pipes, Noctua has 12, this is dual fans, so does Noctuas. Does the 2 extra pipes really make THAT much of a difference? As far as size goes - I was under the impression that the majority of heat stays at the bottom portion of the heatsink.
D15 has a lot more surface area which helps dissipation a lot, a better comparison would be the frost commander 140. The peerless is fine but not in the same category as the D15, it's more like the scythe fuma. I have one of these and it's hard to beat for 40 dollars.
 
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There are other Thermalright PA's on sale too, so it may be worth a look - the non-SE has a $3 off coupon and the other all do also. IMO the PASE is the better deal because of the -25% coupon

My U14 has been fine with my 3800x. I could have gone with a D15 but damn that thing is huge - I'm ok with that, I have the room for it but the price is also huge. This lets me experience the beneifts of surface area for cooling while still being inexpensive.
 
so we(work) have a couple systems i built that im waiting on aios for, as the D15s dont fit on the mobo, i got impatient and put my pa120 on one today. 12900kf/strix z690-f gaming wifi/fury 32GB DDR5-5200/tuf 3070ti/meshify c lite, looping c23 at stock/default bios settings and 2 cores hit 84c, others were 80 or less. not too shabby! full blast fans are also very very quiet, the guys in the office were blown away. ba dum ching :)
 
Mine's here and installed. So far I'm satisfied. Slightly better than my single fan U14S (maybe couple degrees C after some quick initial tests). As mentioned it really isn't in the same class as the bigger D15 though so far it performs very well. It's not as massive as I imagined.
 
How does this compare to the scythe Mugen with noctua redux fans?
The Mugen is a solid cooler (one of my favorites). The nf-p12s... Ehhhh, they push a bit more air but I don't care for them tbh. All of mine are loud af unless I run them below 900rpm. I generally run them around 600rpm or I can hear them. Im using them as intakes not hs fans tho.

I haven't used the pa120/se yet, so I can only suggest comparing specs.

http://thermalright.com/product/peerless-assassin-120-se/
 
Would it be okay to connect/link/power both fans to the CPU cooler pins on the mobo with this?
Yeah, it will be fine. I'm going to reuse the Noctua splitter I've got on my u12a, to connect both Thermalright fans to the cpu header.
 
If this cooler had the offset for ram clearance, like FUMA 2, I would definitely be interested.
 
This was my real first test of game on the PA 120 SE with my 5600x, that's the cpu load next to the temp and I used their paste that came with it, that thing tamed my 5600x in PWR fan mode and well worth $35.90! Re Live is just a little shutter like on play back.


lol your channel is blocked at my work. we dont need videos, just temps....
 
How are the RBG fans?
Dunno, I almost went for it myself. It was a $6 difference so I cheaped out, but now it's only a buck difference as of when I last looked. EDIT: It's $4 now... I wasn't sure I wanted rgb pouring out of my vents. I should have though!


EDIT 2: Wait... "RBG" fans as in Ruth Bader Ginsberg?! Oh my goodness...
 
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Okay - installed mine tonight -

Jesus this thing is massive - lol
Had just enough depth to fit it.
Compared to an AIO - this thing is quiet AF. 5900x idling between 32 and 35c -
Interestingly, my GPU has seemed to drop a couple of degrees during idle.

Great deal. Thank you all.

Update - the fans that come with the cooler are kind of whiney.

Think I'll put another set in there to keep it all quiet.
 
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Okay - installed mine tonight -

Jesus this thing is massive - lol
Had just enough depth to fit it.
Compared to an AIO - this thing is quiet AF. 5900x idling between 32 and 35c -
Interestingly, my GPU has seemed to drop a couple of degrees during idle.

Gaming, around 60c - cinebench around 72c.
All in all - happy with this cooler, it's far more consistent than my AIO.

Great deal. Thank you all.
Good to hear! Haha, it is a bigun but it'll last forever.

I haven't been able to fit the front fan in any of my three builds so far. They all hit the side when I lift them up to clear the memory. Despite using what i thought were lower profile modules (patriot viper steel and gskill ripjaw V). But the cases I've used are on the smaller mid atx side too (all cheaper montechs). Running them in the middle and rear positions hasn't effected performance at all.

I swapped the U12A in my back up rig with the pa120se a couple of days ago to see if there are any differences between the pa120 and se fans. Other than the model numbers and 50rpm difference, there aren't any that I've been able to discern. Maybe the se fans are a little more whiny at full blast but that could be my imagination lol. They are just as quiet under normal loads which is what I'm after anyhow.
The se knocked 6-7c off of the idle and load temps vs the U12A respectively
(i7 8086k bone stock) running aida64. Now that I have that aggravating bit of ocd out of the way... I can order a few more :D
 
Good to hear! Haha, it is a bigun but it'll last forever.

I haven't been able to fit the front fan in any of my three builds so far. They all hit the side when I lift them up to clear the memory. Despite using what i thought were lower profile modules (patriot viper steel and gskill ripjaw V). But the cases I've used are on the smaller mid atx side too (all cheaper montechs). Running them in the middle and rear positions hasn't effected performance at all.

I swapped the U12A in my back up rig with the pa120se a couple of days ago to see if there are any differences between the pa120 and se fans. Other than the model numbers and 50rpm difference, there aren't any that I've been able to discern. Maybe the se fans are a little more whiny at full blast but that could be my imagination lol. They are just as quiet under normal loads which is what I'm after anyhow.
The se knocked 6-7c off of the idle and load temps vs the U12A respectively
(i7 8086k bone stock) running aida64. Now that I have that aggravating bit of ocd out of the way... I can order a few more :D

I'm not too sure on the other variant - but these fans aren't very loud, the pitch however is very audible and rather annoying tbh.
I do have more 120mm fans on hand that I can switch out, but they're rated around 1250 RPM or so and not the 1500rpms that these are rated.
Can't be THAT much of a difference in cooling, especially if not running at max capacity anyways.
 
Great for the price. Yes you do need to crank the fans for uber performance. What do we expect for the price? And noise!
Noctua fans are the best and why the premium. But love this low class pushing hard for all but the maximum tweaker. Like me?
For me as a long time 212 user this is the new that. Great stuff at a great price. That is my spot. Diminishing returns and all that!:ROFLMAO:


:ROFLMAO:
 
I'm not too sure on the other variant - but these fans aren't very loud, the pitch however is very audible and rather annoying tbh.
I do have more 120mm fans on hand that I can switch out, but they're rated around 1250 RPM or so and not the 1500rpms that these are rated.
Can't be THAT much of a difference in cooling, especially if not running at max capacity anyways.
Now that you mention it I did notice a slight buzzing at idle but I installed and started testing a new 6800xt the same day. One of the gpu fans was really loud underload (was honestly preparing for the worst) so I attributed it to that. I ran 3dmark a few times and it smoothed right out thankfully. I've been on a mission the last two days to optimize the case fans to keep the gpu temps as low as possible while I test it. So I have been ignoring the heatsink fans completely.
I'll have to move the fan curves back and isolate the heatsink fans again.
 
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