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! ua-cam.com/video/F5Do1wXFliU/v-deo.html
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
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.
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
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
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.
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).
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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!
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.
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
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.
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.
I have the 110 out in the garage with a >>>80mm/92mm/92mm >>> and was blown away how well it does compared to bigger coolers I had already. I actually tried to cancel my order as it wasn't need as I had two good enough coolers. Well it was too late to cancel and once it arrived I was intrigued as I knew it would certainly look nice in the windowed build. Such a quality little cooler. My first cooler purchase ever was a Thermalright but it was TWO decades ago. A SK6 w/ Delta 60mm fan.
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
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!
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.
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.
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.
@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!
This could be the go to option for people who look out for a quiet cpu air cooler that doesn't cover half your mainboard and requires removing and repasting it everytime you want to to reach something in that region (SSD, RAM, cleaning, maybe even reaching the lever for the GPU)
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!
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
New comment on an old vid, but I love the content. Currently have the NH-U12S on a 10600k for my wife's build due to case constraints. Happy to see other coolers entering this segment at a much lower price point. Cheers to another awesome tech heavy review.
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
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
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.
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
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.
@@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
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
Thermalright has a crazy number of coolers right now, including a bunch of coolers that seem to just compete their own coolers, the one that's been catching my eye for systems where height is not a problem is the Frost Spirit 140 for only twenty-eight bucks, it's like a bigger Peerless Assasain, it has a 140mm fan in the middle and uses 4x 8mm heatpipes, it has a big brother the Frost Commander 140 with 5x8mm heatpipes but for some reason it seems to perform worse in the testing I've seen from some other reviewers except at full fan speed where the Frost Commander makes a small headway due to it's faster fans but I think it may get to the point where the fans are kind of annoying and seems like the extra heatpipe doesn't actually provide any benefit over the Frost Spirit.
I think it is really dependant on the particular CPU, or it was in my case anyway. I have both the Spirit and the Commander 140, but the FC140 handily out performed the Spirit AND my NH-D15 on my i9-10850K. When I migrated them to my R9-5900X, the difference between them was negligible. The i9 actually ended up living under a TA140, 140mm single-tower until I sold it on.
From what I've seen the 140mm towers are a little better than the Phantom Spirit from other reviewers, they have less heatpipes but they use larger 8mm pipes vs 6mm that can dissipate more heat.
Their plan is simple: Drown the market with so many names and models that you simply cant FIND the competitors. Then it doesn't matter if they're competing against themselves in every category, because they always get the sale.
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!
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!
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.
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.
@Gamers Nexus Hoping you read this - I know Thermalrights approach to coolers is 'make all the coolers so it's all you seen in your Amazon search', but please, please.... Review the Thermalright Phantom Spirit 120 EVO. I don't know if I just got lucky somehow, but it replaced a PA 120 that I moved to another rig and it runs cooler, and more importantly quieter (the PA's only real drawback was the noise of those fans). I think the main improvement has come from the new fans as the extra heat pipe on the original Phantom Spirit barely helped at all (like 3-5c less than the PA under a 250W load, lower loads there was no benefit at all).
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.
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
Noctua CEO to employees : "Great job guys! Don't know how you did it but we shipped 2 new fan designs this decade!" Thermalright CEO to employees : "Two fan designs this week? What the hell happenened to the rest..?"
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!!!
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.
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.
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.
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.
Works very well in the 13.3 liter Sliger S610 case with 128mm cooler height space availability and plenty of space to side panel to eliminate cooler intake fan noise.
@@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
I love the charts for these coolers. I think one factor that could be added to them is a "price at the time of testing". This would help to highlight some of the cost to performance for the different coolers that are tested.
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 👍👍👍
13:06 your friend JayzTwoCents showed in a video with a thermal camera that CPU and GPU are not the only parts in a computer that need cooling . VRM'S's and MOSFET's can get to skin-burning temperature too , especially if you use a CLC
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.
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.
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!
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.
you could strap another 2-4 60mm low-RPM fans... Edit: Oh, would you look at that, Thermalright makes them, in white! TL-B6W. It's going to double the cost for the cooler, but still the best way to air cool high wattage CPUs in SFF cases.
This cooler would work perfectly in a 4u server case. A lot of 120mm tower coolers are just a bit too tall to fit in them but this would for sure. If I was running something warmer than my 35 watt tdp ryzen I would pick one up
I used this on a super budget build. Got this cooling an old 6-core Xeon paired with a RX570. It’s in a shitty case with bad airflow. Temps never go over 65 even under 3D mark testing and gaming. Made the whole thing for $137.
I remember the days where good reviews would use an aftermarket high power fan or add a 2nd fan. Too bad gn doesnt do this. I'm never ever going to use the standard fan on any hsf.
Vetroo v5 is special. Its like the only one on this list with a color besides black, white, and silver. They make a pink fan and cooler. 😂 totally made my daughters pink itx build come together.
I would personally like to see you test the "Thermalright Burst Assassin" which is a single tower cooler with a 154mm height but does come with 6 heat pipes and is currently 22$ on amazon
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
For what to review next: Everyone is saying the Silver Soul. I thought there were lots of options, but if you're ruling out 90-95mm fan models, it seems like there's mostly just the two Silver Soul models (including the 110! nice and short!), the Assassin King 120 Mini and... the ID Cooling SE-207-XT SLIM and SE-224-XTS MINI BLACK. These are 135mm tall, besides Silver Soul 110.
Another great review, but, I heard a problem. And we like problems: Test bench setup, thermal watts,cooler capacity. Its is an issue when testing cooler in different tiers. Solution: Design a synthetic CPU, which consists of a copper block with a built-in heating element. It will be shaped like a cube, with different 'sockets' on each side. Think of it as a toaster combined with a metalblock. That will make testing of every cooler easier. In theori you could go from 20-1000 watt in same "bench". Control by watts and not by coding/bios/clock, you name it. And that will provide possibilities.
At this point Thermalright just needs to make a "Phantom Menace 140" to complete their absurd cooler lineup, considering they seem to be going for an entire cooler Empire anyways
I have a single stack "assassin burst". £20. My i5 hardly ever gets over 60°C with the fan idling. Seems really heavy to me and I think it can even out the fan speed between loads. Great thing, really interesting
I've used a dozen or so of the Silver Soul 135 coolers. They are usually $20-30, quiet, and amazing performers. I think the mounting hardware might be different from the Peerless Assassin series, but I haven't had the later in stock for quite a while to confirm that. I love Thermalright for providing great quality parts at insanely low prices... Like, they've gotta be insane to charge $30-35 for a cooler that performs identical to $100 counterparts. How are they even making money? Maybe a factory tour or investigative piece would clear up some of that mystery.
I bought the Silver Soul 110, thinking it was for 110MM fan. But 110mm referred to it's heatsink's height. It takes 92mm fans. I wanted a smaller size for my NAS, but was pleasantly surprised on how well the 110 cooled the CPU.
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.
It's crazy people are just catching on to these great coolers that have been out for years. Thermalright used to be the go to back in the x58 days and they've been slept on for years.
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(!)
Noctua NH-C14S - The low profile mounting option puts this at 115mm high. Not a new item by any stretch, it's typical Noctua silent (about 125db max ... at least by factory testing standards). Substituting their Industrial fan would be interesting, albeit noisy. Would love to see the GN test suite for this oldie!! Thanks Steve!!
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.
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! ua-cam.com/video/F5Do1wXFliU/v-deo.html
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
Curious about the performance if you remove the paint on the cooler . Maybe some acid would strip it easily .
Back to you
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.
Seeing all these boring videos about coolers seems to cool my enthusiasm to view Gamer's Nexus content!
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
Color coding liquid vs. air coolers could make the charts easier to read at a glance.
That is a very good idea!
I was just about to comment this. Maybe like a water droplet or something might work if color doesn't make sense.
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.
What about light blue for air and dark blue for water? Would still match the rest of the effects
I agree
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
I am unironically hoping that the Steve Burke Award for Technical/Engineering Excellence is an actual industry standard one day. Thanks so much, man
Even if it's unofficial, it means a lot for a product
I want to at least see an official Better Than Dell award someday
Thanks Steve
@@Epsi1ong That award will have literally 0 prestige attached to it
And you if you win you have to begin your acceptance speech with, "Thanks, Steve."
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.
Will do! Thanks!
Glad I'm not the only one who had difficulty with that overlay
Oh yeah I didn't even see that in this video. Nice catch
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).
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.
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.
Me too.
+1 for a SS135 comparison.
someone has already made a comparison on youtube dont remember the channel or the vid sorry
Thermalright has been the budget king for while now
Same in the past. I used TR coolers for over 15 years and they always had excellent budget and not only models.
loving mine for my 5800x
phantom spirit 120 se and non se seem to be good
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.
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
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.
😂😂😂
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!
Best tech channel on UA-cam! Great work GN Steve.
Thank you for the kind words!
@@GamersNexus sometimes the facts are kind. No problem.
@@GamersNexusThanks to all the team
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.
What cpu do you have and what is the temperature under load?
These are awesome coolers. Using the 120se on a ryzen7 7700 seems to work well if programs measurement temps are to be believed
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
yeah 7800x3d tends to not overclock well but its already like 5x the capabilities of 7800x
@@jamescheddar4896 moreso indicating that I didn't undervolt to get better tempz
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
Wow, #2 (Thermalright Assassin King 120 Mini) seems a bit expensive ... isn't 20 million bucks way too much for an air cooler?
😁
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.
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.
I have the 110 out in the garage with a >>>80mm/92mm/92mm >>> and was blown away how well it does compared to bigger coolers I had already. I actually tried to cancel my order as it wasn't need as I had two good enough coolers. Well it was too late to cancel and once it arrived I was intrigued as I knew it would certainly look nice in the windowed build. Such a quality little cooler. My first cooler purchase ever was a Thermalright but it was TWO decades ago. A SK6 w/ Delta 60mm fan.
Built a customers pc today with a peerless assassin 120. Perfect value and great performance. Thanks for the review.
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
I honestly like the small variant just from the looks, idk what it is. Very cool, thanks!
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!
Why would you add 21C? Pretty sure they don't do tests at 0C, lol.
@@berkertaskiran Ambient means room temp. X over ambient means 21C (ambient) + degrees over it.
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.
The soul 135 is so good, I can't believe no one has reviewed it yet.
Works well with Ryzen 5950X.
It looks interesting. I'd appreciate a review as well!
Machines & More has, but i think he's the only one.
the soul 135 or pa120 mini? Which one is the best?
PA120 has deeper fins & greater mass & should provide additional cooling. SS135 will be easier to fit in smaller cases.@@azza5056
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.
NGL Steve is rocking the hint of gray in those luscious Fabio-esque locks, like LANDalf the Grey
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.
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.
@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!
Thanks for all the testing. I do love the TR coolers, have a few of them.
This could be the go to option for people who look out for a quiet cpu air cooler that doesn't cover half your mainboard and requires removing and repasting it everytime you want to to reach something in that region (SSD, RAM, cleaning, maybe even reaching the lever for the GPU)
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!
Perfect timing! This will fit my 4U case with a 12700K CPU. Gonna try it out. Thanks Steve!
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
New comment on an old vid, but I love the content. Currently have the NH-U12S on a 10600k for my wife's build due to case constraints. Happy to see other coolers entering this segment at a much lower price point. Cheers to another awesome tech heavy review.
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
Thermalright just said WRITE THAT DOWN For the Peerless assassin master :P
Peerless Assassin already has a successor i.e Phantom Spirit 120 (aka PS120SE). Which improves on the already impressive PA120.
I hope we will also see a review of the new EVO.
Great video as always. Very informative!
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
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.
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.
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
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.
Should definitely compare the PA Mini to the Silver Soul 135, Silver Soul 110, and SI-100.
Reviewing this cooler honestly feels incomplete with no comparison to the SS135.
ID cooling has some smaller models that look really interesting and have an almost cult following online.
especially for ITX coolers, only Thermalright and ID-COOLING have the full range to cover almost any height between 27mm to 67mm.
@@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
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
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.
Thermalright has a crazy number of coolers right now, including a bunch of coolers that seem to just compete their own coolers, the one that's been catching my eye for systems where height is not a problem is the Frost Spirit 140 for only twenty-eight bucks, it's like a bigger Peerless Assasain, it has a 140mm fan in the middle and uses 4x 8mm heatpipes, it has a big brother the Frost Commander 140 with 5x8mm heatpipes but for some reason it seems to perform worse in the testing I've seen from some other reviewers except at full fan speed where the Frost Commander makes a small headway due to it's faster fans but I think it may get to the point where the fans are kind of annoying and seems like the extra heatpipe doesn't actually provide any benefit over the Frost Spirit.
I think it is really dependant on the particular CPU, or it was in my case anyway. I have both the Spirit and the Commander 140, but the FC140 handily out performed the Spirit AND my NH-D15 on my i9-10850K. When I migrated them to my R9-5900X, the difference between them was negligible. The i9 actually ended up living under a TA140, 140mm single-tower until I sold it on.
thermalright phantom spirit 120 se is thermalright's best cooler iirc
From what I've seen the 140mm towers are a little better than the Phantom Spirit from other reviewers, they have less heatpipes but they use larger 8mm pipes vs 6mm that can dissipate more heat.
Their plan is simple: Drown the market with so many names and models that you simply cant FIND the competitors. Then it doesn't matter if they're competing against themselves in every category, because they always get the sale.
Also their older lineup too (like Macho)
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!
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!
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.
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.
@Gamers Nexus
Hoping you read this -
I know Thermalrights approach to coolers is 'make all the coolers so it's all you seen in your Amazon search', but please, please....
Review the Thermalright Phantom Spirit 120 EVO.
I don't know if I just got lucky somehow, but it replaced a PA 120 that I moved to another rig and it runs cooler, and more importantly quieter (the PA's only real drawback was the noise of those fans).
I think the main improvement has come from the new fans as the extra heat pipe on the original Phantom Spirit barely helped at all (like 3-5c less than the PA under a 250W load, lower loads there was no benefit at all).
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.
This channel is the goat. Never change
How long do you think it would take you and the team to review EVERY Thermalright air cooler?
Hahahaha, I think they might release coolers faster than we can review them!
@@GamersNexusPlease do their aios 🙏
That table would be super confusing with the amount of assasins! 😂
@@axelNodvon2047 Air coolers are where it's at :)
Another GN channel entirely Thermalright reviews. lol
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
I put a silver soul 135 on a 7800x3d and it cooled as good as a peerless assasin on that very efficient chip.
Noctua CEO to employees : "Great job guys! Don't know how you did it but we shipped 2 new fan designs this decade!"
Thermalright CEO to employees : "Two fan designs this week? What the hell happenened to the rest..?"
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!!!
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.
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.
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.
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
@@ZAKKORD Perhaps, but unit to unit variance means this could just be a difference down to the build.
I would get zero benefit from a cooler upgrade but they look so neat that I want a new one.
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.
I'd love to see their SI-100 downdraft cooler reviewed. $24 and seems like a good option for lower clearance cases.
Works very well in the 13.3 liter Sliger S610 case with 128mm cooler height space availability and plenty of space to side panel to eliminate cooler intake fan noise.
Jfc that peerless assassin master pic had me imagining a duel with scythe under the cherry blossom tree at dawn
Dude, i just LOVE air coolers. Thank you and the team for doing the review.
No review for the Phantom Spirit yet?
Only just ordered it, so no, not yet.
Clearly not.
There no such thing as a stupid question. Just stupid people.
@@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
@@GamersNexus Thank you for the response. Looking forward to the review!
I have one as well, and it puts most 360 AIO's to shame, for only $45 CAD
I love the charts for these coolers. I think one factor that could be added to them is a "price at the time of testing". This would help to highlight some of the cost to performance for the different coolers that are tested.
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 👍👍👍
13:06 your friend JayzTwoCents showed in a video with a thermal camera that CPU and GPU are not the only parts in a computer that need cooling . VRM'S's and MOSFET's can get to skin-burning temperature too , especially if you use a CLC
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.
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.
Just watcher der8aurs vid on the 14900ks. Looks like you guys need to add a 425W heatload next! 😅
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!
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.
I was just shopping for a new cooler for my Inwin A1, perfect timing!
you could strap another 2-4 60mm low-RPM fans...
Edit: Oh, would you look at that, Thermalright makes them, in white! TL-B6W. It's going to double the cost for the cooler, but still the best way to air cool high wattage CPUs in SFF cases.
This cooler would work perfectly in a 4u server case. A lot of 120mm tower coolers are just a bit too tall to fit in them but this would for sure. If I was running something warmer than my 35 watt tdp ryzen I would pick one up
My 5600x3D has never been happier in my ITX case with this cooler. Great work ThermalRight.
I used this on a super budget build. Got this cooling an old 6-core Xeon paired with a RX570. It’s in a shitty case with bad airflow. Temps never go over 65 even under 3D mark testing and gaming.
Made the whole thing for $137.
Wow super budget build! Awesome!!
That intro was great!😂
I remember the days where good reviews would use an aftermarket high power fan or add a 2nd fan. Too bad gn doesnt do this. I'm never ever going to use the standard fan on any hsf.
Vetroo v5 is special. Its like the only one on this list with a color besides black, white, and silver. They make a pink fan and cooler. 😂 totally made my daughters pink itx build come together.
I would personally like to see you test the "Thermalright Burst Assassin" which is a single tower cooler with a 154mm height but does come with 6 heat pipes and is currently 22$ on amazon
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
Wow, truly end of an era with the new new case test bench!
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
For what to review next: Everyone is saying the Silver Soul. I thought there were lots of options, but if you're ruling out 90-95mm fan models, it seems like there's mostly just the two Silver Soul models (including the 110! nice and short!), the Assassin King 120 Mini and... the ID Cooling SE-207-XT SLIM and SE-224-XTS MINI BLACK. These are 135mm tall, besides Silver Soul 110.
Another great review, but, I heard a problem. And we like problems:
Test bench setup, thermal watts,cooler capacity. Its is an issue when testing cooler in different tiers.
Solution:
Design a synthetic CPU, which consists of a copper block with a built-in heating element. It will be shaped like a cube, with different 'sockets' on each side.
Think of it as a toaster combined with a metalblock.
That will make testing of every cooler easier. In theori you could go from 20-1000 watt in same "bench".
Control by watts and not by coding/bios/clock, you name it.
And that will provide possibilities.
At this point Thermalright just needs to make a "Phantom Menace 140" to complete their absurd cooler lineup, considering they seem to be going for an entire cooler Empire anyways
I have a single stack "assassin burst". £20. My i5 hardly ever gets over 60°C with the fan idling. Seems really heavy to me and I think it can even out the fan speed between loads. Great thing, really interesting
I've paired a Peerless Assassin with some high static pressure Arctic fans. A bit loud, but really good cooling.
I've used a dozen or so of the Silver Soul 135 coolers. They are usually $20-30, quiet, and amazing performers. I think the mounting hardware might be different from the Peerless Assassin series, but I haven't had the later in stock for quite a while to confirm that. I love Thermalright for providing great quality parts at insanely low prices... Like, they've gotta be insane to charge $30-35 for a cooler that performs identical to $100 counterparts. How are they even making money? Maybe a factory tour or investigative piece would clear up some of that mystery.
I bought the Silver Soul 110, thinking it was for 110MM fan. But 110mm referred to it's heatsink's height. It takes 92mm fans. I wanted a smaller size for my NAS, but was pleasantly surprised on how well the 110 cooled the CPU.
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.
Thanks for this comprehensive review.
Steve is getting very good at introducing things. By Name.
It's crazy people are just catching on to these great coolers that have been out for years. Thermalright used to be the go to back in the x58 days and they've been slept on for years.
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(!)
Noctua NH-C14S - The low profile mounting option puts this at 115mm high. Not a new item by any stretch, it's typical Noctua silent (about 125db max ... at least by factory testing standards). Substituting their Industrial fan would be interesting, albeit noisy. Would love to see the GN test suite for this oldie!! Thanks Steve!!
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.