@@zhbader As far as I'm aware yes, it seems to me the SE (Simplified Edition?) just has the ornamental plates on top meant to hide the ends of the heat pipes removed and also stands a little shorter in that dimension as a result. Performance should near to if not identical. The fin array number density size fan type ETC. all seem indistinguishable, the fans have same given rating for RPM air flow/pressure ETC., but there's a 15g difference in weight, no idea what they changed TL-C12C (SE) vs TL-C12. 3 less fin pieces in the SE array but the dimension of the fins and gap between them seems the same, maybe the ornamental plates are counted? Hell if I know. Same C1100 Nickel plated copper base plate. Same number and dimension of heat pipes. Given weight is 750g* vs 730g* (SE) so aside from the 15g fan spec difference 5g weight discrepancy with respect to the ornament/fin array change. Performance is likely indistinguishable between the two variants, maybe over the long term the fans are more likely to fail. I recommend keeping a 5 pack of Arctic P12's in your closet for a rainy day either way. *Mislabeled full product weight initially.* *
Noise comparing Peerless Assassin and U12A is even more unbelievable. I bought PE and sold it two days later because the PE noise is annoying. Decibel test shows good results, but the noise itslelf is way unbeareable. Noctua noise is smoother, less alarming.
they should definitely review Thermalright Frost Commander 140 and Frost Spirit 140 which beats NH-D14 in temperature with lower noise level. it's not fair comparing 120mm fan PA120 with 140mm NH-D14
I doubt most realize Thermalright has been around for 20+ years. They were like Noctua back then. I used to buy their coolers and think my first was a sk-6 with a delta fan.
@@sdrubaa I’m talking SK-6 all copper from 1999 or so. They made the best coolers back then. They seemed to drop away for a long while and then I just noticed their products again in the last two years. I bought a dual tower 120mm for my sons Ryzen 5800x.
buying the NH-D15 a couple of years ago was the best decision I've ever made. Free upgrades for new platforms, incredible performance and fast support make it the best of the best - its now in my 4th build.
Same..i bought mine in 2017 for $105 CAD (NCIX) for my (then R7 1700X), and it's been cooling my 9900K @ 5GHz all core for a few years... but just. I've always been a Thermalright lover though, and this peerless assassin is tempting...moving forward. The NH-D15 is $130+ CAD now, i would just as soon throw a 360 on for that price. Edit: spelling
I have it too and when I saw my friends 360 AiO, I changed my mind. Difference is too big to justify it in this price. Still, it will not break overtime like AiO, but performance is not that great.
@@innocentiuslacrim2290 Everywhere. Noctua can't handle spikes and temps even browsing internet are in 60's. Air is just not good for new CPUs, but it have cons. If I would buy cooler second time, I would buy AiO without second thought. But D15S will stay with me on next build if it ever happens, cause I'm not willing to pay these prices for PC. I could, cause I can, but I won't.
I'm surprised that Thermalright gets so little recognition. They were around at the very beginning, and it was TR that had the first heatpipe and then later heatpipe tower cooler way back in the early 2000s.
There was Koolance and their insanely overengineered watercooling setups (which I still have a soft spot for). And then, it was either Zallman, Thermalright, or Thermaltake... at least in my little meta of enthusiasts. Remember the Thermaltake Volcano series? Thing sounded like it could grind a screwdriver to the handle and kinda looked like it could too :D
Coolermaster had the first heatpipe based CPU coolers for mainstream, back when 60mm fans were normal, knocking Globalwin and Thermoengine off the podium. It used them to spread the heat up to the top of the fins closer to the fan.
It's from China and has always being the best seller there (like Deepcool). I guess it's only recently that buyers from other countries found their coolers overpriced and turn back for budget alternatives.
I'm glad Thermalright is making a comeback.. they were THE one to get back in the day, their huge solid copper coolers were fantastic. Looks like they're getting back in the game these days. I'm glad to see it.
@@ChadKenova I have used a Le Grand in my last 2 builds, it's still the best air cooler out there. It kinda annoys me that everyone is testing the peerless assasin (a great cooler) but ignoring the Le Grand Macho in all of these "best CPU cooler" roundups. I know it's old, but you can still buy it and it still beats everything in this list...
A "fan normalized" chart would be an amazing addition to these reviews. Would love to see their performace with T30's & the budget option P12's. Also adding Liquid Freezer II 280/360 to the chart would be a super useful for the average person trying to decide between air & AIO. Great video btw,
Yeah we might add that in the future but one of the main issue is that there is no "choice fan" and nothing will please everyone. The main issue with the T30 is that it simply won't fit between the fin stacks of dual tower coolers so that's outta the running. Also, its thickness makes it incompatible with most brackets included with these coolers.
One of the problems with fan normalizing an air cooler is that the price will be significantly impacted in many cases… most people want plug and play and budget.
It's really a good time to be in the air cooling market, you've got a bunch of really good options from being able to get the 1% best at any cost all the way down to a (just as good) cooler and case full of (nearly as good) fans for the cost of a Noctua cooler.
@@katherinehackworth I think Arctic and Deep Cool's fans are both good on that performance/noise balance and both are pretty cheap in multi-packs. I haven't gotten to try the Thermalright ones but they look promising and are a bargain too. Even the Noctua Redux (essentially last gen designs) are a solid option for around 90% of the performance at half the price of their mainline fans (though that's still 2-3x more expensive than the previously mentioned ones). I'd definitely buy any of those again (or try the Thermalright ones) over something like what Corsair or similar are charging a premium for.
I bought the PA120 for a 5600x that I installed a few days ago. I was actually confused at how quiet my PC was compared to before. 3600x with a stock cooler was SO loud, not to mention went from about 72-79C underload on the 3600x to 50C underload on my 5600x.
It keeps a 13700k chilled while gaming.. not so much for benchmarking however! Can't beat it for $40!!! Actually, can't beat it until you spend $80-120
I put a Phanteks T30 onto my Dark Rock Pro 4 and it's insane how much better it is now. Highly recommend since the cooler is really held back by the stock fans.
@@JasperLTZ nope. The cooler comes with different sized clips that fit standard fan hole placement. I had to bend them a bit to fit the added thickness but I've had it on there for months now and no issues at all
Bought NH-D15 (non chromax) early 2015, been using it for i7-4790K, i7-6700K, i7-8700K, Ryzen 7 3800X. Now serving Ryzen 9 5900X. Got mounting upgrades for free via Noctua support (SecuFirm2). RMA'd push faulty fan (1x A15) without questions circa 2020. All shipped to Indonesia free of charge. This beast's warranty (6y) was only beaten by my PSU warranty (Seasonic Snow Silent 1050W, 7y) that bought around 2014. Still using both of them now. Cost when bought are justified by their performance & longevity.
I have been using the same Noctua NH-D15 since the Ryzen 7 1800X came out. I've since upgraded to a Ryzen 7 5800X, and then a 5800X3D, and the same NH-D15 has been able to cool them all without issue! I absolutely love Noctua and the fact that their air coolers can beat most, (not all), water cooling AIOs!
I use two BeQuiet! Dark Rock Pro TR4's on a dual AMD EPYC workstation, absolutely amazing never see CPU temps above 40c with only the single middle fan installed. In a Fractal Torrent EATX case.
Would love to see a comparison of the coolers while using the same fans, to see which cooler has the better design, for us who plan to switch out the fans anyway, for maybe RGB or just whatever fans we prefer.
With the BQ Dark Rock Pro 4 cooler, there are also additional brackets in the packaging that are made for standard 120mm fans. So you can mount any 120mm fan you want. (Have NF-A12 on mine)
Great, finally there is a big comparison of the most popular coolers. Special thanks for the tests at 13900K. And it would be great if you pay attention to such models as Thermalright Frost Commander 140 (vs D15) and Thermalright U120EX REV.4 (vs U12A).
Bought the PA120 RGB version for my 13600k based on your initial review of it, it has NOT disappointed! My motherboard allows my 13600k to pull up to 288w (I’ve only ever seen it pull about 230 in R23), and in gaming workloads my 13600k sits in the mid 50s. Running a 10 minute Cinebench R23 pass saw a peak temp of 92* and just under 23000 point multi core score. The Peerless Assassin is an absolute unit of a tower cooler, I can’t recommend it enough!
I bought a DRP4 a few years ago to cool a 10850K. I was upgrading from i5-6600K with NH-D14 (yes, overkill for that cpu). I saw higher than expected temps with the DRP4. I ended up slapping my older Noctua D14 on it, and I noticed this same 4-5 degree C drop in temps. I assumed this was due to better fans on the D14 and the fact that the DRP4 has the black coating. For looks, I swapped the fans on the D14 to black and sold the DRP4 to a buddy. Thermalright is interesting option for the price, but you can't beat the combo of performance and longevity with Noctua imo.
Considering the noctua nh-u12a is only a single tower cooler compared to the others which are two tower coolers, I must say it does a perfectly fine job in comparison and hanging close with the rest of the pack. For the price value and cooling performance, my pick would be the nh-u12a if you're going for a single tower cooler. The thermalright peerless assassin is the choice for cost and performance for two tower cooler. I have the nh-u12a paired with the i7 13700kf and it cools it perfectly fine. Also to note, I'm using thermal grizzly kryonaut which does a better job than noctua's nt-h1 paste. just fyi.
I'm running a nh-u12a on a 13700K in a sff NR200 case and Noctua NT-H2 paste... no issues. It's a great cooler, just overpriced. You are really paying for the 2 premium noctua fans. If I had the room I probably would have gone with the PA 120. That cooler rocks
Loving this air cooler content recently, it’s the best of its kind out there. Would love to see these top air coolers compared to different AIOs for reference.
I made custom fan mounts for my DRP4 and replaced the fans with much stronger ones, moving about 2x the CF/M and the performance of the heatsink increased dramatically. So yes, the issue is the fans primarily.
Just built a Zen 4 7700x for my brother with an Arctic Freezer 34 E-sports Duo. Tuned PBO UV/OC with a 135w max power limit (138 is default) and ended up 5.75 GHz peak boost, 5.15 GHz all core, MAX temp was 92c during Prime95. Rock solid stable. The Freezer 34 Duo (2 fans) is a very good, very economical, and very compact cooler that gets within a few degrees C of the NH-D15. Wish you had included it in this review.
Both systems at home are running NH-D15S (since 2016 and 2018, bought both of them used for around 50 Euros). The asymmetrical towerdesign compared to the NH-D15 gives it better clearence and when a second fan is installed (second pair of brackets is included) the D15S performs like the D15. Accompanied by Noctua case fans both systems are running silent and cool. I love my owls :D
Now for the obvious "What If" request:. What if you replace the bundled fans with better ones? For some people the extra cost of replacement fans is still preferable to switching to liquid cooling. Phero reports here that his Dark Rock 4 Pro improved a lot.
Why buy a cheaper cooler, then replace the fans by spending more money? Just buy a more expensive cooler... That being said, for the money, the Peerless Assassin 120 is the best bang for buck. I have 3 of them and just moved to a ML280 AiO for my 7700X because I got it for $60. The Assassin was mostly fine before, just got a good deal.
PA120 on my 5800X3D... Awesome cooler, runs quiet at all times while giving me temps I am comfortable with. Literally the best bang for buck cooler in existence ATM.
I used the original Fuma2 (1500rpm) on my Ryzen 3600. low temps/low noise. When I upgraded to a Ryzen 5950x I also bought 2 1800rpm Kaze Flex fans just to be sure the Fuma2 would be able to cool a 16core beast, and he does. The newer Fuma2 Rev.B already comes with the faster fans. I even put 2 normal size fans on it instead of one normal and a slim one, because I only use 2 16GB DIMMs. If you use 4 you need the slim one in front.
Great video. There is one thing not talked about though. If you buy a Noctua cooler, you have an upgrade path, Noctua will supply you with adapters even for future sockets for its coolers - for free. Also, those Noctua fans are rated for a serious life span. Cheaper competitors do not even bother to tell you any life span of their fans. Also, dB ist not dB. The sound profile can vary a lot at the same dB and you hear quality when you listen closely (motor noises etc). I don't say one needs to fork out 100 EUR when the Thermalright will do a great job likely at least for the lifetime of a PC but I am saying there is still a case for paying extra for a Noctua cooler, if one is inclined to pay for extra quality.
@@Galaxy-du9qj I always suggest to wait for reviews. I'm sure it's gonna be good, but wait for the data. In the Deepcool lineup, the Assassin 4 is higher end than the AK620, so it should be better. How much better? And how much better than a D15? Reviews will tell :D
Great testing, nice to know that you can actually cool the 13900k on air. Thermalright has always impressed me with their TD low profile coolers, nice to know their big coolers are just as good.
I’ve always preferred Air coolers over AIOs, it’s much more aesthetically cleaner to me. I’m glad brands are continuing to improve them for the new series of CPUs.
I recently tore apart my custom loop and went back to air. Just a super industrial build with minimal RGB and packed with fans. Dark rock pro 4, phanteks 719 case, and 14 silent wings 4 fans. Incredibly quiet, and the performance is impressive
I used a DH15 in my build last year, but it was also the only one of the fans listed here in stock. Had any of the others been the only one in stock, I would have gladly used it.
Omg mike I just literally bought thermalright 2 days ago after I saw that Peerless Assassin review of yours... Thank god it's still top of the class in this review.
The Peerless Assassin has been my go-to recommendation for air cooling for people since last year. Surprised to see it beating out the NH-D15 in your testing my that much. Thermalright has some really good value coolers, and I own a Frost Spirit 140 myself. Great testing!
It's been mine too. There's genuinely a vast swath of the market, all the way from the Ryzen 5 7600 to the i7-13700K, that should look absolutely nowhere else.
Hmm i guess i could take your words and solidify my decision of sticking and using only air cooling. Like i always have. I've never ever had an AIO cause i've never trusted any liquids around electronic PC components. No matter how reliable liquid cooling sates it is. I'll never trust it. Especially when there's noisy pumps involved and liquid flushes. Screw that $hit. Air is " Set and Forget " and the worst thing that could happen is a fan to stop working but you'll still have alright cooling till you replace your dead fan. Never using liquid
Got my TR PA 120 in December for my upgrade. Bought the ugliest one too for a few bucks less. Couldn't be happier with it. I'm usually a hyper 212 guy, but wanted the extra performance of a dual tower and these Thermalrights are currently less than the cooler master hyper 212. Amazing product.
Thermalright has been a sleeper brand for a while, glad to see them finally becoming more well known. Their macho coolers are also decent, especially if you need ram clearance
Yeah they just don't really advertise their stuff, so when the "PC gamer" industry went mouth-to-mouth communication to large advertising campaigns as the market grew, they kinda fell behind in terms of brand recognition, but they've never stopped competing.
Just a thought for another video - what about using different 120mm fans on the peerless assassin? Would be interesting to see how much performance can be achieved with that cheap cooler.
Have you seen the fan showdown, peeps design fans, sends the design in, the guy prints them and tests them for temp, airflow, etc, its pretty cool and you can get in on the action is you like.
I am using a Dark Rock 4 - not the Pro version - since 4 years now. It's been great on my 2600 overclocked and also does a magnificent job on my new 5600x with PBO/Curve Optimizer. While at the time of purchase it looked to be quite expensive ( 45€ ), it has proven to be worth it. Has been running for countless hours and also the fan still works and is as quiet as Day 1.
For anyone curious about the Dark Rock Pro 4 (which I'm using with the 7950X3D). I replaced the front Silent Wings 3 fan with a Silent Wings 4 fan and saw quite a difference.
This is helpful as I am building one with a regular 7950x. I wanted 3D but worried the MSI motherboard won’t have the correct bios version to run it properly. Pc builder threw the error. Could I ask what motherboard you use?
The reason why I recommend D15 over anything else is because it can outlast the next few centuries, a nuclear meltdown and a few apocalypses. The fans and the bearings that noctua uses are industry leading plus they keep supporting newer platforms by providing free compatible brackets to users upgrading from an older platforms. Noctua are absolute Chads of the industry. The word "planned obsolescence" doesn't exist in their dictionary!
I was going to buy the deepcool ak620 but as soon as I saw the PA120 performance, I was convinced to switch, it sells for 25 euros less! Amazingly detailed and technical tests live the data man even more the prestine and intuitive presentation of it. Great video
Have you seen the fan showdown, peeps design fans, sends the design in, the guy prints them and tests them for temp, airflow, etc, its pretty cool and you can get in on the action is you like.
I just find the CPU coolers market to be the most interesting part of the PC market right now. This was a hell of a video. I Primarily build with Thermalright since last year. Have not been disappointed.
The results are quite different from your own Ak620 review... I kinda wonder what the difference is. As a BOTH PA120 and AK620 User, I really feel AK620 has slightly lower noise than the PA120 at the same Temp.
@@HardwareCanucks In my personal experience, AK620 was even close to PA120's big brother, FC140, on AM4 CPUs. Maybe its LGA-1700 mount isn't as good as the AM4 and the LGA2066 ones. I only test the coolers on i5 12400 for LGA 1700... And it was obviously an Overkill which only explains that in very low fan speed Ak620 was the best out of three. Nice to see the results of high load scenarios in this vid.
You didn't speak about RAM clearance in your video. If I'm not missing something here, the NHU12A is the only cooler with full ram clearance because of the singletower design. That alone may be worth the price to some people. Also, it would be awesome if you could incorporate noise frequencies in your testing in the future, because fans with the same decibel can sound drastically different. Anyway, love your videos regardless, thanks for making these!
I have it and it is somewhat noisy, its low tone is not very pleasant when it exceeds 75%, if you want a little more stability in temperatures and less noise I advise you to go for the D15 or D15S
Could you please do a similar comparison review for water cooling, including their compatibility for upcoming AMD 7000 3D cache CPUs? Like all the different custom water blocks (with overkill radiators so the limit is only the block itself, like two 420mm radiators) and you could include the top of the range AIOs (like 360 and 420mm radiator AIO versons) so we can see how they compare, and determine the best possible CPU cooling kit for the hottest CPUs?
I don't think I have ever seen a side by side comparison of the several different EK CPU water blocks & in turn comparing those to alpha cool, thermal take, etc...
Great video guys. Ryzen 5-7000 really benefits from a big, flat cooler base. I run watercooled and bought a techn waterblock and even on my 5800x3d I'm in the 60s in gaming, that's with the GPU in the loop as well. Flat bases are going to be so important for Ryzen.
@@bluej511 Good, i'll like a custom EKwb liquid coolinq (i'll waiting for monoblock quantum x). Temperature at max watt on cpu and gpu? Rpm fans and decibels? Thanks! But... which softwares or games use more than 8 cores?
Arctic Freezer 34 Esports Duo is what I've been using and I'm really happy with it, capable cooler and really silent. I even switched to Arctic P14s for my case fans I really liked the brand.
I got the NH-D15S and added another NF-A15 to the heatsink because I was worried about thermal throttling in my i5-13600k rig, but I was so happy and pleasantly surprised to see that it didn't even break 80 degrees Celsius during any application: gaming, cinebench, etc all while not even being undervolted! Noctua for cpu cooler and case fans leaves me blown away (pun intended)! (for those wondering why I didn't just use a NH-D15 it was for compatibility issues with the mobo)
The problem with the Dark Rock Pro 4 is that you probably did not apply enough mounting pressure. After reading user problems on a forum, I tightened the screws very well and the cooler worked flawlessly.
There's enough pressure. The heatsink itself was roasting hot (67C in some spots) so heat was being transmitted to the fin arrays. It just wasn't being moved out fast enough.
Thank you for this video, it has really given me a lot of insight into planning an upcoming build. I just wish that these coolers made a better effort to be clear about what ram sizes will fit next to them. It sounds like the NH-D15 will only accommodate 32mm height ram (which rules out nearly all good DDR5 options), with the peerless assassin I'm having a harder time to discover.
I love DRP4s especially for its silent profile and I'm a silence freak. But I've always wondered what could happen by replacing the stock fans.. with some work I believe I could try out a NF-A12x25 at least in the front and see if it improves.
If you do it, let me know how it turned out. I have a DRP4 as well on a 13700K with a silent fan curve and am now wondering if I should switch to another cooler or just replace fans. My system is already relatively quiet but I like tinkering around.
@@adoksym I don't have time to tinker around atm, but there should be a set of longer clips that I wonder if they are to be used for a 3rd fan or for a regular 120mm fan. Or else I was thinking to slap a NF-A12x25 I have sitting around, because maybe the holes for the rubber pads (that you can remove from the fan frame) *might* adapt to the DRP4 proprietary clip. I think I won't be able to do much with the center fan, unless trying a NF-P14r, but I bet that there's not much difference between that or the stock silent wing 135mm.
I think the noctua u12a looks like the winner for most people. Much smaller footprint than the others and still maintains competitive performance up to 200w+.
This is fantastic. Before I even seen this review, I was shopping for a cooler that would be great for AM4, and didn't break the bank. Low and behold I bought the Thermalright Peerless Assasin 120. I hear the fans were meh, so I upgraded them to a pair of Noctua NF-P12 redux-1700 fans at only $15.00 each! So the cooling should be even better! Nice to know I bought a fantastic cooler to cool my Ryzen 7 7700x !
Besides , noctua will bring new 140mm fans with the new D15 , you can simply buy those fans and put them in your old D15... they will be pretty identical But even if you dont , i dont think the difference will be THAT huge in the first place , but hey !
Props for the effort put into the video, it looks super clean as ever. However, I'll disagree with you on the fact that a contact frame is a "helper" Intel's ILM design on LGA1700 is so terrible that, for anything from a 12400F performance level onwards, it is a must. The fact that the ILM bends the CPU makes things even worse than the AM5 IHS design, which will mean that none of these coolers are actually getting to perform as well as they could. I hope you add the contact frame to your future videos. Keep up the good work.
Excellent review, but some suggestions. First suggestion is, there are 2 high end coolers missing from this comparison. I assume you don't include the assassin 3 because its getting a replacement soon,, but you should definitely try the FC140 from thermalright. I think it's going to top your charts! Second of all, with the 13900k, instead of comparing clockspeeds, you could just compare power draw when these cpus hit 100c.
In mid december 2022, i started to gather tech infos for my new gaming PC build. Very fast, i knew that the Noctua NH D15S was the absolute best and i can see a confirmation here. DeepCool might be almost as impressive at the cooling aspect but its way louder on the job and it is not acceptable for me. I record a lots of audio with my PC so i need my PC be the quietest as possible when i record. And when i am gaming, i want the best cooler solution. So Noctua NH 15DS is my obvious choice.
I gave the old 8700k (liquid metal Mod) away to someone, recently needed a new cooler and it shouldn't cost much. ~ 1 week ago I looked for the "Thermalright Peerless Assassin 120 SE + ARGB" and after 2 days it arrived at the person. The cooler is already running so very cool and also quietly. With standard and 95 watt, it's 58°C in CinebenchR23. Stable at 4.7 GHZ and ~125 watt, it freezes at 64°C in CinebenchR23. In a game 43°c at 58 watt and 80 watt at 50°c.
Thanks for the great review again. I just ordered black ridge and set of different fans to make some test on my own. Hoping that single top mounted Artic P12 slim will do the job just fine with ryzen 5500.
Have been using the TR Peerless for around 6 months now, and I have never looked back. For the price, I've yet to own anything that comes close to the performance/acoustics this thing has. My only complaint is RAM clearance, but it's not a dealbreaker as you can just resituate the fan a bit away from the MB and it still works perfectly. If you're on the fence about this cooler, don't be. Get it. Blame me if it's not what you expected, and if it works as well as it has for me, you're welcome :D
Awesome video! Also when you are flashing the parts with another colour such as at 14:32, there is the faintest but audible high pitched sound that is very distracting. I would recommend removing that. It happens a number of times throughout the video. Keep up the great work!
Please make a separate playlist with your videos about cooling systems. You're very cool. You have the most informative videos about cooling systems. Keep up the good work!!!
Thing about D15 though, or any Noctua coolers - you buy them for life. They provide free parts on request for any new platforms that come out. So you can keep using your D15 in any system going into the future, and it will be compatible. Noctua's mounting system is amazing, and the fact that everybody else didn't completely copy it by now is a mystery to me. It's just so much better than the competition.
With new coolers from Noctua, BeQuiet!, and Ice Giant coming in the semi-near future I was hesitant to buy any current offerings. This video convinced me to go with Thermalright for the meantime. Great video!
Do you think we will start to see coolers incorporating vapor chambers as opposed to just having heatpipes connected so a solid block? This combination works amazing for GPUs and I'm surprised nobody has attempted it on a tower cooler yet.
I agree 100% with you about the Thermalright Peerless Assassin. I bought mine last year after watching your previous video. Wow does it do a GREAT job of keeping my AMD 5800X cpu cool. TY, GREAT reviews!!! Here are my before and after temp results: (My old heatsink was the AMD Wraith Prisim). Before / After Idle 52 / 36 CPU-Z Stress test: 80 / 64 Prime95: 90 / 78 3DMark Time Spy: 87 / 72
Love your cooler reviews. Would love to see some 240mm AIO reviews. It’s been a while since anyone’s done a good round up, and there’s a lot of new AIO coolers out there.
I bought my NH-D15 in 2016. It has been on 3 diffent PC builds and so far it is one of the best PC products I have had. It is extreamly good, and if i want it to be total silent I can accept it to go on a low RPM and increase the heat just a little, and have more or less zero noise coming from it. Just an amazing cooler that is running like a champ even to day.
You made me resubscribe to Hardware Canucks! I'd cancelled my sub in the days of fluff marketing vids by Eber. What you are generating is top-class insightful content. All power to you!
I have three D15's in stock and its nice to know I have made another good computer part investment. It will be installed on A Z390 Aorus Master with a total of (8) 140mm RGB fans and two 4TB SSD's with two 4TB SSHD's. But looking to get the 8TB M.2 Rocket and make this build for my Movie House. And Great! Another good video you've put out again!
I bought a peerless assassin 120 SE for $35 and love it, gonna be upgrading my case to a 5000d airflow soon and I'll be changing the stock fans for some extra Corsair AF120 elites just cause I have extra
My new setup is amazing, don't have any crazy heat spikes like I was getting with the prism or the single fan on the peerless assassin like I had to in my old case
Wow. First time hearing about the Thermalright Peerless Assassin as a Scythe Fuma 2 owner. That's pretty impressive stuff. Might buy one for another build soon. Looks really promising
The Dark Rock Pro 4 results are certainly surprising. I've been running one in my system since 2020 with absolutely no issues, though I'm sure it helps that the Ryzen 9 3000 series in my system isn't generating nearly the heat load that the tested Intel chip is. I would have expected it to perform better, but the reason for why it didn't makes sense. I like the PCs I build to be easy to work in, quiet and have plenty of air flow. A 100% stress test on all cores barely brings the PC into audible range and doesn't spike over 80c. How could I ever be upset with that?
It's astounding how good of a value the Thermalright Peerless Assassin is, especially at it's $40 (!!!) pricepoint.
@@stephenxs8354 Yeah I've seen the SE models go for like $31. Insane value
@@StefandeJong1 what's the difference between the PA120 and PA120 SE? Is it just aesthetics?
@@zhbader As far as I'm aware yes, it seems to me the SE (Simplified Edition?) just has the ornamental plates on top meant to hide the ends of the heat pipes removed and also stands a little shorter in that dimension as a result. Performance should near to if not identical.
The fin array number density size fan type ETC. all seem indistinguishable, the fans have same given rating for RPM air flow/pressure ETC., but there's a 15g difference in weight, no idea what they changed TL-C12C (SE) vs TL-C12.
3 less fin pieces in the SE array but the dimension of the fins and gap between them seems the same, maybe the ornamental plates are counted? Hell if I know. Same C1100 Nickel plated copper base plate. Same number and dimension of heat pipes.
Given weight is 750g* vs 730g* (SE) so aside from the 15g fan spec difference 5g weight discrepancy with respect to the ornament/fin array change. Performance is likely indistinguishable between the two variants, maybe over the long term the fans are more likely to fail. I recommend keeping a 5 pack of Arctic P12's in your closet for a rainy day either way.
*Mislabeled full product weight initially.* *
A Silver Soul at the same price is just as good because you're going to replace those fans anyway
Noise comparing Peerless Assassin and U12A is even more unbelievable. I bought PE and sold it two days later because the PE noise is annoying. Decibel test shows good results, but the noise itslelf is way unbeareable. Noctua noise is smoother, less alarming.
Finally someone reviews a thermalright.
they should definitely review Thermalright Frost Commander 140 and Frost Spirit 140 which beats NH-D14 in temperature with lower noise level.
it's not fair comparing 120mm fan PA120 with 140mm NH-D14
I doubt most realize Thermalright has been around for 20+ years. They were like Noctua back then. I used to buy their coolers and think my first was a sk-6 with a delta fan.
Seriously
I still rock a thermalright silver arrow since socket 775, it still cools my 9900k without any issues, 65 euros well spent way back in the day.
@@sdrubaa I’m talking SK-6 all copper from 1999 or so. They made the best coolers back then. They seemed to drop away for a long while and then I just noticed their products again in the last two years. I bought a dual tower 120mm for my sons Ryzen 5800x.
buying the NH-D15 a couple of years ago was the best decision I've ever made.
Free upgrades for new platforms, incredible performance and fast support make it the best of the best - its now in my 4th build.
Same..i bought mine in 2017 for $105 CAD (NCIX) for my (then R7 1700X), and it's been cooling my 9900K @ 5GHz all core for a few years... but just. I've always been a Thermalright lover though, and this peerless assassin is tempting...moving forward. The NH-D15 is $130+ CAD now, i would just as soon throw a 360 on for that price.
Edit: spelling
@@Mr1Tanker 130? Holy shit... Got mine for 50€ with a voucher in 2017 the original price was 89€.
Yeah, I have a D15S Chromax, and Noctua just sent me for free the mounting kit for 1700, coming from amd.
I have it too and when I saw my friends 360 AiO, I changed my mind. Difference is too big to justify it in this price. Still, it will not break overtime like AiO, but performance is not that great.
@@innocentiuslacrim2290 Everywhere. Noctua can't handle spikes and temps even browsing internet are in 60's. Air is just not good for new CPUs, but it have cons. If I would buy cooler second time, I would buy AiO without second thought. But D15S will stay with me on next build if it ever happens, cause I'm not willing to pay these prices for PC. I could, cause I can, but I won't.
I'm surprised that Thermalright gets so little recognition. They were around at the very beginning, and it was TR that had the first heatpipe and then later heatpipe tower cooler way back in the early 2000s.
There was Koolance and their insanely overengineered watercooling setups (which I still have a soft spot for).
And then, it was either Zallman, Thermalright, or Thermaltake... at least in my little meta of enthusiasts. Remember the Thermaltake Volcano series? Thing sounded like it could grind a screwdriver to the handle and kinda looked like it could too :D
Coolermaster had the first heatpipe based CPU coolers for mainstream, back when 60mm fans were normal, knocking Globalwin and Thermoengine off the podium. It used them to spread the heat up to the top of the fins closer to the fan.
I agree, I was using Thermalright back in the Pentium 4 days, SLK-948U was a great cooler back in the day.
Running a TR Frost Commander 140, Keeps my r7 5800x nice and cool.
It's from China and has always being the best seller there (like Deepcool). I guess it's only recently that buyers from other countries found their coolers overpriced and turn back for budget alternatives.
I'm glad Thermalright is making a comeback.. they were THE one to get back in the day, their huge solid copper coolers were fantastic. Looks like they're getting back in the game these days. I'm glad to see it.
Yea i have a thermalright macho rev b, sbm and le grand all great coolers and came with a nice screwdriver. The le grand was a beast
@@ChadKenova I have used a Le Grand in my last 2 builds, it's still the best air cooler out there. It kinda annoys me that everyone is testing the peerless assasin (a great cooler) but ignoring the Le Grand Macho in all of these "best CPU cooler" roundups. I know it's old, but you can still buy it and it still beats everything in this list...
A "fan normalized" chart would be an amazing addition to these reviews. Would love to see their performace with T30's & the budget option P12's.
Also adding Liquid Freezer II 280/360 to the chart would be a super useful for the average person trying to decide between air & AIO.
Great video btw,
Yeah we might add that in the future but one of the main issue is that there is no "choice fan" and nothing will please everyone. The main issue with the T30 is that it simply won't fit between the fin stacks of dual tower coolers so that's outta the running. Also, its thickness makes it incompatible with most brackets included with these coolers.
One of the problems with fan normalizing an air cooler is that the price will be significantly impacted in many cases… most people want plug and play and budget.
@@junkmail6567 It's about measuring the performance of the heatsink without different fans skewing the results goofus
use p12 max
It's really a good time to be in the air cooling market, you've got a bunch of really good options from being able to get the 1% best at any cost all the way down to a (just as good) cooler and case full of (nearly as good) fans for the cost of a Noctua cooler.
except most of them are that expensive it isn't funny. They are way more expensive then 240 AIO's.
@@carisi2k11 And those cheap 240 AIOs aren't even keeping up with these air coolers.
Which fans are you talking about?
@@katherinehackworth I think Arctic and Deep Cool's fans are both good on that performance/noise balance and both are pretty cheap in multi-packs. I haven't gotten to try the Thermalright ones but they look promising and are a bargain too. Even the Noctua Redux (essentially last gen designs) are a solid option for around 90% of the performance at half the price of their mainline fans (though that's still 2-3x more expensive than the previously mentioned ones). I'd definitely buy any of those again (or try the Thermalright ones) over something like what Corsair or similar are charging a premium for.
Thermalright has been around LONGER than Noctua, and was always at the top.
I bought the PA120 for a 5600x that I installed a few days ago. I was actually confused at how quiet my PC was compared to before. 3600x with a stock cooler was SO loud, not to mention went from about 72-79C underload on the 3600x to 50C underload on my 5600x.
Yeah, that cooler is amazing and ACTUALLY AVAILABLE in most regions.
@@HardwareCanucks Amazing cooler, can't believe it was only 45$ CAD
It keeps a 13700k chilled while gaming.. not so much for benchmarking however! Can't beat it for $40!!! Actually, can't beat it until you spend $80-120
@@HardwareCanucks Not here in Sweden it seems like.
I paid 35€ for the SE version, bargain.
I put a Phanteks T30 onto my Dark Rock Pro 4 and it's insane how much better it is now. Highly recommend since the cooler is really held back by the stock fans.
How did u put the T30 fan on the Dark Rock using the original 25mm bracket? Did u zip tie it?
@@JasperLTZ nope. The cooler comes with different sized clips that fit standard fan hole placement. I had to bend them a bit to fit the added thickness but I've had it on there for months now and no issues at all
@@phero6933 that's good to know, thanks!
Did you replace both fans or only the middle or front one?
@@maksadam3258 I replaced both. The front is the T30, it's too thick for the middle so I put a Noctua NF-A12x25 in the middle.
DeepCool AK620 is a BEAST! I have it on my 5800X3D, and it hardly ever sees 70-75C regardless of load.
Bought NH-D15 (non chromax) early 2015, been using it for i7-4790K, i7-6700K, i7-8700K, Ryzen 7 3800X. Now serving Ryzen 9 5900X.
Got mounting upgrades for free via Noctua support (SecuFirm2).
RMA'd push faulty fan (1x A15) without questions circa 2020.
All shipped to Indonesia free of charge.
This beast's warranty (6y) was only beaten by my PSU warranty (Seasonic Snow Silent 1050W, 7y) that bought around 2014.
Still using both of them now. Cost when bought are justified by their performance & longevity.
I have been using the same Noctua NH-D15 since the Ryzen 7 1800X came out. I've since upgraded to a Ryzen 7 5800X, and then a 5800X3D, and the same NH-D15 has been able to cool them all without issue! I absolutely love Noctua and the fact that their air coolers can beat most, (not all), water cooling AIOs!
The NH-D15 can cool a 5950X with no issues whatsoever. If that cooler can fit on a processor properly it can cool any processor put out these days.
I got the D15S for my 5800X3D and have been very impressed with the performance, especially under full cpu load.
I use two BeQuiet! Dark Rock Pro TR4's on a dual AMD EPYC workstation, absolutely amazing never see CPU temps above 40c with only the single middle fan installed. In a Fractal Torrent EATX case.
Would love to see a comparison of the coolers while using the same fans, to see which cooler has the better design, for us who plan to switch out the fans anyway, for maybe RGB or just whatever fans we prefer.
Brilliant idea! Yes please.
My Peerless Assassin is chilling the hell out of my 12700K. I love it. Also you can control the RGB using signal RGB. What a beast.
With the BQ Dark Rock Pro 4 cooler, there are also additional brackets in the packaging that are made for standard 120mm fans. So you can mount any 120mm fan you want. (Have NF-A12 on mine)
Does it make it much better?
I just bought a new one a couple weeks ago and it didn't come with any extra fan clips period.
That Dark Rock Pro 4 is my all time favorite. Kept my 5800X cold! Now keeping my wife's 7900X nice and cool
Great, finally there is a big comparison of the most popular coolers. Special thanks for the tests at 13900K.
And it would be great if you pay attention to such models as Thermalright Frost Commander 140 (vs D15) and Thermalright U120EX REV.4 (vs U12A).
Bought the PA120 RGB version for my 13600k based on your initial review of it, it has NOT disappointed! My motherboard allows my 13600k to pull up to 288w (I’ve only ever seen it pull about 230 in R23), and in gaming workloads my 13600k sits in the mid 50s. Running a 10 minute Cinebench R23 pass saw a peak temp of 92* and just under 23000 point multi core score. The Peerless Assassin is an absolute unit of a tower cooler, I can’t recommend it enough!
Good to hear!
I bought a DRP4 a few years ago to cool a 10850K. I was upgrading from i5-6600K with NH-D14 (yes, overkill for that cpu). I saw higher than expected temps with the DRP4. I ended up slapping my older Noctua D14 on it, and I noticed this same 4-5 degree C drop in temps. I assumed this was due to better fans on the D14 and the fact that the DRP4 has the black coating. For looks, I swapped the fans on the D14 to black and sold the DRP4 to a buddy. Thermalright is interesting option for the price, but you can't beat the combo of performance and longevity with Noctua imo.
Considering the noctua nh-u12a is only a single tower cooler compared to the others which are two tower coolers, I must say it does a perfectly fine job in comparison and hanging close with the rest of the pack. For the price value and cooling performance, my pick would be the nh-u12a if you're going for a single tower cooler. The thermalright peerless assassin is the choice for cost and performance for two tower cooler. I have the nh-u12a paired with the i7 13700kf and it cools it perfectly fine. Also to note, I'm using thermal grizzly kryonaut which does a better job than noctua's nt-h1 paste. just fyi.
I'm running a nh-u12a on a 13700K in a sff NR200 case and Noctua NT-H2 paste... no issues. It's a great cooler, just overpriced. You are really paying for the 2 premium noctua fans. If I had the room I probably would have gone with the PA 120. That cooler rocks
Loving this air cooler content recently, it’s the best of its kind out there. Would love to see these top air coolers compared to different AIOs for reference.
I made custom fan mounts for my DRP4 and replaced the fans with much stronger ones, moving about 2x the CF/M and the performance of the heatsink increased dramatically. So yes, the issue is the fans primarily.
Yeah it is. Thanks for confirming!
Hey, you can only change the 120mm fan, right?
Just built a Zen 4 7700x for my brother with an Arctic Freezer 34 E-sports Duo. Tuned PBO UV/OC with a 135w max power limit (138 is default) and ended up 5.75 GHz peak boost, 5.15 GHz all core, MAX temp was 92c during Prime95. Rock solid stable. The Freezer 34 Duo (2 fans) is a very good, very economical, and very compact cooler that gets within a few degrees C of the NH-D15. Wish you had included it in this review.
Both systems at home are running NH-D15S (since 2016 and 2018, bought both of them used for around 50 Euros). The asymmetrical towerdesign compared to the NH-D15 gives it better clearence and when a second fan is installed (second pair of brackets is included) the D15S performs like the D15.
Accompanied by Noctua case fans both systems are running silent and cool.
I love my owls :D
Now for the obvious "What If" request:. What if you replace the bundled fans with better ones? For some people the extra cost of replacement fans is still preferable to switching to liquid cooling. Phero reports here that his Dark Rock 4 Pro improved a lot.
Why buy a cheaper cooler, then replace the fans by spending more money? Just buy a more expensive cooler... That being said, for the money, the Peerless Assassin 120 is the best bang for buck. I have 3 of them and just moved to a ML280 AiO for my 7700X because I got it for $60. The Assassin was mostly fine before, just got a good deal.
PA120 on my 5800X3D... Awesome cooler, runs quiet at all times while giving me temps I am comfortable with. Literally the best bang for buck cooler in existence ATM.
Personally using the NH-U12s redux for my 13700k and it surprised the hell out of me, coming from a 4790k with a CM Hyper 212 😅
How are the thermals and noise? I was considering that cooler but thought it would be insufficient for the 13700k.
I used the original Fuma2 (1500rpm) on my Ryzen 3600. low temps/low noise. When I upgraded to a Ryzen 5950x I also bought 2 1800rpm Kaze Flex fans just to be sure the Fuma2 would be able to cool a 16core beast, and he does. The newer Fuma2 Rev.B already comes with the faster fans. I even put 2 normal size fans on it instead of one normal and a slim one, because I only use 2 16GB DIMMs. If you use 4 you need the slim one in front.
Great video. There is one thing not talked about though. If you buy a Noctua cooler, you have an upgrade path, Noctua will supply you with adapters even for future sockets for its coolers - for free. Also, those Noctua fans are rated for a serious life span. Cheaper competitors do not even bother to tell you any life span of their fans. Also, dB ist not dB. The sound profile can vary a lot at the same dB and you hear quality when you listen closely (motor noises etc).
I don't say one needs to fork out 100 EUR when the Thermalright will do a great job likely at least for the lifetime of a PC but I am saying there is still a case for paying extra for a Noctua cooler, if one is inclined to pay for extra quality.
Can't wait to see the improvements of the DeepCool Assassins 4!
And the D16 (but it will be released in 2024).
PS Mike your tests are great as always!
I can buy the deepcool assassin 4 right now, should I buy it or buy the ak620 instead?
@@Galaxy-du9qj I always suggest to wait for reviews. I'm sure it's gonna be good, but wait for the data. In the Deepcool lineup, the Assassin 4 is higher end than the AK620, so it should be better. How much better? And how much better than a D15? Reviews will tell :D
@@simoSLJ89 thanks for the reply 👍👍👍
Great testing, nice to know that you can actually cool the 13900k on air. Thermalright has always impressed me with their TD low profile coolers, nice to know their big coolers are just as good.
I’ve always preferred Air coolers over AIOs, it’s much more aesthetically cleaner to me. I’m glad brands are continuing to improve them for the new series of CPUs.
My U14S is eight years old now. It still performs flawlessly. Thermalrights are awesome. Can’t wait for the Noctuas new 140 mm fan and a new D15.
I am super happy you guys did this new video given how different cooling is now. Very appreciated
I recently tore apart my custom loop and went back to air. Just a super industrial build with minimal RGB and packed with fans. Dark rock pro 4, phanteks 719 case, and 14 silent wings 4 fans. Incredibly quiet, and the performance is impressive
I used a DH15 in my build last year, but it was also the only one of the fans listed here in stock. Had any of the others been the only one in stock, I would have gladly used it.
Literally the best ad I have ever seen on RUclips and it ain’t close.
Your tests are so good, really hard to find on another channels these detailed tests. 👍
Omg mike I just literally bought thermalright 2 days ago after I saw that Peerless Assassin review of yours... Thank god it's still top of the class in this review.
Hope you enjoy it!
The Peerless Assassin has been my go-to recommendation for air cooling for people since last year. Surprised to see it beating out the NH-D15 in your testing my that much. Thermalright has some really good value coolers, and I own a Frost Spirit 140 myself. Great testing!
It's been mine too. There's genuinely a vast swath of the market, all the way from the Ryzen 5 7600 to the i7-13700K, that should look absolutely nowhere else.
The timing of this video is excellent, was just looking to replace my dead AIO 😅
Hmm i guess i could take your words and solidify my decision of sticking and using only air cooling.
Like i always have. I've never ever had an AIO cause i've never trusted any liquids around electronic PC components. No matter how reliable liquid cooling sates it is. I'll never trust it. Especially when there's noisy pumps involved and liquid flushes. Screw that $hit. Air is " Set and Forget " and the worst thing that could happen is a fan to stop working but you'll still have alright cooling till you replace your dead fan. Never using liquid
Got my TR PA 120 in December for my upgrade. Bought the ugliest one too for a few bucks less. Couldn't be happier with it. I'm usually a hyper 212 guy, but wanted the extra performance of a dual tower and these Thermalrights are currently less than the cooler master hyper 212. Amazing product.
Thermalright has been a sleeper brand for a while, glad to see them finally becoming more well known.
Their macho coolers are also decent, especially if you need ram clearance
Thermalright was the brand to beat back in the day. I have a 20year old cooler still in use from them. Bought back in the socket 775 days xD
Yeah they just don't really advertise their stuff, so when the "PC gamer" industry went mouth-to-mouth communication to large advertising campaigns as the market grew, they kinda fell behind in terms of brand recognition, but they've never stopped competing.
Just a thought for another video - what about using different 120mm fans on the peerless assassin? Would be interesting to see how much performance can be achieved with that cheap cooler.
I saw a review earlier and the stock ones are actually pretty good on par with the artic P12, there's no much gain or a relevant one
Have you seen the fan showdown, peeps design fans, sends the design in, the guy prints them and tests them for temp, airflow, etc, its pretty cool and you can get in on the action is you like.
Thermalright Fans usually are really good. Lots better than most other stock fans. So I wouldn't expect huge improvements.
I am using a Dark Rock 4 - not the Pro version - since 4 years now.
It's been great on my 2600 overclocked and also does a magnificent job on my new 5600x with PBO/Curve Optimizer.
While at the time of purchase it looked to be quite expensive ( 45€ ), it has proven to be worth it.
Has been running for countless hours and also the fan still works and is as quiet as Day 1.
The next gen NH-D15 coming Q4 is not "relatively soon" when we're talking about it in January.
For anyone curious about the Dark Rock Pro 4 (which I'm using with the 7950X3D). I replaced the front Silent Wings 3 fan with a Silent Wings 4 fan and saw quite a difference.
This is helpful as I am building one with a regular 7950x. I wanted 3D but worried the MSI motherboard won’t have the correct bios version to run it properly. Pc builder threw the error. Could I ask what motherboard you use?
@@DigitalFF2808 Aorus X670 AX Elite
The reason why I recommend D15 over anything else is because it can outlast the next few centuries, a nuclear meltdown and a few apocalypses. The fans and the bearings that noctua uses are industry leading plus they keep supporting newer platforms by providing free compatible brackets to users upgrading from an older platforms. Noctua are absolute Chads of the industry. The word "planned obsolescence" doesn't exist in their dictionary!
I was going to buy the deepcool ak620 but as soon as I saw the PA120 performance, I was convinced to switch, it sells for 25 euros less! Amazingly detailed and technical tests live the data man even more the prestine and intuitive presentation of it. Great video
seeing how different computer coolers perform is still one of my favorite things to watch
Have you seen the fan showdown, peeps design fans, sends the design in, the guy prints them and tests them for temp, airflow, etc, its pretty cool and you can get in on the action is you like.
@@Ozzy3333333I'm only really interested in fans and coolers that are actually on the market
I just find the CPU coolers market to be the most interesting part of the PC market right now. This was a hell of a video. I Primarily build with Thermalright since last year. Have not been disappointed.
The results are quite different from your own Ak620 review... I kinda wonder what the difference is. As a BOTH PA120 and AK620 User, I really feel AK620 has slightly lower noise than the PA120 at the same Temp.
The results are on two completely different platforms. The delta between the two is exactly why we decided to update this asap. :)
@@HardwareCanucks In my personal experience, AK620 was even close to PA120's big brother, FC140, on AM4 CPUs. Maybe its LGA-1700 mount isn't as good as the AM4 and the LGA2066 ones. I only test the coolers on i5 12400 for LGA 1700... And it was obviously an Overkill which only explains that in very low fan speed Ak620 was the best out of three. Nice to see the results of high load scenarios in this vid.
You didn't speak about RAM clearance in your video. If I'm not missing something here, the NHU12A is the only cooler with full ram clearance because of the singletower design. That alone may be worth the price to some people. Also, it would be awesome if you could incorporate noise frequencies in your testing in the future, because fans with the same decibel can sound drastically different. Anyway, love your videos regardless, thanks for making these!
rgb rams...who cares.
Good point thanks for bringing it up
I have it and it is somewhat noisy, its low tone is not very pleasant when it exceeds 75%, if you want a little more stability in temperatures and less noise I advise you to go for the D15 or D15S
Just bought the Thermalright Peerless Assassin 120SE brand new for just $32, what a steal.
love your cooler reviews Mike, good work! There are a lot of great options now, can´t wait to see what the new d15 can do.
Really didn't expect the Dark Rock Pro to be that bad. I'm glad I picked the trusty old D15 over that one.
Could you please do a similar comparison review for water cooling, including their compatibility for upcoming AMD 7000 3D cache CPUs? Like all the different custom water blocks (with overkill radiators so the limit is only the block itself, like two 420mm radiators) and you could include the top of the range AIOs (like 360 and 420mm radiator AIO versons) so we can see how they compare, and determine the best possible CPU cooling kit for the hottest CPUs?
I don't think I have ever seen a side by side comparison of the several different EK CPU water blocks & in turn comparing those to alpha cool, thermal take, etc...
I just bought a D15S for my 12700k. It stays ridiculously cool
Great video guys. Ryzen 5-7000 really benefits from a big, flat cooler base. I run watercooled and bought a techn waterblock and even on my 5800x3d I'm in the 60s in gaming, that's with the GPU in the loop as well. Flat bases are going to be so important for Ryzen.
Air beats liquid cooler? Is it possible a test?
And, for gaming and blender gpu render is necessary a multicores cpu?
Thanks!
@@ricbattaglia6976 i run a full custom loop so I'll beat air every time lol.
@@bluej511 Good, i'll like a custom EKwb liquid coolinq (i'll waiting for monoblock quantum x).
Temperature at max watt on cpu and gpu? Rpm fans and decibels?
Thanks!
But... which softwares or games use more than 8 cores?
Thank you, Mike. Just finished two builds recently and put the Thermalright Peerless Assassin in both. Seems to work pretty well.
Worth adding air cpu coolers in the title 🤙🏼
this!
Good call! Done.
Because of your review of pa120, i decided to buy it for ryzen 5600(overkill i know), and damn, 35c idle, 45-50c in games.
Arctic Freezer 34 Esports Duo is what I've been using and I'm really happy with it, capable cooler and really silent. I even switched to Arctic P14s for my case fans I really liked the brand.
Yes, I checked the comments to see if anyone else was using it. I bought the same cooler last year when I got a 12600k.
I got the NH-D15S and added another NF-A15 to the heatsink because I was worried about thermal throttling in my i5-13600k rig, but I was so happy and pleasantly surprised to see that it didn't even break 80 degrees Celsius during any application: gaming, cinebench, etc all while not even being undervolted! Noctua for cpu cooler and case fans leaves me blown away (pun intended)!
(for those wondering why I didn't just use a NH-D15 it was for compatibility issues with the mobo)
I wonder if the peerless assassin would completely overtake the nh-d15 if you added a phanteks t30 onto it. It would still be cheaper too.
Just get the 140mm thermalright cooler ;)
Be Quiet is my absoluet fav. I love their whole brand.
The problem with the Dark Rock Pro 4 is that you probably did not apply enough mounting pressure. After reading user problems on a forum, I tightened the screws very well and the cooler worked flawlessly.
I just want to be able to change the fans out to the Silent Wings 4.
There's enough pressure. The heatsink itself was roasting hot (67C in some spots) so heat was being transmitted to the fin arrays. It just wasn't being moved out fast enough.
Im actually more confused about the performance of the ak620 than the dark pro 4.
Thank you for this video, it has really given me a lot of insight into planning an upcoming build. I just wish that these coolers made a better effort to be clear about what ram sizes will fit next to them. It sounds like the NH-D15 will only accommodate 32mm height ram (which rules out nearly all good DDR5 options), with the peerless assassin I'm having a harder time to discover.
I love DRP4s especially for its silent profile and I'm a silence freak. But I've always wondered what could happen by replacing the stock fans.. with some work I believe I could try out a NF-A12x25 at least in the front and see if it improves.
If you do it, let me know how it turned out. I have a DRP4 as well on a 13700K with a silent fan curve and am now wondering if I should switch to another cooler or just replace fans. My system is already relatively quiet but I like tinkering around.
@@adoksym I don't have time to tinker around atm, but there should be a set of longer clips that I wonder if they are to be used for a 3rd fan or for a regular 120mm fan.
Or else I was thinking to slap a NF-A12x25 I have sitting around, because maybe the holes for the rubber pads (that you can remove from the fan frame) *might* adapt to the DRP4 proprietary clip. I think I won't be able to do much with the center fan, unless trying a NF-P14r, but I bet that there's not much difference between that or the stock silent wing 135mm.
I've been using a D15 since 2018 and it's the absolute best, quite frankly.
I think the noctua u12a looks like the winner for most people. Much smaller footprint than the others and still maintains competitive performance up to 200w+.
Plus you can switch both fans for a t30
You pay a premium to have noctua, for the brand and quality. Its worth it if you can afford it tho :D
This is fantastic. Before I even seen this review, I was shopping for a cooler that would be great for AM4, and didn't break the bank. Low and behold I bought the Thermalright Peerless Assasin 120. I hear the fans were meh, so I upgraded them to a pair of Noctua NF-P12 redux-1700 fans at only $15.00 each! So the cooling should be even better! Nice to know I bought a fantastic cooler to cool my Ryzen 7 7700x !
Besides , noctua will bring new 140mm fans with the new D15 , you can simply buy those fans and put them in your old D15... they will be pretty identical
But even if you dont , i dont think the difference will be THAT huge in the first place , but hey !
Props for the effort put into the video, it looks super clean as ever.
However, I'll disagree with you on the fact that a contact frame is a "helper"
Intel's ILM design on LGA1700 is so terrible that, for anything from a 12400F performance level onwards, it is a must. The fact that the ILM bends the CPU makes things even worse than the AM5 IHS design, which will mean that none of these coolers are actually getting to perform as well as they could.
I hope you add the contact frame to your future videos. Keep up the good work.
Excellent review, but some suggestions.
First suggestion is, there are 2 high end coolers missing from this comparison. I assume you don't include the assassin 3 because its getting a replacement soon,, but you should definitely try the FC140 from thermalright. I think it's going to top your charts!
Second of all, with the 13900k, instead of comparing clockspeeds, you could just compare power draw when these cpus hit 100c.
In mid december 2022, i started to gather tech infos for my new gaming PC build. Very fast, i knew that the Noctua NH D15S was the absolute best and i can see a confirmation here. DeepCool might be almost as impressive at the cooling aspect but its way louder on the job and it is not acceptable for me. I record a lots of audio with my PC so i need my PC be the quietest as possible when i record. And when i am gaming, i want the best cooler solution. So Noctua NH 15DS is my obvious choice.
I gave the old 8700k (liquid metal Mod) away to someone, recently needed a new cooler and it shouldn't cost much. ~ 1 week ago I looked for the "Thermalright Peerless Assassin 120 SE + ARGB" and after 2 days it arrived at the person. The cooler is already running so very cool and also quietly. With standard and 95 watt, it's 58°C in CinebenchR23. Stable at 4.7 GHZ and ~125 watt, it freezes at 64°C in CinebenchR23. In a game 43°c at 58 watt and 80 watt at 50°c.
Great video! I'd still love to see a similar video for AMD-made CPUs.
Thanks for the great review again. I just ordered black ridge and set of different fans to make some test on my own. Hoping that single top mounted Artic P12 slim will do the job just fine with ryzen 5500.
Have been using the TR Peerless for around 6 months now, and I have never looked back. For the price, I've yet to own anything that comes close to the performance/acoustics this thing has. My only complaint is RAM clearance, but it's not a dealbreaker as you can just resituate the fan a bit away from the MB and it still works perfectly.
If you're on the fence about this cooler, don't be. Get it. Blame me if it's not what you expected, and if it works as well as it has for me, you're welcome :D
Awesome video! Also when you are flashing the parts with another colour such as at 14:32, there is the faintest but audible high pitched sound that is very distracting. I would recommend removing that. It happens a number of times throughout the video. Keep up the great work!
Please make a separate playlist with your videos about cooling systems. You're very cool. You have the most informative videos about cooling systems. Keep up the good work!!!
Thing about D15 though, or any Noctua coolers - you buy them for life. They provide free parts on request for any new platforms that come out. So you can keep using your D15 in any system going into the future, and it will be compatible. Noctua's mounting system is amazing, and the fact that everybody else didn't completely copy it by now is a mystery to me. It's just so much better than the competition.
With new coolers from Noctua, BeQuiet!, and Ice Giant coming in the semi-near future I was hesitant to buy any current offerings. This video convinced me to go with Thermalright for the meantime. Great video!
Do you think we will start to see coolers incorporating vapor chambers as opposed to just having heatpipes connected so a solid block? This combination works amazing for GPUs and I'm surprised nobody has attempted it on a tower cooler yet.
I agree 100% with you about the Thermalright Peerless Assassin. I bought mine last year after watching your previous video. Wow does it do a GREAT job of keeping my AMD 5800X cpu cool. TY, GREAT reviews!!!
Here are my before and after temp results: (My old heatsink was the AMD Wraith Prisim).
Before / After
Idle 52 / 36
CPU-Z Stress test: 80 / 64
Prime95: 90 / 78
3DMark Time Spy: 87 / 72
Great to hear!
Love your cooler reviews. Would love to see some 240mm AIO reviews. It’s been a while since anyone’s done a good round up, and there’s a lot of new AIO coolers out there.
I bought my NH-D15 in 2016. It has been on 3 diffent PC builds and so far it is one of the best PC products I have had. It is extreamly good, and if i want it to be total silent I can accept it to go on a low RPM and increase the heat just a little, and have more or less zero noise coming from it. Just an amazing cooler that is running like a champ even to day.
You made me resubscribe to Hardware Canucks! I'd cancelled my sub in the days of fluff marketing vids by Eber. What you are generating is top-class insightful content. All power to you!
Proud user of Deepcool AK620 White. Thanks Deepcool for caring for our pockets :3
I have three D15's in stock and its nice to know I have made another good computer part investment. It will be installed on A Z390 Aorus Master with a total of (8) 140mm RGB fans and two 4TB SSD's with two 4TB SSHD's. But looking to get the 8TB M.2 Rocket and make this build for my Movie House. And Great! Another good video you've put out again!
That ad spot was just perfect
I bought a peerless assassin 120 SE for $35 and love it, gonna be upgrading my case to a 5000d airflow soon and I'll be changing the stock fans for some extra Corsair AF120 elites just cause I have extra
My new setup is amazing, don't have any crazy heat spikes like I was getting with the prism or the single fan on the peerless assassin like I had to in my old case
You might have to check out the MONTECH DT24 , it's a cooling beast !
Interesting choice!
Wow. First time hearing about the Thermalright Peerless Assassin as a Scythe Fuma 2 owner. That's pretty impressive stuff. Might buy one for another build soon. Looks really promising
The Dark Rock Pro 4 results are certainly surprising. I've been running one in my system since 2020 with absolutely no issues, though I'm sure it helps that the Ryzen 9 3000 series in my system isn't generating nearly the heat load that the tested Intel chip is. I would have expected it to perform better, but the reason for why it didn't makes sense.
I like the PCs I build to be easy to work in, quiet and have plenty of air flow. A 100% stress test on all cores barely brings the PC into audible range and doesn't spike over 80c. How could I ever be upset with that?
Great video! Makes me so happy to have purchased the Thermalright PA120SE instead of the better looking AK620!
I was looking for a video like this from a reputable source just a couple days ago, thank you so much! Definitely helps finding my AIO replacement