Thermalright Peerless Assassin 120 SE CPU Cooler, 6 Heat Pipes AGHP Technology, Dual 120mm PWM Fans, 1550RPM Speed, for AMD:AM4 AM5/Intel LGA 1700/1150/1151/1200/1851,PC Cooler

I've been building PCs for over a decade, and the Thermalright Peerless Assassin 120 SE is hands down one of the best air coolers I've used—especially at this price point.Pros:Outstanding cooling performance: Easily keeps my Ryzen 7 5800X under 70°C under full load. It's right up there with much more expensive coolers like the Noctua NH-D15.Quiet operation: Even under load, the included fans are whisper quiet. Idle temps are practically silent.Easy installation: The mounting system is simple and solid. Thermalright includes all necessary hardware and clear instructions.Excellent build quality: The heatsink is hefty and well-made, and the fans feel durable with no rattling or vibrations.Great value: For around $35–$40, you're getting premium-tier performance without breaking the bank.Cons:Large size: Make sure to check your RAM clearance and case dimensions. It's a big cooler, so compact builds may have issues.Plain aesthetics: It's not flashy—no RGB or aggressive design—but if you care more about performance than looks, it’s perfect.Bottom line:If you're looking for top-tier air cooling without paying premium-brand prices, the Peerless Assassin 120 SE is a no-brainer. It punches way above its weight class and is one of the best deals in PC cooling right now.

When I built my PC five years ago I installed a Dark Rock Pro 4 for my CPU cooler. It worked very well, but over the years the fans grew louder, the cooling became less efficient, and dust began to accumulate in hard to clean places. I decided to look for an affordable replacement and settled on the Thermalright Peerless Assassin. Overall, I believe this was a very good choice.Compared to my Dark Rock Pro 4, the Thermalright Peerless Assassin was a breeze to install. The LGA 155x bracket fit my motherboard and was easy to install. The thermal paste seemed thicker than other pastes I've used, but it went on neatly and is clearly working. The spring screws seem to have secured the cooler to the brackets very well. My biggest complaint with my old cooler was installing the fans. Happily, I can report that the Peerless Assassin's fan are easy to install, and remove if needed, and are secure.In terms of performance, I'm completely satisfied. The fans are not as quiet as my Dark Rock Pro 4 when I first installed it. However, they are an acceptable low volume. My PC has an Intel Core i7-8700k CPU and the cooler has no problem keeping it between 20C to 30C while idle or under a light load. I am no longer an avid gamer, and do not play modern video games, however I did test the thermals while playing Minecraft. It kept my CPU around 40C most of the time and would briefly shoot up to 50C when loading parts of the map.At less than 40 USD this cooler is a fantastic option for CPU cooling. Its significantly less expensive than comparable coolers, is easy to install, and delivers good performance.

This air cooler was surprisingly good for the price. First of all, it was packaged very neatly and protected very well. It has a really nice, big heatsink and good fans with it. It's quiet, and comes with a lot of mounting hardware, so no matter what motherboard you have, you can use it. Although hard to get on first, it is a relatively simple set up process. Set the backplate for you motherboard under it. Put the spacers on the holes, place the retention brackets over the spacers, and then screw it in until the backplate and retention bracket are both snug against the motherboard. Take off the plastic piece from the heatsink, and then screw is onto the retention brackets. Take the fans, and position them with on ein the middle and the other on one side of the heatsink, both facing the same way and use the clips to keep them onto the heatsink. The fans also come with a splitter cable to minimize the total amount of fan headers needed. My one gripe is the fan clips. I just don't like them, they're somewhat hard to get on properly. If the fan clips were easier to get on, there would be no reason to get a different air cooler without rgb.

I recently installed three of these Thermalright fans in my new NZXT H6 Flow build, and they've been outstanding. Installation was incredibly simple thanks to the daisy-chain feature, meaning all three only took up one fan port on my ASRock B650 Steel Legend motherboard - a huge plus for cable management.Performance-wise, these fans are surprisingly quiet, even when my AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D (cooled by a Thermalright Peerless Assassin 120 SE ARGB) is under significant load. Most importantly, they deliver excellent temperature control, keeping my entire system consistently cool without any noticeable temperature spikes. In fact, the thermal performance is even better than some hybrid coolers I've used in previous builds.For anyone seeking effective and quiet cooling without a hefty price tag, these Thermalright fans are a fantastic choice. They have proven to be a critical component in keeping my new, fairly powerful setup (which also includes a SAMSUNG 990 EVO Plus SSD and TEAMGROUP T-Create DDR5 RAM) running optimally. The combination of easy installation, whisper-quiet operation, and superb thermal performance makes them an unbeatable value. I highly recommend them!