Thermalright's Peerless Assassin 120 SE is the best CPU air cooler, now only $33

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One of our favorite air coolers, thanks to its impressive performance and superb value, the Thermalright cooler got our Editor's Choice award with maximum stars when we reviewed the Thermalright Peerless Assassin 120 SE. Cheaper than the competition without holding back on quality and build standards, the Peerless Assassin 120 SE outperformed its peers on release, offering astounding value for PC builders on a budget. 

The Thermalright Peerless Assassin 120 SE is currently on sale at Amazon for $33. It's also the same price as the ARBG version, so if you want more color in your build, there option is also available. This CPU air cooler offers tremendous value for the money considering its performance statistics in our testing. 

Using a solid copper base with 6 copper heat pipes running to dual aluminum fin stacks, the Peerless Assassin 120 SE dissipates heat away from your CPU and quietly draws cool air over the heatsinks with the aid of two 120mm TL-C12C PWM fans. Included brackets and mounting options give compatibility for Intel 115X, 1200, 1700, 17XX sockets, and AMD AM4 and AM5 platforms if you kept hold of the original AMD motherboard backplate. 

Thermalright Peerless Assassin 120 SE CPU Cooler: now $33 at Amazon

Thermalright Peerless Assassin 120 SE CPU Cooler: now $33 at Amazon (was $38)

The Thermalright Peerless Assassin 120 SE is a dual fan and dual tower cooler. With two aluminum fin towers, and two TL-C12C PWM 120mm fans, the Peerless Assassin 120 SE dissipates the heat away from your CPU with the aid of its copper base and 6 copper heat pipes. This cooler is compatible with Intel sockets: 115X, 1200, 1700, 17XX, and AMD: AM4 and AM5

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Thermalright's Peerless Assassin 120 SE is a large CPU cooler with a twin tower and fan design that measures 125mm (L) x 135mm (W) x 155mm (H). It's always best to check that this cooler will fit in the case of your current setup or future build; this includes clearances for RAM, etc.

MORE: How to check CPU Temperature

MORE: Best CPU Coolers 2024: AIO and Air Coolers

Stewart Bendle
Stewart Bendle
Deals Writer

Stewart Bendle is a deals and coupon writer at Tom's Hardware. A firm believer in “Bang for the buck” Stewart likes to research the best prices and coupon codes for hardware and build PCs that have a great price for performance ratio.

14 Comments Comment from the forums
  • peachpuff
    This is what should be used when testing cpus, 360mm aio shouldn't be used at all.
    Reply
  • Amdlova
    Noctua killer... (and all other brands).
    Got second air cooler from thermalright (these new ones) and are perfectly made... no issues at all. Only downside the thermal paste is a mess and not good at all.
    Reply
  • 2Be_or_Not2Be
    Amdlova said:
    Noctua killer... (and all other brands).
    Got second air cooler from thermalright (these new ones) and are perfectly made... no issues at all. Only downside the thermal paste is a mess and not good at all.
    Is this the same company who basically copied Noctua's fans?
    Reply
  • jefferzbooboo
    I had to replace the fans on the Peerless Assassin. They had a pitch/hum that I didn't like.
    I ordered an Assassin King, and heat pipes were jacked up. I don't know how it made it through quality control, but they put in the box.
    Reply
  • Notton
    2Be_or_Not2Be said:
    Is this the same company who basically copied Noctua's fans?
    No, that was Thermaltake and their Toughfan series.
    The 120mm was a good copy, except it costs as much as Noctua's LCP fans.
    The 140mm is not a copy, but it is extremely loud. Probably because they decided to enlarge the 120mm, instead of doing proper R&D.

    I find Thermalright designs good heatsinks, but the fans they include leave a lot to be desired. If you decide to combine a Thermalright heatsink with Noctua fans, they end up costing similar.
    Reply
  • Trake_17
    Noctua is gonna need to do some marketing to differentiate its product or it's gonna be a bad day for business
    Reply
  • NedSmelly
    I’m genuinely curious about how Thermalright is achieving such a high level of performance per dollar. Either everyone else has major inefficiencies in their supply chain, or Thermalright is staffed entirely by Oompa Loompas.
    Reply
  • Math Geek
    NedSmelly said:
    I’m genuinely curious about how Thermalright is achieving such a high level of performance per dollar. Either everyone else has major inefficiencies in their supply chain, or Thermalright is staffed entirely by Oompa Loompas.

    i'm pretty sure we are seeing nothing more than not gouging on the price. makes you seriously think about how much mark-up is involved in the industry as a whole.
    Reply
  • Heiro78
    NedSmelly said:
    I’m genuinely curious about how Thermalright is achieving such a high level of performance per dollar. Either everyone else has major inefficiencies in their supply chain, or Thermalright is staffed entirely by Oompa Loompas.
    A tech YouTube channel commented on this exact question with the answer being, they are looking for market share. Thermalright barely has to invest in marketing because reviews and users are hyping them up and with good reason. Their peerless assassin and phantom spirit dual tower air coolers are great performers in general and even more so at this price point.

    So they are pretty much undercutting every competitor and I expect in 5 years, they'll have things costing more. I don't know how that could possibly work in the long term, especially considering even their AIOs are cheaper than most others.
    Reply
  • thestryker
    NedSmelly said:
    I’m genuinely curious about how Thermalright is achieving such a high level of performance per dollar. Either everyone else has major inefficiencies in their supply chain, or Thermalright is staffed entirely by Oompa Loompas.
    The same way Deepcool does: they have large OEM volumes and generally produce a lot in their factories. Their fans are lower tier than say Noctua and they don't modify the heatsink designs much. There are lots of little things that go into the equation here.

    Hardware Canucks did some testing of the two fan versions that come with the Phantom Spirit and found that the newer, better, fans didn't actually perform any better. They hypothesized that the heatsink had been designed with the original fans in mind so the new ones made more noise at any given RPM.
    Reply