Thanks for the details, I couldn't find a clear answer regarding phantom spirit vs assassin, this cleared things up a bit. I clicked the amazon link, UK one, but it just redirected to the front page but I bought it after clicking so I hope you get the referral.
Nice video. Should of watched this vid earlier. As per Tom's Hardware recommendation for best CPU coolers in 2023, I got the PA120 SE. If only they had reviewed the one extra heatpipe that is PS 120 SE. Also, for this vid, if only you had included "Peerless Assassin/PA 120 SE" in the title or tagged in the description. I'm sure many more would've tune in (boosted by YT search algo), as PA 120 SE has rose to great prominence following recommendations from Tom's and Gamers Nexus' Steve Burke. You're probably right about supply overstock of PA120 SE. I just bought a new one for only USD18 (132 RMB) at one of the TMall's online stores during Mainland China's nationwide "618" sales event last week. Fairly sure prices for Phantom Spirit lineups weren't significantly higher here. From your bench results, 1 to 2 degrees difference between the two products.
Have one of these with a couple of B12's to replace stock fans. Not sure if it makes any difference but does add a bit more flair to its aesthetics. Cool to see it being reviewed here. No doubt one of the best value high end air cooler you can get right now.
Thermalright seems to tune performance for both their fans and heatsinks. Heatsinks that come stock with slower fans tend to be denser (have slightly more fins) and the ones with higher rpm fans have less fins with greater spacing between them. The B12s are designed to run at high speed, as in the lower rpm ranges they don't perform well (get beaten by the TL-C12PRO).
maybe yes, but the way I look at it is how many watts are most people using when they're using there computer (because most ppl are gaming). If you're rendering then yes there is an argument... but... plus the cost of a CPU that can put out that many watts is... NOT cheap.
It's cheap enough to buy an extra cpu cooler fan clip and 3 P12 max and do an overkill setup push-conveyor-pull. I've actually already done the push-conveyor P12 max, and I'm going next weekend to get a Lian-Li P28 in the middle and migrate a P12 max to be the pull fan at the end.
yo bro.. im copying your setup. does p28 fit in middle considering its 27mm thick? also how about 140mm in middle will it fit? so it can cool the motherboard VRM too
Great video especially because you have listed TC14PE in the charts, amazing. I think I'm gonna buy Phantom Spirit now and keep using TC14PE until I buy a 7800X3D/9800X3D build once the RTX 5080 is out.
I have an older X370 board, a GA-AX-370 Gaming 5. I had ram clearance issues with the front fan. It sits on the ram stick causing a slight offset above the aluminum fins. Otherwise, it was easy to install. It does a pretty good job cooling my 5800X, keeping it around 60-65C while gaming.
I have a new mobo but had the same question. Idk if this was the case for you, but my natural inclination was to line up the top of the fans with the flat surface of the cooler. But really you want to line up the centers of all 3, so that the fans will be offset higher than the cooler housing. And that provides enough clearance for the RAM sticks.
I had bad experience with multiple AIO hence bought a NHD-15 when they came in black instead of brow poop. Sad these awesome coolers started coming a year after my purchase and they look really sleek specially DeepCool AK620 ZERO DARK.
Scored one yesterday for $35.99 at amazon. Ridiculously great value imo. Should be fine for my i7 12700K .. which I have no plans on overclocking. I do wish the thermal paste was pre-applied, that's the only nitpick I have, but maybe they don't do that because some people might want to use a different paste. I was considering getting the Thermal Grizzly Kryonaut, but I don't think it's worth it over the TF7 included with the Phantom Spirit. Thanks for the review. ☮
I just bought one, but stuffed it in the closet because I realized that I was overreacting to the idle temps of my current setup. This overreaction prompted me to re-paste the CPU, clean out the radiator, clean out the fans, adjust pump curves, and uninstall various bits of bloatware (e.g. Logi Options+ and G-Hub were adding 5°C to my idle temps). But I'm not installing it just yet. Either my current AIO will eventually develop a real problem, or else I will find myself building a new computer. Then, that sucker comes out of the closet.
hi, appreciate your video, I just want to ask which Thermalright air cooler are the best right now? I am consider buying the Frost Commander 140. Really appreciate if you could help me!
I would say the phantom spirit is there best air cooler right now, but not by much. It really comes down to price on what I would get myself. Hopefully that helps.
Thanks for the really in-depth video and testing. I'm planning on getting a 5800X3D but I'm not sure whether the Phantom Spirit is worth 2x the price of the Assassin King for what looks like a 4 degree difference at 150w full speed. I won't be overclocking so just plan on keeping it at stock. Will the King be too underkill?
What will you be doing? Gaming? I've never used a x3d CPU, but from what I understand the thing that is important with AMDs x3d chips is getting the heat away from the CPU quickly. Which is hard because of the stacked cache. So it's more important to have a good thermal paste than overall heat capacity.
@@HardwareForGamers Thanks a lot for the response. Ultimately gaming would be the main use-case, yeah. Apparently the AK comes with TF4 thermal paste included, and the PS has TF7. I'd really like to make the Assassin King work due to it being cheaper, smaller, single fan, and seemingly quieter but ultimately if the temps aren't quite there still I may have to settle for the PS. If I get high quality paste and perhaps undervolt a touch do you think it'd fly?
@@chrisstubbs4355 how much are you spending on thermal paste? Premium thermal paste vs standard thermal paste (not cheap thermal paste) will have around a 1.5-2c difference.
@@HardwareForGamers I've decided to go for the Spirit, not worth the worry and with an undervolt I think there's a good chance it'll be quieter than the Assassin King anyway. Thanks for all your help!
Went to micro center got the deep rock 4 in a rush.. came home and immediately ordered the phantom spirit on Amazon for 40 bucks, came in 2 days. For $85 for the be quiet I was in shock at benchmarks
Thank you for the video. I'm still unsure what cooler to pick but this one seems to be really great. I'm worried that the front fan won't fit above my ram. I have G.Skill ripjaws V at 42mm height. Would you be so kind to let me know what ram sticks you got in there? Will my ripjaws fit under it? It's so hard to find more numbers on the ram clearance of this big boy. Thanks a lot!
@@THE-X-Force Funnily enough I am just now again doing my research on this because I'm about to buy a cooler. With the PS120SE you'd have to mount the front fan significantly higher in my case with the high 42mm RAM. I don't think it would make any sense. Mounting the front fan at the back instead would lead to the middle fan being obstructed by the front fins which would probably impact performance. So I will most likely be getting a different one. I'm looking at the Scythe Fuma 3.
half the price? how about a third?! I bought mine for 28 bucks shipped. With the money savings, you can also get a 30mm thick The Phanteks PH-F120T30 which if I'm not mistaken is superior to the new Silent Wings 4 and is still the best 120mm fan on the market
@@pouringpoipoi5777 actually they're both almost equivalently loud when they are used for nuclear blast testing. But some use cases are planned _against_ having, such as max RPM and nuclear blast testing. they are nonsense scenarios
Bro sabes si este discipador se lo puedo instalar a una placa madre asrock b760m pro rs/d4 sin que haga conflicto con las memorias RAM? Tengo unas memorias RAM Asgard valkyrie, no son de perfil bajo
Thermalright did a terrible job being clear on what the difference is between the reg, and SE. To make matters more annoying, everyone buys the SE even though from what I (can) gather, it is ever so slighly inferior to the reg.
So basically, it's a single degree upgrade over its predecessor, the peerless assassin. Don't bother upgrading if you already have that. If you can find it for the same price, go for it, but I can't find it for the same price.
there's not much difference, as far as i can tell. The PS120 has a cap covering the top of the heatpipes and is comparable with Intel's HPC sockets, while the PS120 SE does not, but they use the fan fans, they have the same number of heatpipes.
It will depend on your motherboard, if your motherboard has the argb 3-pin header and you download the motherboards RGB sync program. you should be able to control the LEDs. Or even turn them off.
Just wanted to confirm what you're looking for. You want me to show the manufacturers indicated CFM or you're looking for me to test and review this fan(s).
@@HardwareForGamers the manufacturers indicated cfm is fine, it would be a good indicator for some of us to figure out the quality/performance of the fan
Have you tried remounting the cooler? Did you use enough thermal paste? Did you remove the plastic sticker from the bottom of the cold plate? Are you overclocking?
@@HardwareForGamers Core Clocks (if thats what you mean with frequency) is between 4,240MHz and 4,280MHz. Package Power is always nearly 181. (Because i set the PL1 and PL2 to 182)
@@qutox2148 Okay, I just wanted to check that the motherboard was doing something weird, what speed do you have the fans at? If you have them at max or just about. I would try remounting the cooler or at least check to see if the screws are tight.
Just installed one in my PC, ARGB edition. Too big - They definitely exaggerated the size of this construction, the fan sticks out above the cooler because there is no space above the RAM. It's not ARGB, it's RGB - there are three pins. The idea of installing windmills is a garage idea. A tangle of cables. I do not like it.
Thank you for adding the ram clearance in your video! Was very helpful for me.
you can always just move up a bit the fan cooler and be done with it, it wont cause a problem, gotta consider the clearance of the case though
Also temperatures with just 1 fan are only 3-4 degrees higher
@@sergiomarin7632 how do u move the fan up do u have a video
@@dtwjohn6378 slide it up
@@dtwjohn6378 loosening the clips, slide it up as needed
Nh-d15 actually costs nearly 3 times, if at normal pricing.
Man, thank you very much, only after your videos I've found out that Phantom spirit is what I need. Really appreciate your deep analysis.
Glad I could help
10:21 eructo epico para cerrar una gran review, saludos desde colombia!, el cooler me acaba de llegar hoy siuuu
Next week i'm gonna go for this one, thanks for clear my doubts about this Nice cooler.
Thanks for the details, I couldn't find a clear answer regarding phantom spirit vs assassin, this cleared things up a bit.
I clicked the amazon link, UK one, but it just redirected to the front page but I bought it after clicking so I hope you get the referral.
Glad I could help, and thank you very much!
Nice video. Should of watched this vid earlier. As per Tom's Hardware recommendation for best CPU coolers in 2023, I got the PA120 SE. If only they had reviewed the one extra heatpipe that is PS 120 SE. Also, for this vid, if only you had included "Peerless Assassin/PA 120 SE" in the title or tagged in the description. I'm sure many more would've tune in (boosted by YT search algo), as PA 120 SE has rose to great prominence following recommendations from Tom's and Gamers Nexus' Steve Burke.
You're probably right about supply overstock of PA120 SE. I just bought a new one for only USD18 (132 RMB) at one of the TMall's online stores during Mainland China's nationwide "618" sales event last week. Fairly sure prices for Phantom Spirit lineups weren't significantly higher here. From your bench results, 1 to 2 degrees difference between the two products.
Managed to snag one for $28! Thanks for the review
good review man, i just bought mine, but with rgb fan, but anything else not yet bought, so cant try it on. one step at a time building my pc
Seen the COOP station so i knew i had to subscribe
Have one of these with a couple of B12's to replace stock fans. Not sure if it makes any difference but does add a bit more flair to its aesthetics.
Cool to see it being reviewed here. No doubt one of the best value high end air cooler you can get right now.
Thermalright seems to tune performance for both their fans and heatsinks. Heatsinks that come stock with slower fans tend to be denser (have slightly more fins) and the ones with higher rpm fans have less fins with greater spacing between them. The B12s are designed to run at high speed, as in the lower rpm ranges they don't perform well (get beaten by the TL-C12PRO).
I like your videos a lot. Thanks for the hard work you put into them. Wouldn't a higher TDP CPU better test these coolers?
maybe yes, but the way I look at it is how many watts are most people using when they're using there computer (because most ppl are gaming). If you're rendering then yes there is an argument... but... plus the cost of a CPU that can put out that many watts is... NOT cheap.
It works great with my 7950x3d
It's cheap enough to buy an extra cpu cooler fan clip and 3 P12 max and do an overkill setup push-conveyor-pull. I've actually already done the push-conveyor P12 max, and I'm going next weekend to get a Lian-Li P28 in the middle and migrate a P12 max to be the pull fan at the end.
yo bro.. im copying your setup. does p28 fit in middle considering its 27mm thick? also how about 140mm in middle will it fit? so it can cool the motherboard VRM too
Great video especially because you have listed TC14PE in the charts, amazing. I think I'm gonna buy Phantom Spirit now and keep using TC14PE until I buy a 7800X3D/9800X3D build once the RTX 5080 is out.
@@fribbenhaul glad you liked the video.
Thank you~!
Excellent job, congrats !
Thanks
I have an older X370 board, a GA-AX-370 Gaming 5. I had ram clearance issues with the front fan. It sits on the ram stick causing a slight offset above the aluminum fins. Otherwise, it was easy to install. It does a pretty good job cooling my 5800X, keeping it around 60-65C while gaming.
Tried to put the front fan in the back instead? Or is the vrm heatsinks in the way?
I have a new mobo but had the same question. Idk if this was the case for you, but my natural inclination was to line up the top of the fans with the flat surface of the cooler. But really you want to line up the centers of all 3, so that the fans will be offset higher than the cooler housing. And that provides enough clearance for the RAM sticks.
I had bad experience with multiple AIO hence bought a NHD-15 when they came in black instead of brow poop.
Sad these awesome coolers started coming a year after my purchase and they look really sleek specially DeepCool AK620 ZERO DARK.
Scored one yesterday for $35.99 at amazon. Ridiculously great value imo. Should be fine for my i7 12700K .. which I have no plans on overclocking. I do wish the thermal paste was pre-applied, that's the only nitpick I have, but maybe they don't do that because some people might want to use a different paste. I was considering getting the Thermal Grizzly Kryonaut, but I don't think it's worth it over the TF7 included with the Phantom Spirit. Thanks for the review. ☮
The included paste and the Kryonaut are very thick in consistency and hard to spread, I agree it being pre-applied could help
Thanks!
I really want one, but I already have too many heatsinks.
I just bought one, but stuffed it in the closet because I realized that I was overreacting to the idle temps of my current setup. This overreaction prompted me to re-paste the CPU, clean out the radiator, clean out the fans, adjust pump curves, and uninstall various bits of bloatware (e.g. Logi Options+ and G-Hub were adding 5°C to my idle temps).
But I'm not installing it just yet.
Either my current AIO will eventually develop a real problem, or else I will find myself building a new computer. Then, that sucker comes out of the closet.
Nice!!
hi, appreciate your video, I just want to ask which Thermalright air cooler are the best right now? I am consider buying the Frost Commander 140. Really appreciate if you could help me!
I would say the phantom spirit is there best air cooler right now, but not by much. It really comes down to price on what I would get myself. Hopefully that helps.
Incredible cooler
Thanks for the really in-depth video and testing. I'm planning on getting a 5800X3D but I'm not sure whether the Phantom Spirit is worth 2x the price of the Assassin King for what looks like a 4 degree difference at 150w full speed. I won't be overclocking so just plan on keeping it at stock. Will the King be too underkill?
What will you be doing? Gaming? I've never used a x3d CPU, but from what I understand the thing that is important with AMDs x3d chips is getting the heat away from the CPU quickly. Which is hard because of the stacked cache. So it's more important to have a good thermal paste than overall heat capacity.
@@HardwareForGamers Thanks a lot for the response.
Ultimately gaming would be the main use-case, yeah. Apparently the AK comes with TF4 thermal paste included, and the PS has TF7. I'd really like to make the Assassin King work due to it being cheaper, smaller, single fan, and seemingly quieter but ultimately if the temps aren't quite there still I may have to settle for the PS. If I get high quality paste and perhaps undervolt a touch do you think it'd fly?
@@chrisstubbs4355 how much are you spending on thermal paste? Premium thermal paste vs standard thermal paste (not cheap thermal paste) will have around a 1.5-2c difference.
@@HardwareForGamers I've decided to go for the Spirit, not worth the worry and with an undervolt I think there's a good chance it'll be quieter than the Assassin King anyway. Thanks for all your help!
Went to micro center got the deep rock 4 in a rush.. came home and immediately ordered the phantom spirit on Amazon for 40 bucks, came in 2 days. For $85 for the be quiet I was in shock at benchmarks
Do you have a result of the experiment at home?
Thank you for the video. I'm still unsure what cooler to pick but this one seems to be really great. I'm worried that the front fan won't fit above my ram. I have G.Skill ripjaws V at 42mm height. Would you be so kind to let me know what ram sticks you got in there? Will my ripjaws fit under it? It's so hard to find more numbers on the ram clearance of this big boy. Thanks a lot!
The RAM clearance is 42mm now Depending on what CPU you have you could likely use just the center fan.
@@HardwareForGamersthanks! I'll be getting a Ryzen 5800x. No clue what I'm gonna do tbh
@@HardwareForGamers What do you think about a pull pull configuration on this one? Edit: I mean putting the front fan to the rear of the cooler.
@@MellowNoc This is what I'm wondering too. Moving the fan from the front (near the RAM) to the back. Not sure how much that will affect performance.
@@THE-X-Force Funnily enough I am just now again doing my research on this because I'm about to buy a cooler. With the PS120SE you'd have to mount the front fan significantly higher in my case with the high 42mm RAM. I don't think it would make any sense. Mounting the front fan at the back instead would lead to the middle fan being obstructed by the front fins which would probably impact performance. So I will most likely be getting a different one. I'm looking at the Scythe Fuma 3.
Thank you for the great review, have one question, can I replace the stock fans with Noctua NF-A12x25?
Can you yes. will it make much of a performance difference? Likely not.
half the price? how about a third?! I bought mine for 28 bucks shipped. With the money savings, you can also get a 30mm thick The Phanteks PH-F120T30 which if I'm not mistaken is superior to the new Silent Wings 4 and is still the best 120mm fan on the market
t30 sounds like vaccum cleaner on max rpm.. you would want lian li p28 =))
@@pouringpoipoi5777 actually they're both almost equivalently loud when they are used for nuclear blast testing. But some use cases are planned _against_ having, such as max RPM and nuclear blast testing. they are nonsense scenarios
what is the cooling pad size of the Phantom Spirit 120 ???? pls can mesure it for me :)
Any performance difference against the Phantom Spirit 120 non-SE?
Bro sabes si este discipador se lo puedo instalar a una placa madre asrock b760m pro rs/d4 sin que haga conflicto con las memorias RAM? Tengo unas memorias RAM Asgard valkyrie, no son de perfil bajo
Are fan motors brushed or brushless? the brushless motors i use in my quadcopters can go down to 60 rpm but fan min rpm is 400.
Thermalright did a terrible job being clear on what the difference is between the reg, and SE. To make matters more annoying, everyone buys the SE even though from what I (can) gather, it is ever so slighly inferior to the reg.
How is the ram gonna fit when you apply it
How can i know which side pull/push the air?
Nice vid!
The fans should have arrows on them indicating which way the airflow is. Typically the airflow is getting pushed out the back of the fan.
What's next? Thermalright Frozen Notte/Magic/Scenic?
I have some small form factor ThermalRight coolers to do, then I was going to do the AIOs.
@@HardwareForGamers sounds great too! Thermalright has such a ridiculous amount of coolers, it's great to finally be able to properly compare them
@@HardwareForGamers Please do the SI-100 if you can. I haven't seen much reviews for that one :(
@@ailluinthethyra6139 that is one of them
Or maybe ft 120?
Will the V2 fans be available separately?
I hope so, but as of now I don't know.
So basically, it's a single degree upgrade over its predecessor, the peerless assassin. Don't bother upgrading if you already have that. If you can find it for the same price, go for it, but I can't find it for the same price.
How tight should I tighten the heatsink to the mounting bracket. Worried about too much pressure and braking the cpu
On am4 I went all the way down. You would crack the motherboard before you damage the CPU.
Will this fit into a ASUS TUF Gaming GT501 Mid-Tower
Maximum CPU Cooler Height of the gt501 is 180mm... So yes...
@@HardwareForGamers Thank you
Can i ask the different between phantom spirit 120 (ps120) and phantom spirit 120 se (ps120se). Sub name behind (se) represent for what ?
there's not much difference, as far as i can tell. The PS120 has a cap covering the top of the heatpipes and is comparable with Intel's HPC sockets, while the PS120 SE does not, but they use the fan fans, they have the same number of heatpipes.
@@HardwareForGamers thank you so much for that information 😍
🙏
I'm new to building PCs. If you buy the RGB version, is it possible to turn the lights off or control them in any other way?
It will depend on your motherboard, if your motherboard has the argb 3-pin header and you download the motherboards RGB sync program. you should be able to control the LEDs. Or even turn them off.
@@HardwareForGamers thank you!
How many millimeters is the gap between the towers?
Asking for considering potential fan alternatives.
If the GPU is in the first slot it will be very close 2-3 mm?? I don't know for sure because all my test systems have the x16 in the second slot.
Would using 70% isopropyl be okay?
Typically yes.
@@HardwareForGamers Thanks.
Is it as large as the D15? The D-15 doesn't fit on my motherboard without hacks.
It is about 2.5 cm smaller in both legth and width, 1.4 cm shorter in height.
what is the exact RAM clearance?
Will it have ram clearance issue on my patriot venom viper 6400mhz non rgb ram? it’s height is 43mm
You should be able to make it work
Any update on this?
hi, pls test thermalright assassin king90 noone tests on youtube
i tried the rgb one and i want to return it.... the fans (TL-C12B-S V2) ares noisy, the motor make anoing huming noise even at 1000rpm
As much as i would want to value low end coolers. They always cut corners thus i never want to skimp out on cpu cooling as well..
@@DETERMINOLOGY
i end up lowing the fans, the cooler it seldlf is beefy, it can handle some heat/power without cranking fans
Will my ram modules fit with this cooler on? They are 33 millimeters high, non rgb
2:20
hi, if possible could you add the cfm of the fans. thanks
Just wanted to confirm what you're looking for. You want me to show the manufacturers indicated CFM or you're looking for me to test and review this fan(s).
@@HardwareForGamers the manufacturers indicated cfm is fine, it would be a good indicator for some of us to figure out the quality/performance of the fan
But how's the noise pitch? Is it annoying?
That is extremely subjective... Now, I did not find it annoying, but there are few fans that I do.
I got this cooler with a i5 13600k but i reach 100°C every Cinebench R23 run. Can someone help me?
Have you tried remounting the cooler? Did you use enough thermal paste? Did you remove the plastic sticker from the bottom of the cold plate? Are you overclocking?
@@HardwareForGamers Thanks for the quick answer and the help
@@qutox2148 are you using HWinfo? What's the CPU frequency at? What's the CPU package power running at?
@@HardwareForGamers Core Clocks (if thats what you mean with frequency) is between 4,240MHz and 4,280MHz.
Package Power is always nearly 181. (Because i set the PL1 and PL2 to 182)
@@qutox2148 Okay, I just wanted to check that the motherboard was doing something weird, what speed do you have the fans at? If you have them at max or just about. I would try remounting the cooler or at least check to see if the screws are tight.
Just installed one in my PC, ARGB edition.
Too big - They definitely exaggerated the size of this construction, the fan sticks out above the cooler because there is no space above the RAM. It's not ARGB, it's RGB - there are three pins.
The idea of installing windmills is a garage idea. A tangle of cables. I do not like it.
Am i going to have issues with ram cleareance with G.SKILL 32GB Trident Z5 Neo RGB DDR5 ?