TINY Beast: Thermalright Peerless Assassin Mini Cooler Review & Benchmarks
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Date: 2024-03-15
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Comments and reviews: 20
Edgemaster72
Scrolling through PCPartPicker for other coolers in this smallish (80-135mm) tower class you could look at, I think you alluded to some of Noctua's options (U9S or D9L).
From ThermalRight you could also throw the SilverSoul 135 or 110 in there to see how those perform in comparison to their new brother, or if you want to semantically satiate the word assassin there's the Assassin King 90, Assassin X 90 SE, and Assassin King 120 Mini (and probably half a dozen variations of each).
From ID Cooling there's the FROZN A400 or SE-914-XT for single towers, as well as the SE-207-XT in this sort of sunken fan configuration.
And if you want to throw in a couple downdraft style coolers ThermalRight has the SI100, be quiet has the Dark Rock TF 2 (I certainly think tf looking at that one).
Not expecting you guys to test all of those of course, just throwing some ideas out there. Thanks Steve (and all of GN).
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Scrolling through PCPartPicker for other coolers in this smallish (80-135mm) tower class you could look at, I think you alluded to some of Noctua's options (U9S or D9L).
From ThermalRight you could also throw the SilverSoul 135 or 110 in there to see how those perform in comparison to their new brother, or if you want to semantically satiate the word assassin there's the Assassin King 90, Assassin X 90 SE, and Assassin King 120 Mini (and probably half a dozen variations of each).
From ID Cooling there's the FROZN A400 or SE-914-XT for single towers, as well as the SE-207-XT in this sort of sunken fan configuration.
And if you want to throw in a couple downdraft style coolers ThermalRight has the SI100, be quiet has the Dark Rock TF 2 (I certainly think tf looking at that one).
Not expecting you guys to test all of those of course, just throwing some ideas out there. Thanks Steve (and all of GN).
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qlimaxmito
Thank you for the review.
I'm chiming in to offer my perspective as a potential buyer: I have a Micro-ATX case which on paper can fit coolers up to 160mm in height, but with a fan mounted on the side-panel (which I do have) compatibility drops to medium-thickness single-tower heatsinks and only if mounted horizontally (i.e. vertical airflow), otherwise they collide with the side fan.
160mm clearance - 25mm side fan thickness = 135mm, exactly this cooler's height, so this form factor is the perfect fit for my setup.
This said I think it'd be interesting to see how it compares to a tall/thick downdraft cooler such as the Thermalright SI-100 or the Noctua NH-C14S as they occupy a similar volume.
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Thank you for the review.
I'm chiming in to offer my perspective as a potential buyer: I have a Micro-ATX case which on paper can fit coolers up to 160mm in height, but with a fan mounted on the side-panel (which I do have) compatibility drops to medium-thickness single-tower heatsinks and only if mounted horizontally (i.e. vertical airflow), otherwise they collide with the side fan.
160mm clearance - 25mm side fan thickness = 135mm, exactly this cooler's height, so this form factor is the perfect fit for my setup.
This said I think it'd be interesting to see how it compares to a tall/thick downdraft cooler such as the Thermalright SI-100 or the Noctua NH-C14S as they occupy a similar volume.
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PaintMasterPoE
24:51 theres few interesting ones, including thermalright lol
1. Thermalright Assassin X 90 SE - 119mm tall, $20
2. Thermalright Assassin King 120 Mini - 135mm tall, $20m. Seems like its fairly new as well
3. ID-COOLING FROZN A400 - 123mm tall, $25
4. Jonsbo CR-1400 EVO - 130mm tall, $25
5. Thermalright Silver Soul 110 - 110mm tall, $28
6. ID-COOLING SE-914-XT - 131mm tall, $30
7. ID-COOLING SE-207-XT SLIM - 135mm tall, $35. This one has 7 heatpipes, when coolers above 4-6.
8. RAIJINTEK DELOS RBW - 136mm tall, $40. Really weird looking double tower.
Nothing interesting above $40, and starting at $45 theres bunch of 240mm aio most of which are thermalright
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24:51 theres few interesting ones, including thermalright lol
1. Thermalright Assassin X 90 SE - 119mm tall, $20
2. Thermalright Assassin King 120 Mini - 135mm tall, $20m. Seems like its fairly new as well
3. ID-COOLING FROZN A400 - 123mm tall, $25
4. Jonsbo CR-1400 EVO - 130mm tall, $25
5. Thermalright Silver Soul 110 - 110mm tall, $28
6. ID-COOLING SE-914-XT - 131mm tall, $30
7. ID-COOLING SE-207-XT SLIM - 135mm tall, $35. This one has 7 heatpipes, when coolers above 4-6.
8. RAIJINTEK DELOS RBW - 136mm tall, $40. Really weird looking double tower.
Nothing interesting above $40, and starting at $45 theres bunch of 240mm aio most of which are thermalright
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johnmonks5839
I recently fitted the (even smaller) Silver Soul 110 to a system with an i3-12100f. It has the same mounting and I found that fitting those top brackets was a real pain They had a tendency to creep out of the centre position as the screws bottomed out, leaving the spacing of the heatsink mount points slightly off, requiring a number of readjustments before they were properly aligned. I was fitting the cooler to the board while it was still inside the case, on its side, half way under a desk, instead of Mikes much more sensible work area, which no doubt contributed to my difficulty. Even so I'd recommend doing a test fit before applying the paste. It was fine once fitted though.
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I recently fitted the (even smaller) Silver Soul 110 to a system with an i3-12100f. It has the same mounting and I found that fitting those top brackets was a real pain They had a tendency to creep out of the centre position as the screws bottomed out, leaving the spacing of the heatsink mount points slightly off, requiring a number of readjustments before they were properly aligned. I was fitting the cooler to the board while it was still inside the case, on its side, half way under a desk, instead of Mikes much more sensible work area, which no doubt contributed to my difficulty. Even so I'd recommend doing a test fit before applying the paste. It was fine once fitted though.
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DazTheMe
I absolutely loved Thermalright back in the day....they ruled the air cooled world when it was Athlon vs Core2Duo and Core2Quad days ect. I had the Thermalright Ultra Extreme 120 then moved over to the Thermalright IFX-14 Which had a rear cooler to cool the back side of the CPU socket as well.
I doubt you'll see this but it'd be amazing if you could do a small series on trying to find and modify old CPU coolers to see how they would perform on modern CPUs, such as the Thermalright ones mentioned along with early 2000's stuff like the Tuniq Tower, the old Zalman spiral or flower coolers, The Coolermaster v8,v10,v12 ect. Probably loads more I can't think of
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I absolutely loved Thermalright back in the day....they ruled the air cooled world when it was Athlon vs Core2Duo and Core2Quad days ect. I had the Thermalright Ultra Extreme 120 then moved over to the Thermalright IFX-14 Which had a rear cooler to cool the back side of the CPU socket as well.
I doubt you'll see this but it'd be amazing if you could do a small series on trying to find and modify old CPU coolers to see how they would perform on modern CPUs, such as the Thermalright ones mentioned along with early 2000's stuff like the Tuniq Tower, the old Zalman spiral or flower coolers, The Coolermaster v8,v10,v12 ect. Probably loads more I can't think of
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KesterKurtal
Just a note about the installation, I have a Silver Soul 110 on Am5, and when I bottomed the screws out, it wouldn't boot, I had to back them off about half a turn until it was just barely under spring pressure, 7500f on a Gigabyte A620I AX, not sure if this is because it is Am4 pga hardware being used for Am5 lga and I'm assuming it pushed the contact pads down too far to work properly. Just wanted to throw this out there, the cooler works great, and this is the second ThermalRight after a Peerless Assassin 120 in a larger case previously. And I'm definitely in the group of wanting to see an attempt at ThermalRight's full catalog.
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Just a note about the installation, I have a Silver Soul 110 on Am5, and when I bottomed the screws out, it wouldn't boot, I had to back them off about half a turn until it was just barely under spring pressure, 7500f on a Gigabyte A620I AX, not sure if this is because it is Am4 pga hardware being used for Am5 lga and I'm assuming it pushed the contact pads down too far to work properly. Just wanted to throw this out there, the cooler works great, and this is the second ThermalRight after a Peerless Assassin 120 in a larger case previously. And I'm definitely in the group of wanting to see an attempt at ThermalRight's full catalog.
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stevenwex8966
It's not just for people with smaller cases, but not everybody wants a cooler that's almost as big as their motherboard...... I was disappointed to see the Mini preformed worst then it's bigger brother, but it still works... Edit - Using a Thermalright Assassin X 92 SE that's under 120mm, that's cheap, got it to fit a Jonsbo V4 case, but upgraded my case so I could cool with a 120mm intake fan and exhaust fan with RGB and don't have to remove the PSU when I do upgrade other parts, but will rock the 118mm high tower cooler until I do a CPU upgrade, and the Mini looking like a winner.
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It's not just for people with smaller cases, but not everybody wants a cooler that's almost as big as their motherboard...... I was disappointed to see the Mini preformed worst then it's bigger brother, but it still works... Edit - Using a Thermalright Assassin X 92 SE that's under 120mm, that's cheap, got it to fit a Jonsbo V4 case, but upgraded my case so I could cool with a 120mm intake fan and exhaust fan with RGB and don't have to remove the PSU when I do upgrade other parts, but will rock the 118mm high tower cooler until I do a CPU upgrade, and the Mini looking like a winner.
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matthewpalmer9820
There is another cooler just like it that I bought on aliexpress a year ago, forgot what it was called. I'm currently rocking it with an i5 13600k, in a shallow, hevily modded AT (as in, not ATX) tower case from the early 90s. I drilled 2 140mm holes in the bottom. For the exhaust, Ieft a hole behind the cooler while also the PSU (above the CPU as an exhaust). I got pretty much the same performance metrics as yall got.
Although, I have my 3090 sitting above the GPU via a long riser and custom cast bracket to hole it up; the heat of the GPU is isolated from the CPU.
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There is another cooler just like it that I bought on aliexpress a year ago, forgot what it was called. I'm currently rocking it with an i5 13600k, in a shallow, hevily modded AT (as in, not ATX) tower case from the early 90s. I drilled 2 140mm holes in the bottom. For the exhaust, Ieft a hole behind the cooler while also the PSU (above the CPU as an exhaust). I got pretty much the same performance metrics as yall got.
Although, I have my 3090 sitting above the GPU via a long riser and custom cast bracket to hole it up; the heat of the GPU is isolated from the CPU.
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CoinRingsUSA
17:38 I'd like to see you do some mythbusting regarding your screw order methodology. I've always done it the way you do it too, but please try to mount the cooler screwing 1 side in all the way, then the other side in all the way instead of alternating back and forth a little at a time. Then measure the cooling ability to see if it changes at all. I'd guess that it won't actually change the temps either way as long as you do your normal paste application method of spreading a nice thin even layer across the entire IHS like you normally do.
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17:38 I'd like to see you do some mythbusting regarding your screw order methodology. I've always done it the way you do it too, but please try to mount the cooler screwing 1 side in all the way, then the other side in all the way instead of alternating back and forth a little at a time. Then measure the cooling ability to see if it changes at all. I'd guess that it won't actually change the temps either way as long as you do your normal paste application method of spreading a nice thin even layer across the entire IHS like you normally do.
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grantsparks6554
Recently bought a VCR/DVR/HTPC style case for an old build and an ID Cooling IS-55, selected for the perceived performance while staying under 70cm tall. Since the whole case is only about 100cm tall externally, so a flat tower/low profile cooler was essential. Thanks for reviewing the Jiushark previously, helped inform me of some of the more exotic options on the market.
Seeing some IS-50/55 competitors in the sub 100mm range would be cool, especially at that 120 W TDP that the 5800x3D and 7800x3D like to run at during full boost.
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Recently bought a VCR/DVR/HTPC style case for an old build and an ID Cooling IS-55, selected for the perceived performance while staying under 70cm tall. Since the whole case is only about 100cm tall externally, so a flat tower/low profile cooler was essential. Thanks for reviewing the Jiushark previously, helped inform me of some of the more exotic options on the market.
Seeing some IS-50/55 competitors in the sub 100mm range would be cool, especially at that 120 W TDP that the 5800x3D and 7800x3D like to run at during full boost.
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BrianPardee
14:00 GamersNexus ah, nice! I was always very curious about how you do the pressure testing. That's neat! Could you please also tell me more about your cooler tests I saw one was marked as depreciated from 2023 but you still have this cooler comparing against it. Is this due to now having your sound chamber and doing tests in there (different environment) How are you having the same 26 noise floor Do you intentionally produce it in the chamber to try to be accurate to the depreciated method test settings
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14:00 GamersNexus ah, nice! I was always very curious about how you do the pressure testing. That's neat! Could you please also tell me more about your cooler tests I saw one was marked as depreciated from 2023 but you still have this cooler comparing against it. Is this due to now having your sound chamber and doing tests in there (different environment) How are you having the same 26 noise floor Do you intentionally produce it in the chamber to try to be accurate to the depreciated method test settings
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konradsikorski1646
One thing that I would love to see (or rather hear) is a short segment of frequency graphs and audio samples of the fans and/or water pump. Kind of like what you did with the Arctic LF3 for the VRM cooler and water pump. For example you could maybe play a sample of the 35dB noise-normalized test.
I personally also consider the noise-type and expected soundscape (specifically when idling on desktop without headphones on) when choosing computer parts.
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One thing that I would love to see (or rather hear) is a short segment of frequency graphs and audio samples of the fans and/or water pump. Kind of like what you did with the Arctic LF3 for the VRM cooler and water pump. For example you could maybe play a sample of the 35dB noise-normalized test.
I personally also consider the noise-type and expected soundscape (specifically when idling on desktop without headphones on) when choosing computer parts.
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Buzykil
I got adventurous and I'm using the SS135 with an undervolted 13700k in the C4-SFX. I did swap the fan to a T30 since I wasn't confident with the included one, it fits with a tiny amount of bending. The cooling performance is good and it's silent in gaming. It does get loud with a 3d render or code compiling but I rarely do that so its fine. It does not thermal throttle.
Why not just get the D12L - I wanted to try something else :P
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I got adventurous and I'm using the SS135 with an undervolted 13700k in the C4-SFX. I did swap the fan to a T30 since I wasn't confident with the included one, it fits with a tiny amount of bending. The cooling performance is good and it's silent in gaming. It does get loud with a 3d render or code compiling but I rarely do that so its fine. It does not thermal throttle.
Why not just get the D12L - I wanted to try something else :P
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HighlightReel
I saw that you tested the NH-D12S, but did you test the NH-D12L I am curious how that performs, particularly in the use case of 4U rackmount server cases and small ATX (I have one I'm about to put in a Cerberus X). It's expensive but has a way lower height clearance and space for an additional NF-A12x25r, so there's two possible configurations there too. As always thanks for the very rigorous work testing!
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I saw that you tested the NH-D12S, but did you test the NH-D12L I am curious how that performs, particularly in the use case of 4U rackmount server cases and small ATX (I have one I'm about to put in a Cerberus X). It's expensive but has a way lower height clearance and space for an additional NF-A12x25r, so there's two possible configurations there too. As always thanks for the very rigorous work testing!
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protator
Instead of just more tests of random coolers I'd like to see additional tests that'd be interesting for tinkerers, e.g. how does the Mini perform with two Arctic F12 strapped to it
Cause that's likely to be a thought many buyers will have in the future. Can I upgrade the existing hardware with an additional fan for 6-10 bucks, or will I have to spend 60-100 for a bigger cooler ...
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Instead of just more tests of random coolers I'd like to see additional tests that'd be interesting for tinkerers, e.g. how does the Mini perform with two Arctic F12 strapped to it
Cause that's likely to be a thought many buyers will have in the future. Can I upgrade the existing hardware with an additional fan for 6-10 bucks, or will I have to spend 60-100 for a bigger cooler ...
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bluephreakr
Thermalright seems to do multiple iterations thermalWRONG in the sense they could just as easily for _many_ of their models relese a good quality product _once_ and make different caps for SE, LE and alternative SKUs. Then you basically have nine products: good, better best; of each: tower, mini-tower and downdraft. From the nine, branch out with SE, LE and separate add-in SKUs.
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Thermalright seems to do multiple iterations thermalWRONG in the sense they could just as easily for _many_ of their models relese a good quality product _once_ and make different caps for SE, LE and alternative SKUs. Then you basically have nine products: good, better best; of each: tower, mini-tower and downdraft. From the nine, branch out with SE, LE and separate add-in SKUs.
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Lishtenbird
My concern with many weirdly optimized coolers, even those that perform better, is the non-standard fans. Metal will last an eternity - budget fans, not so much. Will I be able to get a replacement for that exotic 135mm, or cut-corner, or whatever fan in a couple years Or I'll need to bend wires and loop zip-ties to make something else fit That is a thing to consider.
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My concern with many weirdly optimized coolers, even those that perform better, is the non-standard fans. Metal will last an eternity - budget fans, not so much. Will I be able to get a replacement for that exotic 135mm, or cut-corner, or whatever fan in a couple years Or I'll need to bend wires and loop zip-ties to make something else fit That is a thing to consider.
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2400Baud
The Silver Soul 110 and 135 are some of my favourite Thermalright coolers. Both my work PCs are running the 110s (i7-6700K and a Xeon E3-1241 V3) and I have a 10th gen i7 system I crammed in an old beige industrial desktop case with a 135. My first Thermalright cooler was one of their Macho series nearly a decade ago, and I've stuck with them ever since.
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The Silver Soul 110 and 135 are some of my favourite Thermalright coolers. Both my work PCs are running the 110s (i7-6700K and a Xeon E3-1241 V3) and I have a 10th gen i7 system I crammed in an old beige industrial desktop case with a 135. My first Thermalright cooler was one of their Macho series nearly a decade ago, and I've stuck with them ever since.
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gamersnexus
In principle that's probably the best air cooler for X3D CPUs in tight cases.
In practice it's possibly difficult to find a suitable replacement fan, because I can't believe this comes as the first Thermalright cooler whose fans aren't obnoxious as soon as they ramp up. Love the Peerless Assassin, but I always replace the fans right away.
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In principle that's probably the best air cooler for X3D CPUs in tight cases.
In practice it's possibly difficult to find a suitable replacement fan, because I can't believe this comes as the first Thermalright cooler whose fans aren't obnoxious as soon as they ramp up. Love the Peerless Assassin, but I always replace the fans right away.
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SupraSav
I used to love noctua. Now with other manufacturers stepping it up, and noctua essentially only coming in one colour(never paying chromax tax again), there is really no point sticking with noctua... Too bad, their NF-A14 PPC fans were great and worked tirelessly for 5 years easily clocking an average of 6 hrs of use per day in my use case.
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I used to love noctua. Now with other manufacturers stepping it up, and noctua essentially only coming in one colour(never paying chromax tax again), there is really no point sticking with noctua... Too bad, their NF-A14 PPC fans were great and worked tirelessly for 5 years easily clocking an average of 6 hrs of use per day in my use case.
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