Best CPU Air Coolers We've Reviewed (2023): Thermals, Mechanical Design, & Value

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Sponsor: Thermal Grizzly Kryosheets geni.us/53ArNb and Thermal Grizzly Hydronaut Paste (Amazon - geni.us/Fsray )
We're preparing to retire our CPU cooler test bench and roll-out a set of AM5 and LGA1700 benches (to be run in tandem for the new coolers reviews!). It's an exciting time, but we wanted one last send-off for our long-time cooler bench. It's collected a lot of data for us over the years. This round-up looks at the best CPU air coolers we've tested so far and gives options in categories of best thermals, best overall, best design, and more. There are a ton more air coolers out there that we haven't yet tested, so remember to look around some more if you don't see one you like. We'll be adding those to our next test suite, too!
Find the written round-up here! gamersnexus.net/coolers/best-...
The best way to support our work is through our store: store.gamersnexus.net/
Like our content? Please consider becoming our Patron to support us: / gamersnexus
RELATED PRODUCTS [Affiliate Links]
BEST OVERALL
Thermalright Peerless Assassin on Amazon: geni.us/SjIrJgn
Thermalright Peerless Assassin on Newegg: howl.me/ck44Iylye91
GN Thermalright Peerless Assassin review: • The Champ: $41 Thermal...
BEST VALUE
ID Cooling SE-214-XT ARGB on Amazon: geni.us/39Tgply
(No standalone review, but data is in this video)
BEST THERMAL DESIGN
Noctua NH-P1 Passive Cooler on Amazon: geni.us/voz2
Noctua NH-P1 Passive Cooler on Newegg: howl.me/ck44Or7dv8E
GN Noctua NH-P1 cooler review: • Noctua NH-P1 Passive C...
Article version of the NH-P1 review: gamersnexus.net/coolers/noctu...
BEST NOISE-NORMALIZED THERMALS
(200W) DeepCool Assassin IV on Amazon: geni.us/a0Zx
(200W) DeepCool Assassin IV on Newegg: howl.me/ck44PPQOmv6
(200W, 123W) Thermalright Peerless Assassin on Amazon: geni.us/SjIrJgn
(68W) Thermalright Assassin Spirit (has been updated) on Amazon: geni.us/jVPA
(68W) ID Cooling SE-214-XT ARGB on Amazon: geni.us/39Tgply
ULTRA BUDGET
(it's not actually good, though, but it works and is dirt cheap!)
Jonsbo CR-1200: www.aliexpress.us/item/225580... (not affiliate link)
GN review of CR-1200: • Testing the Cheapest P...
For something better but also still cheap, check the value category above.
BEST MECHANICAL DESIGN
DeepCool Assassin IV on Newegg: howl.me/ck44PPQOmv6
GN review of DeepCool Assassin IV: • Mega Size Air Cooler: ...
TIMESTAMPS
00:00 - Best CPU Air Coolers We've Tested
01:38 - Expectations & Coolers We Haven't Tested
03:35 - Best Overall Air Cooler
06:12 - Best Value CPU Cooler
08:59 - Best Thermal Design
12:28 - Best Thermals (Noise-Normalized)
16:09 - Best Ultra Budget
18:06 - Best Mechanical Design
21:47 - Wrap-Up: New Tests Soon!
** Please like, comment, and subscribe for more! **
Links to Amazon and Newegg are typically monetized on our channel (affiliate links) and may return a commission of sales to us from the retailer. This is unrelated to the product manufacturer. Any advertisements or sponsorships are disclosed within the video ("this video is brought to you by") and above the fold in the description. We do not ever produce paid content or "sponsored content" (meaning that the content is our idea and is not funded externally aside from whatever ad placement is in the beginning) and we do not ever charge manufacturers for coverage.
Follow us in these locations for more gaming and hardware updates:
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f: / gamersnexus
w: www.gamersnexus.net/
Host, Writing: Steve Burke
Video: Vitalii Makhnovets
Video: Tim Phetdara

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31 май 2024

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Комментарии : 1,2 тыс.

@GamersNexus 6 месяцев назад

Leave a comment and tell us what coolers you want us to test first on our new test benches! REALLY excited about our new benches coming out! We have a ton of cool things we're implementing now that we've had 3 more years to refine this. The biggest introduction will be the acoustic chamber for ALL cooler tests. The next is testing both AMD and Intel IHS designs, which we think will help a lot of people. We'll be running 4 CPUs, with each cooler being tested on at least 2 of them (e.g. high heat AMD and Intel or low heat AMD and Intel). SUPPORT GN's WORK! Grab a GN Modmat, Solder Mat, or Toolkit for 10% off for the next few days: store.gamersnexus.net/ Check out our Best GPUs round-up: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-EJGfQ5AgB3g.html And our Best CPUs round-up: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-zggNjikFRMQ.html

@commanderoof4578 6 месяцев назад

Its so irritating you never do low profile coolers!! Seriously why have a PC as large as my bed cabinet when i can have a PC thats about the size of a PS5... Low profile coolers are super important to test and add to these types of videos and yet... they are flat ignored

@GamersNexus 6 месяцев назад

@@commanderoof4578 Rather than tell us how irritating it is, why not request specific coolers for us to look at? That'd be more productive and give us a better idea of what you want tested.

@antimatt_r 6 месяцев назад

I like value for money and would like to see a couple specific Thermalright coolers - BA120 is a basic single tower design but shoves in another heat pipe to hit 6 total (would be cool to see if/how that changes things). The Ultra 120EX V4 is another I've been wondering about - apparently it's an older single tower design with two fans slapped on and I'm curious why they've kept it around so long. The stock fans on it (TL-B12) are intriguing as well Their Assassin line has become pretty popular and it has me curious about some of their other coolers as well

@commanderoof4578 6 месяцев назад

@@GamersNexus cryorig c7 graphene there is a way to screw it in to have it at 90 degrees rotation offset for AM4 ask for details big shuriken 3 Thermalright AXP90 X53, AXP100, AXP120 ID cooling IS-55 I believe testing these would be a good start as they are mostly at the top end of what low profile coolers can do while ranging in comparability with bormal height ram or having a low profile ram requirement

@sudd3660 6 месяцев назад

how about Noctua NH-D15S, it has all the features: 150mm fan, offset so you get better airflow out the back of the case. i have bought this cooler for all my pc's over the years.

@dawsonpoe 6 месяцев назад

One category that I think should be added to this would be best low profile coolers. I think it would be interesting to watch for sff case users

@GamersNexus 6 месяцев назад

Good idea. Maybe we can start testing some for the next round!

@drog 6 месяцев назад

@@GamersNexus Jiushark JF13K *mini* would be really cool to see

@joel6513 6 месяцев назад

@@GamersNexus ID Cooling IS-67XT or 55 would be nice.

@kevadu 6 месяцев назад

Problem is, there's no standard for what 'low profile' means. An NH-C14S is lower profile than any tower cooler but still kind of massive compared to some of the options out there. But...if you can fit a NH-C14S in your case then it's going to perform much better than smaller coolers.

@nbates66 6 месяцев назад

@@kevadu yeah thats the only really niggly part about wanting to do this sort of listing.

@LordCohliani 6 месяцев назад

A low profile cooler category would be appreciated. For fans that are efficient given their case clearance in compact ATX builds.

@GamersNexus 6 месяцев назад

We'll add that at least as a one-off round-up!

@LordCohliani 6 месяцев назад

@@GamersNexus thank you!

@jackhoward8 6 месяцев назад

@@GamersNexus Could you also please test new AIO's? benchmarks for AIO's are so rare. Like the new popular ones such as Lian Li Galahad II Trinity, Asus Ryujin 3 or EK Nucleus CR360

@fahadmalik8862 6 месяцев назад

@@GamersNexusI know you don't like SFFPC's but please Steve. Being able to transfer more heat off the ihs in a smaller size shows massive engineering advances and actually pushes thermal engineers to be creative.

@TamiyaGuy123 6 месяцев назад

With the past few years showing good air coolers being pushed towards the dreaded three-figure price range thanks to RGB, 'blackout editions' and... just because, it's so awesome this year to see some proper, effective air coolers providing simple, efficient cooling without sounding like a jet engine and without breaking the bank. Nice to see a move away from a half-decent heatsink costing 25% the price of your CPU. And, as always, it's awesome to see you guys giving some really deep analysis into what makes a good cooler good - particularly the frequency analysis you've been doing recently (almost like you've resurrected the spirit of SilentPCReview!).

@GamersNexus 6 месяцев назад

Long live SPCR! Mike Chin did phenomenal work to establish that part of this industry. We've loved working with him to learn about acoustics!

@ziudra91 6 месяцев назад

Mistake first time builders make. Focus too much on esthetics rather than performance.

@Z4KIUS 6 месяцев назад

I don't think anyone released a decent one this year sure, with busy stroad behind the window and roaring AC over the head they may seem fine, but for proper home use they are not

@PSYCHOV3N0M 6 месяцев назад

@@ziudra91Aesthetics. NOT esthetics.

@chuck7952 6 месяцев назад

@@PSYCHOV3N0M #INCORRECTLYCORRECTINGOTHERPEOPLE Esthetics (or aesthetics as it is sometimes spelled) is rooted in the branch of philosophy that is directly related to the relationship between the senses and matters of beauty, art, and taste.

@JackDangerous 6 месяцев назад

I have the black Peerless Assassin on a 5800x3D and it's fantastic, can definitely recommend. Not having RGB fans is a big plus.

@Avendesora 6 месяцев назад

Just got this exact setup yesterday! It's working fantastic so far, but I don't exactly have a lot of data yet obvs

@sirmonkey1985 6 месяцев назад

yup have the same cooler on a 5800x3D after i saw GN's review, great cooler.

@imnotusingmyrealname4566 6 месяцев назад

Thanks for thr recommendation but it's literally completely unavailable in Europe. Is it out of production? The last sellers to offer it stopped months ago.

@prrocker9637 6 месяцев назад

Same I picked up thr peerless assassin SE when I got my 5800x3d because of their review the fact a $35 cooler is throwing hands with $100+ coolers made it a no Brainer

@Avendesora 6 месяцев назад

@@imnotusingmyrealname4566 Probably just a region thing, since they're fully available on the US market.

@ishiddddd4783 6 месяцев назад

Thermalright came in swinging, peerless assasin, phantom spirit, frost commander, all rivaling the very high end coolers available while costing (at least here) a fifth of the price

@fluphybunny930 4 месяца назад

Bought a Phantom Spirit 120SE. For £30 it is amazing how good it is.

@UncleButterworth 4 месяца назад

@@fluphybunny930 It really is great. Every review shows it being better than the peerless, but both are perfectly acceptable.

@ravinkrishnan3183 4 месяца назад

But thermalright fans don't last nearly as long as noctuas and other competitors right??

@UncleButterworth 4 месяца назад

@@ravinkrishnan3183 Then just buy fans? You'll still end up saving money.

@erraldstyler 3 месяца назад

@@ravinkrishnan3183 Just replaced the fan on my Macho Rev B. Bought it used like 5 years ago. It started rattling and didnt spin over 50% anymore, but well it lasted a long time. Especially since my PC is *never* off. Just hooked a 120 Arctic on it. Could have bought a Noctua NF-A15 for 30 bucks which is a 140 with 120 mounting points, but had that 5 bucks Arctic 120 hangin around in a box... Yes, Noctua stuff is top notch, with long time good support, but its literally 2-3x the price while doing exactly the same.

@georgeristo 6 месяцев назад

i love the aggressive b roll of a 2 dollar cpu cooler

@brunoagostinho3539 6 месяцев назад

Just in time... ahaha... bought a 5700X To replace my old 4790K and I put a cheap cooler just to hold it and search for options... *literally* just in time this video

@GamersNexus 6 месяцев назад

The 5700X is a great value CPU right now. The 4790K feels so recent still!

@brunoagostinho3539 6 месяцев назад

@@GamersNexus I gave the 4790K a good farewell, it was a delided cpu with liquid metal @5Ghz... but the 5700X even with a crappy cooler gave me 50% more fps in Shadow of the Tomb Raider (one of the benches I tried)...

@BGraves 6 месяцев назад

Why no amd wraith?

@raiban0 6 месяцев назад

@@BGravesit doesnt have it in the box

@Keiseru 6 месяцев назад

@@brunoagostinho35395ghz is a really good OC on a 4790k! Not a lot happened for many years after haswell... Even my 9900k loses big to the much cheaper x3d CPUs today. And there's no upgrades on my socket either. If I had bought a 3700x instead i could've upgraded to 5800x3d on the same motherboard! 😢

@Y0URGRANDMA 6 месяцев назад

One thing to consider in value (especially on higher end) should be that because air coolers like these basically last forever whether or not the company has a history of offering cheap mounting kits going froward for new motherboards so you can continue to use it.

@doner69 6 месяцев назад

Just bought the Phantom Spirit 120. Such a great cooler!

@GamersNexus 6 месяцев назад

Need to look at that variation on it!

@walrider 6 месяцев назад

Yeah it's better than the Pearless and only costs 5-10€ more on Amazon where I am

@ventilate4267 6 месяцев назад

@@GamersNexus it's supposedly slightly better than the peerless

@Hagop64 6 месяцев назад

@@GamersNexus It's 7 heat pipes instead of 6. It's the successor to the Peerless Assassin and I'm kind of surprised you haven't used it since it's been out for a while now.

@ACE112ACE112 6 месяцев назад

how good is the thermalright phantom spirit 120 vs. the thermalright phantom spirit 120se

@elikirkwood4580 6 месяцев назад

Based on your review of the Thermalright PA120 I picked up the black version on sale for the same price as the gray one. It was about a 10 degree drop compared with my hyper 612 v2 while running at a higher turbo. You guys are the best tech journalists in the world in my opinion and the work you do is invaluable to the community

@GuyMassicotte 6 месяцев назад

I listen to you for more than 6-7 years. Got to tell you. The job you do is awesome. All the datas. You are by far my favorite tech reviewer 👌🏼

@Fluskar 6 месяцев назад

u guys are so clutch thank you so much. your recent vids have really helped me decide on the parts for my first ever pc build ^^

@spilledmonster 6 месяцев назад

I’ve started researching pc parts again to build my partner their first pc and these round up videos have been a huge help!

@SamLoki 6 месяцев назад

Great refresh Steve, amazing tests. You HAVE to take a look at the Thermalright Phantom Spirit 120 (successor to Peerless Assassin). It's an insane cooler!

@andersjjensen 6 месяцев назад

Thanks for the tip about that one. At $60 it looks like a direct assault on the Noctura NH-D15 Chromax Black.

@TheJgredsund 6 месяцев назад

I'm about to say the same thing. Phantom Spirit needs to be tested.

@DavidLeAsdf 6 месяцев назад

@@andersjjensen $60 USD? shows as $40 on amazon for me (or $50 for the EVO)

@ska042 6 месяцев назад

The frost spirit 140 is also very close in format to the NH-D15, it has a 140mm center fan. 120mm on the ram side though, which does help with RAM compatibility compared to the NH-D15. In the hardware Canucks tests, the FS got slightly better temps than the Peerless Assassin at low noise levels, but the PA ramped up further, so it got a bit cooler but also a lot louder. The FS was extremely similar to the D15 in those tests.

@SamLoki 6 месяцев назад

@@ska042 the phantom spirit 120 does what frost spirit 140 does in a cheaper and smaller package. It's nuts!

@InsaneFirebat 6 месяцев назад

You made me want to watch the NH-P1 video again. That's cool to hear you're still using them.

@StirfriedGerman 3 месяца назад

It's rare to see such a clear winner across the board, thanks for making that clear ! Bought a PA120 ARGB for $19 ... local price where I live in China.

@ShiroKuroh 6 месяцев назад

I did the thermalright Peerless Assassin 120 with the Am5 thermalright contact frame with a 7800x3d and a b650 motherboard. Set board to 90, can manage 5.1 GHz with PBO setup per individual core. 20-30 minutes of tuning. Almost identical performance to Noctua NH-D15, Premium CPU Cooler with 2x NF-A15 PWM 140mm Fans on a 7800x3d with identical contact frame and 4 hours of tuning PBO per core to hit 5.2 GHz. Severely underrated cooler, glad you shown it some love. I don't have one, haven't had my hands on the deepcool Assassin IV, but that one looks hard to beat for best tower air cooler in that range.

@someShadow 6 месяцев назад

If GN keeps being sponsored by Thermal Grizzly Kryosheet maybe you guys should actually do a review on this thermal pad as there is no info/review right now about its performance. It would be very informative to compare Kryosheet to TG Carbonaut, IC Graphite Thermal Pad, the thermal pad that is rumored to be the same thing but sold by the actual manufacturer Smart High Tech under the name FrostSheet and some commonly used thermal pastes like TG Kryonaut, Noctua NT-H2 or Arctic MX-4. Also, a comparation to Honeywell PTM7950 would be cool as that is supposed to be the ultimate TIM to use on CPU/GPU dies with performance similar to liquid metal but without most of the downsides and with very long lifetime without degradation.

@duckzor 6 месяцев назад

That quiet room looks so dope! Congrats on your accomplishments, and can't wait to see what the future holds! This is my favorite RU-vid channel, so thank you!

@plaidygami 6 месяцев назад

Thank you so much for posting all of these Best of 2023 videos. It's really great to have heavily-rested results to help us make better informed decisions and purchases.

@thestrykernet 6 месяцев назад

Always love seeing these end of year roundups as it's great information and sometimes might pickup on something otherwise missed. In terms of coolers to test it'd be really great to see Thermalright's Frost Commander and Phantom Spirit, Thermaltake's TOUGHAIR 310/510/710, Cooler Master's MA624 and MA824, EKWB's Nucleus AIOs, Lian-li's Galahad II Performance AIO, SilverStone's IceMyst AIO (with at least one of the extra fans), Deepcool's LT series AIO and maybe some of their lower end air coolers for folks not in a place that can get Thermalright easily. If it's at all possible it'd be great if you could talk about the OEM for any AIO pumps you all end up testing. Also hoping Intel's forthcoming CPU design changes don't mess with the validity of your new test rigs!

@sylvie_v2939 6 месяцев назад

I'm quite glad the Noctua Passive Cooler has won the thermal design category. I can definitely see the use case for high-dust environments where either passive cooling or a 0 RPM option would totally be suitable. I've worked on computers that are completely clogged with dust in industrial or pet settings and no amount of filters will help.

@iuhere 6 месяцев назад

this one video had a lot more information that I could watch just once, yes its long but useful and informational. THanks for sharing this one adn good luck for future ones.

@NO0BIE659 6 месяцев назад

Seeing the Noctua passive cooler reminded me something, have you guys considered using the schlieren imaging on what how static vs airflow type fans flow through a radiator, for AIO and/or custom cooling, just as a side project or for fun? Although I think it would be too time consuming to set it up, especially with all the work going on behind the scenes.

@gucky4717 6 месяцев назад

Air cooler: Thermalright Peerless Assassin 120SE or Phantom Spirit for 35-50€ period... AIO cooler: Arctic Liquid Freezer II 240 65-75€. 280/360 for 75-90€. Those are the best price AND performance coolers on the market in germany FYI the Phantom Spirit has one more heatpipe and is potentionally better then the Peerless Assassin. P.S. I use the Gletscherwasser AIO from Alpenföhn, a local german brand. They have a silent (at 80% RPM) pump in their AIO.

@Yuumizada 6 месяцев назад

Just got and installed the Thermalright PA 120 today, due to this channel's recommendation, working wonders, really. I just wanna thank you all for the hard work, you really help a lot of people choose the right parts with these tests (well, at least helped me and it worked lol). Keep them coming!

@nttinvis 2 месяца назад

Thats the one at 54.1 C at 8:11?

@Yuumizada 2 месяца назад

@@nttinvis yes, that one!

@nttinvis 2 месяца назад

@@Yuumizada is the rgb one the same?

@Yuumizada 2 месяца назад

@@nttinvis There is a ton of editions, PA Black, White, ARGB, SE... Basically the Black / White versions can come with or without RGB (the RGB is only on the fans AFAIK), and there is little to no difference between SE and non-SE versions (this guy has a small chart showing them - watch?v=M4AAqbv4m1A ).

@nttinvis 2 месяца назад

@Yuumizada i noticed it covers the ram, any good cpu coolers that dont?

@Cinetyk 6 месяцев назад

"blown away" by the CPU coolers... I see what you did there :) Cheers and thank for all the excellent work over the years.

@cjm5002 6 месяцев назад

Your reviews have been pretty critical in my business as of late. I may not agree with some of your views and such but I want to still thank you for the testing you do! I've been able to expand my skillset to multiple areas in PC building due to that, like air cooling being a thing again with coolers like the peerless assassin. And thanks to this very review I now have a cooling solution in mind for my friends studio computer 9:39 ... keep it up gents!

@jacendex 6 месяцев назад

I've used ID Cooling in quite a few PC builds. They make some excellent coolers and fans for the cost.

@jamesm568 6 месяцев назад

Way better than Corsair crap.

@alrecks619 5 месяцев назад

Have you tried the SE-207-XT? i've been considering them beside Thermalright Phantom Spirit/Peerless Assassin.

@jacendex 5 месяцев назад

@@alrecks619 I have not used that one. But I have used the 224-225-226, they all worked very well on a few AM4 builds I have done, from 2700x CPU up to 5700x, cant really recall temps going over 60 celcius either workstation or gaming. They all come with 1x 120, PWM fan. The build quality and noise is far superior to the popular Arctic fans. On most of these coolers they come with extra clips to mount more fans should you choose. The Id cooling fans are perfect though, no need to switch them out.

@NostalgiaXV 6 месяцев назад

YES YES YES THIS IS THE EXACT VIDEO I WAS HOPING FOR! I plan to retire my good old Wraith Stealth soon, and this helps so much!!

@alwaysemployed656 3 месяца назад

Any air cooler brand is fine as long as you know how to set up the fans. I'm using the Cooler Master air cooler fin tower you can buy at any Best Buy to cool my i9. My fan configuration is I stack the fans on top of each other and screw them together through the corner screw holes, it's like they are soldered together. Think of it as a tunnel with multiple fan blades inside the tunnel spinning. I got 3 fans at the front of the fin tower to pull the air in and 4 fans at the back of the fin tower to pull out. Why 4 at the back and 3 at the front? Simple. The 1 extra at the back gives it more pull power to also suck in air through the side of the fins while keeping up with the 3 fan push coming from the front. My temperatures are exactly the same with open case and closed case because the Pull In and Pull Out power air exchange is very powerful, so open case makes no difference. My non-overclock temperature is always a steady 24c and my overclock temperature never goes over 70c. So "which brand this and which brand that" is more of a snake oil sale. It's all about the fan configuration.

@00wheelie00 6 месяцев назад

I watch this cooler videos every year, yet my NH-D15 has been functioning flawless for years now.

@I_saw_that956 4 месяца назад

I was looking at getting one myself, I hear the longevity and performance is amazing, does it live up to the hype in your opinion?

@conorstewart2214 15 дней назад

@@I_saw_that956 if you haven’t gotten it already then hold off and wait for the new version on Q2 2024.

@Quillraven 6 месяцев назад

Very happy with my Phantom Spirit on a 7900x. Very silent operation and keeps the CPU very cool. Can recommend it

@UncleButterworth 4 месяца назад

Yeah, it's hard to not recommend that cooler to people unless they genuinely don't need it, but you're only saving like 10-15 bucks so why not??

@DrBreezeAir 6 месяцев назад

I run an NH-U14S that's over 7 years old now on my 12600K, Noctua sent me the LGA-1700 adapter for free. It performs perfectly. I've never seen temps over 64 C degrees. I have plans to upgrade to a 13700K, hopefully, it'll be enough.

@fnx427 6 месяцев назад

Same here. Got it for my 4770K, then 3700X, now 5800X3D and I expect to use it on my next upgrade too.

@marcosousaesteves 6 месяцев назад

Blows my mind the amount and quality of work you guys are putting in! Thank you for your work and keep up!

@PikkaKok 6 месяцев назад

I have the same fan whine with the DeepCool AK620 from last year. It was a bit of disapointment since pretty much no reviews mentioned this back then. Thanks for acknowledging it!

@joe9893 6 месяцев назад

I think one of the most impressive things is that the D15 is 9 years old. Nearly a decade since its release and it’s still within a degree or two of the most recent coolers. Not to mention you get two Noctua fans with it. I’m excited to see what their new D15 accomplishes.

@kosmosyche 6 месяцев назад

I'm still rocking my NH-D14 from 2012. If memory serves me right, that's when I bought it for Core i5 - 3570k, then it worked with i5-8600k, now it is cooling AMD 7800X3D, and doing a really fine job (although this CPU is surprisingly easy to cool and non-overclockable, so it's an easy job)! Just had to order new brackets for AM5 platform. Original fans still work like new, quiet and efficient. You know, I sometimes feel bad for Noctua, I imagine it's not the best business model to make something this good, so it just keeps working and working forever. I paid them once in 11 years (apart for AM5 brackets which were less than 10 bucks) and don't see any reason to buy anything else cooler-wise from them or anyone else. 🤣

@joe9893 6 месяцев назад

@@kosmosycheyeah I forgot to even mention the fact they send you new mounting equipment for free. They are definitely a company that focuses heavily on quality and cares about customers.

@kosmosyche 6 месяцев назад

@@joe9893 Yeah, I didn't even bother with that. lol I think they need some sort of receipt, which is long since gone (I never thought this cooler would serve me that long tbh).

@bliss_gore5194 6 месяцев назад

@@kosmosychedont think theyre losing themselves out. Their coolers so good fellas might buy fans from them for their pc and so and so...

@Z4KIUS 6 месяцев назад

two ancient fans that would be long deprecated if not for lack of a successor sure, they are decent, but they are far behind A12x25 in overall quality

@apollo-3744 6 месяцев назад

Went with the peerless assassin after watching your previous review. Absolutely amazing. My 5800X went from a very uncomfortable high 80s with the wraith prism (even after giving it a full clean and new thermal paste) to 52c max at full load and keeping there after 2 months. It was also ridiculously cheap. Really happy with it.

@dt35591 4 месяца назад

@@noir-13 I'm on a 5700X, but I had even lower temperatures (45C max iirc, definitely under 50C) with the PA when I was running it stock hitting ~4.1ghz all cores in Cinebench R23. After getting the overclock set I'm now hitting 4.8ghz all cores and maxing out around 69C, which is pretty nice. I'm guessing they had their PC in a pretty cold room like me and hadn't overclocked it.

@Jamesssssssssssssss Месяц назад

Love that you make videos like this. Love you guys!

@jawashasalan56 4 дня назад

This is so well done!! Thanks!

@fateunleashed9680 6 месяцев назад

I recently got the Arctic esports 34 dual fan for my 7800X3D and love the price to performance it has. I vote to test this cooler on the new test benches just to honor a great cooler from before!

@V0LK4N 6 месяцев назад

are you having spikes ? sometimes my 7800x3d jumping 75 very fast nad later going 60

@jduvel 6 месяцев назад

Nice to know my Dark Rock Pro 4 is still up there. Always wondered why GN never took a look at it, so it's great to see the results at long last. Such a quiet, performant cooler.

@thealien_ali3382 6 месяцев назад

Noctua dh15 for the win baby

@FenrirAlter 6 месяцев назад

Costs way too much for getting outperformed by 40-50€ Coolers and also problem with AM5 platform

@jduvel 6 месяцев назад

@@FenrirAlter What's wrong with it on AM5? I saw bequiet said they don't need a conversion kit for AM5? Also, I'm very impressed with these new cheaper coolers, but I bought it years ago and they either didn't exist back then, or were not well covered by reviewers and i had no idea of them. I'm just happy it is right up there with a nh-d15, which was the main alternative at the time (peak covid times).

@FenrirAlter 6 месяцев назад

@@jduvel it doesn't have a good contact on am5. The noctua has a 5€ kit that reduces temps by a lot. Also if u normalize by sound. You can legit just reduce the fan speed of louder coolers and they will still cool better than the be quiet!

@vqa33 5 месяцев назад

@@FenrirAlterthis video don’t include the Be quiet! Elite…

@kipakiki79 3 месяца назад

it is a great job! it is really awesome and I appreciate very details explanation. I have a lot of confusion for the cpu cooler since there is no performance indicator. it helps a lot. Thank you.

@meltedfusitediy6625 3 месяца назад

Purchased the Thermalright Peerless Assassin 2x120. Replaced stock cooler on an I7 13700 , went from 80c to 43c steady after an hour of gameplay. Thanks for the review.

@flankenstein9467 6 месяцев назад

Would love to see the Noctua NH-U12A added to the testing, with 1 and 2 fan setup. Mine is paired with 2 Phanteks T-30's, keeps my 11700K all core 4.9ghz, under 82C at full load while drawing 249 watts.

@CoolArrow78233 6 месяцев назад

Glad to hear it. Heard good things about it here and online. Absolutely satisfied with my peerless 120

@isaacr7416 6 месяцев назад

Phew i just bought the thermalight peerless assassin bc of your similar video a year or so ago. Glad its still on top!!!

@terrytaylor2104 6 месяцев назад

Very interesting, I may have to rethink my air cooler. I could have sworn you had reviewed the MA824 this year which had a strong rating. Was there any particular reason why it didn't make this year end round up Steve?

@ericjodoin7682 6 месяцев назад

For Thermalright, could you do a review on the Phantom Spirit 120 (7 6mm heat pipes instead) and the Frost Commander 140 (4 8mm heat pipes)? Also to consider for low profile installation: SI-100 (75mm), AXP120-X67 (67mm) and AXP90-X53 (53mm) I know Noctua would be better but Thermalright prices them about to 35-40% of Noctua's prices

@tarron3237 6 месяцев назад

Small correction: The FC140 has 5 8mm pipes

@manoftherainshorts9075 5 месяцев назад

The best thing is Noctua would NOT be better. Even Peerless Assassin 120 is better than D15 noise normalized testing. Noctua didn't design new top-end coolers in a long time, it's time for them to finally do something, they are just too outdated and too expensive.

@deuswulf6193 6 месяцев назад

Picked up the Thermal Right Peerless Assassin as a cheap temporary solution awhile back for a 7950x3D build. It was so good I never bothered replacing it.

@Rey_Fantasma 6 месяцев назад

i bought a deep cool ak620 thanks to this man this year, been working fantastic

@Lucas-hz4um 6 месяцев назад

I was really hoping to get some data on the new thermalright phantom spirit. I just bought the 120 evo version and it's a beast

@dremy746 6 месяцев назад

Another great cheap cooler is the Thermalright Phantom Spirit 120 SE. It's pretty much just the Assassin but with an extra heat pipe, which leads to better thermals, and it's about the same price as the assassin (~$33). I bought one to cool an i9 9900K and it has worked well.

@UncannySense 6 месяцев назад

the number of heat pipes doesn't neccesarily suggest better cooling as it pertains to the abilty of making contact with the specific CPU. Performance is about the same, so it just comes down to price and aesthetics really.

@MeneIwen 6 месяцев назад

While the Phantom Spirit indeed performs a bit better than the Peerless Assassin, a extra heat pipe is no "magic less degrees", it's all about a balance of Size, material, Placement too which matters as much (& more) than quantity of heat pipes!

@Caesar2001 6 месяцев назад

@@MeneIwen Tell that to Noctua engineers, their new cooler will have 8 heat pipes. Stfu when you don't know anything about cooling but listen to youtubers telling you that more heat pipes = bad. Obviously the pipes need to be put in a good place to work well Einstein

@MeneIwen 6 месяцев назад

@@Caesar2001 I'm sorry heat pipe man I will never have a balanced opinion ever again and now want 50 heat pipes on my fan cooler, thank you for the knowledge!!

@Caesar2001 5 месяцев назад

@@MeneIwen DARN RIGHT!!

@ruuukuxp Месяц назад

I got the Thermalright Phantom Spirit based on your recommendation of the Peerless Assasin. My i5-12400 with Intel stock cooler went from 100 degrees running HD2 to 60 degrees. 40 degrees difference! Thanks for your hard work in testing all these coolers out there.

@YourComputerSmith 6 месяцев назад

Thank you! You guys are legendary ❤

@FirestormX9 6 месяцев назад

NH-D15 still performs within around 5-6 degrees in most cases relative to the current best performers. After over a decade. Holy freakin shit, what a design!

@kimnice 6 месяцев назад

Wonder what the next gen NH-D15 can do when it launches Q2/24?

@FirestormX9 6 месяцев назад

@@kimnice yeah I am really looking forward to it

@burnament 6 месяцев назад

I wonder where the Thermalright Frost Spirit 140 would end up in the charts or which Thermalright cooler performs best overall.

@GamersNexus 6 месяцев назад

If people want to see that one, we can probably run it in the new round!

@shredman59 6 месяцев назад

@@GamersNexus Yes, would like to see Frost Spirit and Phantom Spirit. Thermalright seems to be killing it.

@burnament 6 месяцев назад

@@GamersNexus Would be nice, lets see what happens

@ACE112ACE112 6 месяцев назад

@@ByTorAndMe why do different cpus have different best coolers when intuitively the coolers' performance shouldn't change based on the cpu

@etyrnus 6 месяцев назад

@@ACE112ACE112 they address it in their video, and it would be interesting to see Steve and GN's take on it as well. A big factor appears to be the heat pipe placement on the contact plate.

@CasualBudgetGaming 4 месяца назад

Hey Steve love your videos. I wish you'd make more videos about itx builds. There is a lot of great itx coolers out there, for example the id cooling is-55 which I myself am using. Keep up the good work!

@gufostanco220 6 месяцев назад

Yesterday I was wondering when you would upload a video on this topic. Here it is!

@blundy1 6 месяцев назад

The $2-$3 cooler is amazing for what it is. I could see it being modified for other purposes at that price.

@DJFPaul 6 месяцев назад

Except it's not 2-3$ as the price it disguised in the shipping. It's a 18$ cooler. And you're not gonna combine cart with any of those "special" prices.

@blundy1 6 месяцев назад

@DJFPaul Even at $18 its still cheaper than an Assassin X.

@endless2239 6 месяцев назад

@@blundy1you could get it for $8 with standard free shipping (for new users), or even $6 with a very shady shipping company XD

@MikeDaveYapOfficial 6 месяцев назад

For everyone setting eyes on the budget Thermalright Peerless Assassin 120, I highly suggest you spend a bit more to its better successor, the "Thermalright Phantom Spirit 120 SE 7 heatpipes". With the prices I see online, spend a bit more and you'll be able to get the ID-Cooling ZOOMFLOW 240XT Budget AIO

@AliYassinToma 6 месяцев назад

One of the best videos ive watched all year.. only improvement id say is a shorter intro.. but thats my personal preference and i can see people getting confused if they are not that tech literate..

@ChaseMcDude 6 месяцев назад

this video could not have been better timed!! thx i'm currently looking into air coolers because i wanna buy one for my little brother as a christmas gift

@Flying_Jorts 6 месяцев назад

I just put together a 7800X3D build with a Noctua U12A. Keeps the chip super cool with the offset mount. Expensive though.

@mileshigh47 6 месяцев назад

The Peerless Assassin has been my go to! I have probably installed 20 or so this past year, insane value! Hard to believe my NH-D15 was quadruple the price. 🥴

@jamesm568 6 месяцев назад

NH-D15 is still my go-to air cooler, but it is expensive, but it is also the best from a more well-established company.

@colesym84 6 месяцев назад

There are still swathes of people who will either recommend only either a D15, or a Hyper 212 for budget. Aside from personal noise profile preferences, there is very little reasoning.@@jamesm568

@bocahdongo7769 6 месяцев назад

@@jamesm568It was crushed both thermal and acoustic by newer Frost Spirit 140, with only $50. Seems like Noctua going way tooooo comfortable on its seat

@3ndlessPain1984 6 месяцев назад

the spirit is only a few dollars more and cools better overall

@jamesm568 6 месяцев назад

@@bocahdongo7769 Depends on your build as some people don't like non-premium brands to be seen in there premium built PC. Got a lot of quality choices out there though.

@danieloberhofer9035 6 месяцев назад

I'd just like to thank you for all the effort you put into these reviews! Just bought the Peerless Assassin 120 for my wife's new build and it's awesome! Keeps the 7800X3D at around 50-55° C while gaming. So - Thanks, Steve! ;)

@MaxKuznetsof 6 месяцев назад

Great video as always, can’t wait to see new be quite elite review.

@jubuttib 6 месяцев назад

This would have been great to know on FRIDAY... Nah just kidding, awesome review compilation! I've had my D15 for years and years now, and it's kinda awesome to see that finally the rest of the industry has caught up and even surpassed it, at a better price too. =)

@amacielbr 6 месяцев назад

Yeah. I've been using my NH-D15s for 5 or 6 years it's good to know that I can replace it for something better for a fair price.

@FlyingShoe 6 месяцев назад

"Blown away" I see what you did there Mr. Punny man

@NetNeelsie 6 месяцев назад

Thank you again for these reviews.

@trajectoryunown 6 месяцев назад

I've been waiting for this one for quite some time.

@br0wnbrownbrown 6 месяцев назад

Hey GN, unrelated to the video but when is the full steam deck OLED review coming? Looking forward to it!

@GamersNexus 6 месяцев назад

Patrick's been working on it. He had a vacation planned right when it dropped, so we had a pause in the middle. We're hoping it's done this week, but will see!

@AlexanderAhjolinna 6 месяцев назад

still happy with my Scythe Fuma 2 ...I do wonder when the reviews of Scythe's new models will arrive, it would be nice to see how much has changed

@3D_foos 6 месяцев назад

i was coming to say "still happy with my Scythe Fuma 2" glad to see i'm not the only one. it is starting to show it's limitations but it's been a contender longer than most.

@stevenvanderkolk3613 6 месяцев назад

Fuma 3 has been reviewed on Hardware Canucks

@VengeanceFalls 4 месяца назад

Love your channel man . Video setup is nice and slick. Much cooler and no bs like another channel I know of. “Cough” LTT

@gabrielpoenaru531 6 месяцев назад

I love the work you are doing guys. I am curious, how "soon" is the next methodology coming up? I am looking to build an am5 system and I am curious if it's worth to wait 2-3 months to see your tests as well. Keep up the good work!

@Densoh 6 месяцев назад

Would have love to see a "Best Low-Profile" air cooler given the popularity of mini-ITX systems. Maybe next year!

@scip11 6 месяцев назад

The best value cooler is the Noctua NH-D15S, bought it for my Athlon x4 750k 8 years ago , then used it on a 5820k, now it is on my AM5 7600X. Only had to get a new mounting kit, the fan is still working flawlessly.

@willmarks4541 6 месяцев назад

The amount of effort you all put into these test and the final accuracy of your results is incredible. The devils are often in the details, and you always seem to notice them. Keep up the amazing work

@amb1valentchaos625 6 месяцев назад

I bought a peerless assassin based of your recommendation as well as I assume plenty of others did. That being said I was wondering when individual testing will be coming out for fans. I’m super interested in seeing actual fan performance curves with real best efficiency points. it would also be very cool to see said testing be done comparing fans best efficiency points comparable to others and what noise levels are produced. I think it would be dope to know that for instance a peerless assassin with noctua fans or be quiet fans would be the ultimate air cooling combination

@stalkholm5227 6 месяцев назад

I don't know if this is too much to ask: Could you add *fan* normalized testing to your suite? It would help discern how much of the cooling performance is from the cooler, and how much is from the included fans.

@justwinclassic 6 месяцев назад

GREAT IDEA

@thaddeuscosse9527 6 месяцев назад

Its one of the few things in the PC space that you genuinely have budget options. I'm running a Thermalright Assassin X 120 se for 15 bucks. Just amazing value.

@LawrenceAngeloVargas 6 месяцев назад

got the Deepcool AK620 because of Steve's review last year. then suddenly felt out of place this year because of Peerless Assassin, but yet again we have Phantom Spirit. Still glad we have this improvements on Air coolers.

@yukisnoww 6 месяцев назад

Another banger to finish off my sunday, thanks steve.

@HAFBeast91 6 месяцев назад

Thanks Steve

@Kostek 6 месяцев назад

I'm using Noctua NH-D15 and it's really great.

@farrellbeast 6 месяцев назад

I love my D15. Happy that the air cooler market is finally catching up, but still a bit sad seeing the D15 pushed down the list a bit

@Kostek 6 месяцев назад

@@brentsmith7013 i'm using it currently on a test bench with 14700k.

@Gilgame22 6 месяцев назад

The only problem is that the NH-D15 is one of the most expensive air cooling options, costing about $80 more than the Peerless Assassin and it performs slightly worse. The NH-D15 has been around for ten years and it has had to accommodate changes to computers including overbuilt VRMs and CPU 'buckles' that hold the CPU down. There are new issues arising from design flaws, or other issues that complicate cooling. The 1700 socket in particular has an issue with inconsistent pressure across the surface of the CPU, which means that the coldplate at the bottom of the heatsink and the CPU itself have imperfect contact, even with correct application of thermal paste. It seems that the Peerless assassin does a better job with this, at least with AMD CPUs.

@whitebox96 6 месяцев назад

Do you think that the Scythe Fuma 2 is no longer a good purchase?

@alanmoore78 6 месяцев назад

Thank you for this final send-off for the AM4 testing platform. I plan to stay on it for the foreseeable future, and it's great to know there are still some outstanding performers that work well at a reasonable price. My Thermaltake UX100 no longer has working RGB lighting but it keeps my 1500X happy for now. I'm also happy to see that ID-Cooling unit that's below $20 is good enough for a value recommendation. Unless I find an X3D chip (5600 or 5800) it'll be sufficient for whatever 3700X or 5700X I end up with when I make that change. The Peerless Assassin 120 for $33-35 will easily cover the X3D model if I go that route.

@em.dot.2 6 месяцев назад

GN CPU cooler videos are always a must watch for me - cooling and airflow are the parts of the PC that got me interested in building. I'm curious as to how much stock you guys put into the more intangible parts of the cooler purchase, like warranty/RMA standards. For example, if you tell me that the Deepcool Assassin IV has comparable cooling-per-dollar to the Noctua NH-D15, Noctua's well-documented 6-year warranty is enough to be a tie-breaker. Do those less-tangible elements factor in to your product reviews at any stage, or do you mainly focus on the hardware in a vacuum?

@barrelrole 6 месяцев назад

is it possible to put too many fans in your case? i just use a stock wraith cpu fan.

@GamersNexus 6 месяцев назад

Yes, definitely. Great question too. If you don't have them pointed the right way, you can end up exhausting cool air before it hits the CPU (or just running it in an unoptimized way, especially for noise)

@barrelrole 6 месяцев назад

@@GamersNexusThanks for the reply GN . I always appreciate the high quality investigative work you guys do! It helped me enormously in buying parts and building my ryzen pc the last 3 years

@itsdeonlol 6 месяцев назад

Thanks Steve for this!

@dunkelheit843 6 месяцев назад

I recently built a computer where I used a mini-ITX motherboard and also needed a low profile cooler. Noticed that these boards has become very limiting lately of how much space they leave for such a cooler, so ended up using a Noctua NH-L9x65. It works ok but run on the hotter side. Would be interesting to see a comparison with other coolers which would work in this scenario.

@TRC_WA 6 месяцев назад

I paired my 7950x3D with a Noctua NH-D15. Decision based entirely on Noctua's reputation. Cost was not an issue. I recently added the new offset mounting bars and my already amazing temps dropped an additional 2C. Couldn't be happier. The CPU barely sniffs 75C under max all core burn tests. Everyday use temps obviously much lower. Water cooling not needed.

@commanderoof4578 6 месяцев назад

That is very much not normal temperatures that will be with eco mode on or something equally as dumb Ryzen 7000 series isnt ment to be used base on being X temperature its ment to be based on what frequency it runs with your cooler 89c is what your should be running 24/7 when actually at full load

@TRC_WA 6 месяцев назад

@@commanderoof4578 Not sure what you're trying to say. I am running on performance mode... and never get close to 89C... I'm also gaming in 4K with a 4090 with minimal CPU load.

@MrHamof 6 месяцев назад

@@commanderoof4578That's the regular model, not the X3D model. The X3D runs at a lower power level to avoid cooking the stacked cache. That said, I don't remember how the non X3D chip in the 7950X3D behaves so maybe it's still weird.

@commanderoof4578 6 месяцев назад

@@TRC_WA what im saying is your CPU is being gimped somewhere somehow because those temperatures are wildly to low under full load as the IHS on the 7000 series is the thickest to ever be on a ryzen CPU restricting heat transfer

@TRC_WA 6 месяцев назад

@@MrHamof Yep it's all about the lower power and thermals. I've never used any of the recent non-X3D chips so I have no basis for comparison but what I can say is this is my first AMD system since 2001... and temps are a helluva lot better than any of my recent Intel builds (4790k, 7700k, 10900k)... with an air cooler.

@aylim3088 6 месяцев назад

Blown away, huh?

@Gamecapturevideo 6 месяцев назад

Thanks Dad Steve.

@kabloom6776 22 дня назад

Thanks a lot for the review. What about TR Phantom Spirit? I’d like to go with it but I trust your reviews most and would love to hear what you guys think.

@Neutrax0 6 месяцев назад

Love the parts-of-the-year videos. For a recommendation, will GN kindly do another motherboards differences type video or at least a short article. The last video detailing them is only a year old, but I've seen more motherboards recently that aren't mentioned in it, or I feel are similar but I can't tell the difference between a side-grade or a successor. Examples of this include Z790 and B760 motherboards. Sometimes a board comes with an HDV or a Pro variant. Can you guys please explain those differences too?

@EmblemParade 6 месяцев назад

This video is such a journey. :) Most of us do quick research and buy a cooler and that's it. You guys make this decision confident. Have a great end of year, GN, you are a treasure for PC builders.

@592Johno 6 месяцев назад

Ahhhh I just got the DeepCool AK620 Dark, it did well in your tests so it was a no brainer for me.

@DunkeysLongLostSon 6 месяцев назад

Is there going to be a 'Best Cases 2023' video? Great video as always, by the way!

@lauris.marcenoks 5 месяцев назад

Thanks will be waiting fur the next silent cooler videos

@JonathanRLight 6 месяцев назад

Always love the year end content from GN, best of and worst of the year type videos. I have a D15 and a Peerless, and if I'm only looking at the temps I don't think I could tell the difference. I do like the way Noctua over-engineers everything (not sarcasm), but the price just isn't even close.