DeepCool Assassin IV Review - The New Air Cooler KING? 

It just keep proving how amazingly well designed is the Noctua D15… this cooler has been on the market since 2014 and still is one of the one to beat… incredible…

Feels like they spent more time engineering for looks rather than extra performance.

I could check in your results that the Peerless assassin still is the best bang for your buck... But there is a new revision that has not been reviewed and is under the radar, the thermalright phantom spirit se... Either the rgb or black versions, it's less taller, has two more heat pipes, arguably more fins stacked and the fans are a revised version of the ones in the PA 120 se... Really looking forward to put this phantom spirit against the big names on the top!

Great to see that I wasn't the only one requesting a second sample, but mine wasn't because of the Fan noise, but performance.... 🤔

The buzzing is because they're slapping the fans butt up against the fins while running them in pull. There's a reason why Noctua provides THICKER rubber pads for the pull side of the heatsink.

Coming from a custom loop guy, only Mike can get me to nerd out on air coolers 😄

The last time someone added this many mechanisms to an air cooler it was Corsair’s A500, and we know how that turned out. Good to see that Deepcool made something super unique

It's wild how often I watch these reviews and come away thinking I should just get a Peerless Assassin. The work is very appreciated regardless how often that is my conclusion 👍

Thermalright Peerless Assassin is still the best.... Aside from aesthetics, it have better price to performance overall

It might seem that the performance is a little bit disappointing, but there is one big thing to consider. RAM clearance. With the total height of 164mm it allows to install ANY RAM on the market regardless of its height and with perfect visibility for RGB lighting. For example, Noctua NH-D15 has only 32mm for RAM sticks without raising the fan and the height of the entire cooler. I think that many people will be interested in Assassin IV because of this (and its aesthetics).

Thanks for this review. Can't wait to see the new revised NH-D15 get a review.

Still waiting for the next gen NH-D15, sadly I'll be old when Noctua finally releases it! 😅😅

this is pinnacle of tech reviewing, kudos to you all for making such great and honest reviews which will be very helpful for consumers like me.

Thanks for the in-depth reviews. I am undervolting and overclocking my 12700K, but running into problems with my old cooler. (It's hitting 80C, and crashing Cinebench if I don't cap at 80C. Otherwise stable.) I'm imagining how much further I can go with a proper cooler for the 12700K. These things (CPU tuning) are a bit finnicky, so having such fine detailed data (such as across dB ranges and workload wattages, and the special gaming scenario test, showing frequency/FPS response) are very very informative for what I'm trying to do with my CPU. Thank you for that! Most outlets only show one bar graph, your line plots across dB ranges are very *chef's kiss* perfect. (I know that takes time, but it is much appreciated!) I'm as surprised as you that this thing doesn't beat the Assassin III for raw performance, but in hindsight, it's been really hard to believe anyone would get much better than the current gen, whether it be the Assassin III, the NH-D-15 or the Thermalright Peerless Assassin / Frost Spirit. I guess it was too good a notion to be true. For now. (I believe Noctua when they say their new D-15 will be 1or more degrees cooler. Lots of hard work for modest gains is believable, and Noctua's word is usually pretty good, in terms of avoiding making false claims to begin with.) I would second what I saw someone else say, I'm curious how the *Assassin Spirit* stacks up. Some are saying it's 2-4C cooler all while being quieter. Maybe they slightly optimized the contact plate or the heatpipe placement, IDK. One guy didn't test it properly (used only a Ryzen 3600) but found basically no difference (makes sense, that CPU can be cooled by practically anything...) Basically everyone else has said it's a few degrees cooler while quieter. No big name reviewers yet, though! Which seems like a shame. They also revived the actual Assassin Spirit single tower 120 that Gamers Nexus tested, but as a V2 model, and a bunch of 120 single-tower models, but I would assume those are pretty much the same performance as the Assassin X 120 family??? I never know until someone reviews one, Thermalright have too many models!!!!

Thanks a lot for the sound samples. Much needed for cooler rewviews.

Nice review!, and yes I can heard the buzzing on the second unit too. The AK620 and Assasin III are still, for me, the best coolers performance/money. Far as I know you can also setup the AK620 as a pull-pull configuration (I didn't test it yet) so RAM issues shouldn't be a problem. You are not going to get the same performance, but still cheaper and a well built cooler. Cheers!

Awesome review and very honest and informative. Thanks! I guess I'll be hanging on to my D15 for a while longer. Suggestion for a future video: Test and compare all the Thermalright air coolers against each other!

Such a great overview/review. Class. Best in the business IMO!

Phantom Spirit 120 SE is my choice and I highly recommend it to everyone. It's basically the successor of Thermalright Peerless Assassin with seven heatpipes and better performance at an incredible price, but it's hard to find reviews for it.

Thanks for this comprehensive review. I'll stick the Thermalright Peerless Assassin SE as its a great budget option for the cooling performance it does

Great video man!, But that Spawn background though 💯!

I am curious on how it performs without the second pull fan and only using the 140mm. Like a d15s.

Mike, please test the Thermalright PS120SE Phantom Spirit 120 SE. It's a 7 heatpipe version of Peerless Assassin 120 SE.

I'm running my AK620, on a 5600x, with the front fan on the back without any thermal issues. Fan speed set to a silent 35% and ram clearance is not an issue.

I love your cooler/fan reviews. Can you test Corsair Link and the Alphacool metal fan ? 😃

Just picked up the AK620 white for $55 for prime day. Paired with my 7800X3D it will have PLENTY of cooling! Love this new Assassin IV, but I think the AK620 at $50-55 on sale will also fit a majority of people here!

Man deepcools new design language is amazing and kudos fornthem to being cohesive with every product design.

SOLD! Thanks for the review.

I'm waiting for the Fuma 3. I have a Fuma 2, and I like the design. Looking forward to see the improvement.

Thermalright Peerless Assassin costs half of this and performs a little better 👍

Few questions come to mind: Does it run better with the additional fan if you take the 14 mm out of there? Is there space in that slot for a bigger fan? Does it actually run better if you take the side crating panel out? This whole design, while it looks neat and all, seems like it's a victim of style over substance. Judging from afar with a amateurs eye, it's like it is creating inefficient turbulence that hotboxes the airflow and temperature in the square vents where the Assassin 3 type design has more room to dump excess heat to the case and it's front fan doesn't eat air as a backdraft that has gone through it already. Would be really fun to see with a fine smoke test where it actually flows.

Love Deepcool new look and better performing in testing. Do enjoy fans > aio but currently using a 360mm EK on a 5950x. Then looking for a smaller build

Hope you do a review of the assassin 4s now that it came out

Love the looks, but just can't see how they're feeling justified bringing a worse product to the table and charging more for it...do manufacturers really think consumers are that stupid?

All these new air coolers scare me to thinking that buying the Thermalright Phantom Spirit for $38 a month ago was a bad decision. But seeing the price tags and performance benchmarks for these new coolers immediately provide me relief 🤣

Great review. Wondering how the Assassin IV would perform if that rear fan was moved up front for a more traditional push/pull configuration.

The assassin 3 and DH-15 can radiate any heat that wasn't taken by the air flow into the case. With all the shrouding on the assassin 4, it can't do that. But what it does show is that the more air you push through it, the better it improves to make up for that loss of heat dissipation. It's basically operating off ramjet concepts, which are very loud, and need lots of air pumprd in to perform.

It would be interesting to know how it compares to the DH-15S not just the DH-15. They seem to me more of a like for like, since they're both supposed to have memory spacing in mind.

Great video!

The idea of fans in pull configuration tends to be louder seems to be true at least partially. I tried having CPU & GPU fans in pull configuration(that's right you heard it. GPU fans in pull config. I use 90mm case fans on my gpu using zip ties to mount.), both of them results in louder operation. Noctua's cooler's have a thick silicone vibration damper on the pull fan I think for this reason. Having some distance between the pull fan and the heat sink itself seems to alleviate the problem.

Is there any possibility that you can try benchmarking these coolers on a Ryzen CPU like AM4 & AM5 Platform and see if these rankings would change?

Yep the deepcool ak620 I picked up had that sound vibration issue and went with a b stock arctic freezer ii 240mm after I returned it.

@hardware canucks: I recently got AK620 Digital Air Cooler for my new intel 13th gen build. The issue im facing is the digital display shows incorrect temperature and utilization readings when compared to Hardware Monitor readings. Would be great if the team review AK620 Digital cooler and also see if this is a common issue with it. Build Details: core i5 13500, B760M MSI MAG Mortar WiFi DDR5, 32GB 5600 Corsair Vengeance, 3060ti Founders Edition, 750W PSU, CH370 White case)

I'd like to see someone benchmark like 5 of the same model of cooler, and then plot them out. It's just so hard to figure out what is and isn't noise in the data when you're talking about differences of a few degrees.

Not a fan of near proprietary fans which would be difficult to source.

im looking to do air cool with my next build. i like this cooler

Pull configurations are tricky, the distance of the fan to the finstack is very important, too close to the fins and vibrations of them start generating high pitched noises

It looks amazing, but the peerless assassin costs half as much.

I was wondering if the tests with the Noctua NH-D15 results were/are achieved with the new AMD offset mounting clip which offers 1-3 less C if you're running high end CPUS (usually around 3 though). Well that is, if you're using an AMD CPU. Can you please clarify? :D *edit* i'm a moron, just realised its an i9 13900k, but its an interesting development and for sure benchmarks should take that into account for future AMD setups

I just got their AK620 Digital, and it makes that same weird noise, think I should hit them up about it?

hello brother I have a tiny question, does deepcool assassin IV is compatiable with motherboard ASUS ROG STRIX Z690-A GAMING WIFI D4?

Happy with my Assassin 3, but this one sure has a clean look.

How would it perform with a T30 in the back and a high end 140mm fan in the middle?

It looks absolutely mad. I really like that clean box design

Why didn't you point out the 2nd fan the 120mm has different cfm than the 140mm fan? 61 for the 140 and 48 cfm for the 120. That would cause issues, would it not?

I like the color of the one in the thumbnail.

IMO (I could be wrong), blocking the outside is bad for thermals. Now cool air gets sucked in but can't be blown out the SIDES of the heat fin stacks. So the air is HOTTER going into the 2nd fan than it otherwise would be.

Still running my Alpenföhn K2 happy as ever

01:22 I'm confused. Why does the Frost Spirit 140 (4x8mm heatpipes) cool 5°C better than the Frost Commander 140 (5x8mm heatpipes) ?

TR is so underrated, bought Frost Spirit 140 V3 for 68$ and its so good and almost silent

What headset for PS5 would you recommend? I have a budget around 100 - 150$.

Would this perform better over tan AIO, NZXT kraken 240mm? I have a ryzen 5 5600 and rx6700xt

Great Mike!

Never thought somebody would make a Kaaba replica as a cooler

For the most value for money choices, you can't go wrong with any Thermalright's product. I'm using Assassin King 120 with chrome plated cooling surface replacing the similarly overpriced though not as expensive Cooler Master Hyper 212 for my rig. Now I'm adamantly promoting Thermalright's product to my friends and colleagues ever since as a cheaper and better quality alternative compared to more expensive AIO water cooling. Because air cooling don't dissipate or having pump issues and need to be replace.

The exact video I've been waiting for! Unreal aesthetics & high-end performance, but still a bit underwhelming. For me, the performance difference between this and the top-end coolers is negligible, but I LOVE the aesthetics! Kudos for having the patience to test a retail unit, rather than pushing to be the first review!

I've just noticed Thermalright Frost Tower 120 on amazon, is this newest cooler from them?

Can we please get a review of the new Cooler Master MA824 as well.

only 2 weeks ago i made the switch from a lian-li gallahad 360 aoi to the deepcool AK620. i wish i had never drunk the liquid cooling coolaid. this thing is so silent and performs much better at a 3rd of the price. can only imagine the new assasin is better. never AOI/liquid again - edit: great review btw!

I think I'll still rock my Black Chromax Noctua NU12S I only use i5 chips anyways

I actually dig it. It was meant for aesthetics with performance. And not everyone will have a 13900K cpu. This would be a good choice for a stealth build

Did DeepCOOOL prioritize design over functionality? I have reservations about whether this cooler is suitable for the Assassin series.

It need to be paint for the white builds, and an infinit mirror or LCD screen is a good complement. The blacks are strong in white builds

Will there ever be a review where you test the heatsinks themselves? That's what I'm always wondering, what the best cooler would be if you'd just strap on whatever Noctua fan comes closest to the stock fan in terms of size and shape. Or are the heatsinks tuned to always work best with the respective stock fan? Who knows maybe the Assassin III is the best cooler of all time with that testing methodology lol

I wonder how this will do on my 12900ks with my nzxt 360 AIO my chip hits 100c playing games not just on benchmarks I’ve re seated the cooler many times still same temps.

It doesn't really sound quiet though. Sounds rather like you could make music from the tonality of the fan noise. Holding my breath for the NH-D15 V2.

Can't beat my lovely Peerless Assassin SE

Great review as usual, and the wait for the proper sample shows the commitment, Kudos. It's always nice to see Mike reviewing air coolers, cause they are my favorite and you can see how Mike appreciates them too. I don't miss a single of these reviews, always awesome. I Honestly didn't expect the assassin III or other top end coolers to be dethroned, Noctua themselves are 10+ years without being able to do that. But the product looks solid, great option for aesthetics + performance. Thanks again Mike for the great video!

how's the clearance of this cooler on the first pcie slot?

Would we see the cooler in that teal-like color like the thumbnail you guys got? That would be the only reason I would get it vs one of their other coolers.

I wish I have seen this before... I just bought the Assasin IV yesterday and now I wish I could refound it and buy the Assasin 3 or the Frost Spirit 140 which is a way cheaper than this and better performing 😮‍💨 None of the reviews of Assasin 4 I saw before told me this, new suscriber just because I don't wanna make these errors again

I have the AK620 from DeepCool I head the buzzing issue on one fan so hard I head to reach out to the support. After all I got some FK120 fans as a replacement but the buzzing is just silent. I needed to ajust my fancurve because over 1500rpm the buzzing (vibrations) continues. I still love my DeepCool AK620 but it needed some ajustment i dont recommend the casual user.

Mike, I've been curious for awhile now, nothing to do with the cooler, but, what are the speakers on your desk, brand, model,etc. ?

I wish they would offer the pusher fan (120mm fan) to consumers.

What kind of speakers are those in the background?

It you be interesting to compare it against the new Coolermaster Masterair 824, as they are both pull-pull coolers.

So this vs say the Scythe Ninja Rev B hmmm I'll have to take a look if this comes to Canada in coming months.

I think the most unfortunate part about this cooler is it doesn't have teal colored fans like the thumbnail lol. I think I speak for myself and Dave2D that a white/teal version would look killer

I bought it. It looks pretty. Cools well. Nothing more to ask for really.

That thing is almost as large as my entire PC with a 4090 FE. In the Dan A4 H2O.

What speakers are those on the desk ???

So the first "faulty" one had 2 db higher sound per 100 rpm over 1000 rpm, that seems quite within reasonable error for electronic devices? 1-2 db difference must be expected, no?

Peerless Assassin for 40€..cannot be matched!

Are those Edifier speakers behind you?

Why do you need to breath the hot GPU air??? do a reverse setup that draws clean air from the rear exhaust (now intake). Can you test in such configurations? Either with a rear fan, a duct that bridges the gap, or, nothing at all.

I'm copping this once its out

Damn.. I was hoping for it to be good since the white one looks really nice. Bummer.

What happens to your MOBO with the weight and vibrations will the board fail crack etc , I do love the cooler way better than a AIO to me.

So Deepcool Assassin III is the top dog in this test and also most performance/price ratio. Most for the buck. Costs about 110-120 euro here Thermalright Peerless Assassin 120 SE is a contender too. Costs only about 60 euro here. Im in the time for heatsink upgrade. I also like the Arctic Liquid Freezer II 360 AIO but it comes with some maintenance and such. Noctua NH-D15 is really great too costs about the same as Deepcool Assassin III here. Im on a old CPU but i thought that the heatsink/cooler could be used in the future system/platform upgrade.

Are you guys going to be on Threads?