The Thermalright Peerless Assassin 140 Black comes at a silly low price, making it one of the most affordale dual tower CPU coolers in today’s market. The moment the Noctua NH-D15 G2 goes for 150 dollars, the Peerless Assassin 140 Black costs from $37 to $40 making it a hell of a deal, given its performance. But for more read the full review.
Noctua rocked the boat with the NH-D15 G2, but unfortunately, not because of its high performance. Most users, including reviewers, were surprised by its sky-high price. Noctua claims that the eye-watering price is due to the long development time, which lasted for ten years, the expensive materials, and the support it provides. This makes me wonder if it is possible to have a cooler like the Thermalright Peerless Assassin 140 Black, which also used a dual tower design, sold at $37-40 and still have a profit! It is less than 1/3 of the G2’s price, so if its performance is decent, it will easily be the performance-per-price king!
I have already evaluated another budget cooler, the Mugen 6, which follows a single-tower design and is more expensive than the Thermalright Assassin since it costs $55. Still, both of these coolers are way more affordable than the D15 G2. In other words, in today’s review, I will finally show you a Thermalright product against all I have evaluated so far. I was tired of reading comments about Thermalright’s products after every cooler evaluation I did, so it is time to give you what you wanted—the review of the most affordable dual-tower cooler available in today’s market.
- Noctua NH-D15 G2 Review. Standard, LBC & HBC Comparison
- Scythe MUGEN 6 Black Edition – The Budget King!
- Model Name: Peerless Assassin 140 Black
- Socket Support: Intel LGA 1150/1151/1155/1156/1200/1700/1851/2011/2066
- Socket Support: AMD AM4/AM5
- Heat pipes: 6mm heatpipe x 6 units
- Base Material: C1100 Pure copper nickel plated
- Number of Fans: 2x
- Fan Dimensions: 120×120×25 mm / 140 x 150 x 27 mm
- Bearing Type: S-FDB Bearing
- Fan Daisy Chain: No
- Fan Speed: 1500 RPM±10% (MAX)
- Fan Airflow Max: 66.17 / 77.8 CFM
- Fan Air Pressure Max: 1.53 mm / 2.09 mm mmH2O
- Noise Output Max: 25.6 dBA
- Fan Connector: 4-pin PWM
- Dimensions (WxHxD, including fans): 132mm x 158mm x 140mm
- Weight: 1174g
- Street Price (excl. VAT): $37-40
- Warranty: 6-years
I think the low cost is because of the location of the company and of their manufacturing site. They can afford to undercut the competition (as any company based in most parts of E/SE Asia should be able to do), especially with China keeping the value of their currency artificially low to keep companies there.
It’s great to have your review since so many people blindly point to the PA120 nowadays for Intel, instead of remembering that it’s not the top Intel air cooler.
Honestly, after so many decades of heatsinks, I think the science is already out there as to optimal fin density, materials, etc. Asking for a ton of money, like Noctua always does after ripping off TR designs all those years ago, is a combination of the high cost of having a German-based company, and greed. It’s like when Linus justified the cost of his screwdriver with 2 years of research when there are better products out there are a fraction of the cost.
I think the only thing that is missing is results from overclocking and/or very hot CPUs. I suspect that the PA120 will not handle the hottest CPUs as well as they did in this test.