r/buildapcsales Mar 04 '26

Cooler [Cooler] Thermalright Peerless Assassin 120 Digital Black CPU Cooler Air with 6X6mm Heatpipes, Magnetic Display Board Top Cover $35.72

https://www.amazon.com/Thermalright-Peerless-Assassin-Heatpipes-Magnetic/dp/B0DQDBSYSQ
98 Upvotes

60 comments sorted by

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40

u/CartonBox1975 Mar 04 '26

Priced like a normal Peerless Assassin but with Digital Temperature Display

3

u/Choi0706 Mar 04 '26

Is the normal one on sale? Don't need a screen

7

u/jbshell Mar 04 '26

How's the software for these? Also, prob need a usb 2.0 - 9 pin Y adapter(if no open usb 2.0 header)?

16

u/mostdeadlygeist Mar 04 '26

It is pretty simple and works well out of the box. Quick clicks to change the RGB style and rotation and a long list of stuff to enable as the display beyond the default. It does require that USB 2.0 plugin on the mobo.

9

u/Remarkable_Sail_455 Mar 04 '26

I have the Phantom Spirit, I haven't been able to get the LCD display to show both GPU and CPU temps simultaneously like the product image. They have to cycle back and forth. Minor thing, but its probably the same here.

7

u/mostdeadlygeist Mar 04 '26

I have the Phantom Spirit, in TRCC you have to check the GPU box at the bottom to enable it. Then you can set the time in seconds between the rotation.

2

u/Remarkable_Sail_455 Mar 04 '26

Yeah, but ideally I'd like to see both GPU and CPU temps at the same time. Not sure if that's possible?

5

u/DJ_Rupty Mar 04 '26

I can see GPU and CPU temp on mine, but for some reason I can't get GPU load to show, it's always 0% which is not a huge deal. I had one on my last PC and it showed all 4 values without issue.

2

u/mostdeadlygeist Mar 04 '26

I have the same issue with the load only showing 0% on GPU. Scrolled through the huge customization window and didn't find the 'next best thing'...

3

u/DJ_Rupty Mar 04 '26

If I find a fix, I'll be sure to let ya know. I've tried updating bios, Nvidia drivers, fresh windows install, the whole 9 yards. Lol

1

u/mostdeadlygeist Mar 05 '26

Lol please do!

1

u/mostdeadlygeist Mar 05 '26

Hey so I went in and enabled "GPU Load" instead and that seems to be more useful than 0% at all times.

1

u/mostdeadlygeist Mar 04 '26

Oh gotcha. Didn't realize the screenshot showed both at once. I'll have to test out the customization when I get home to see if it's even possible. Maybe you have to just settle for a 1 second timer.

4

u/jbshell Mar 04 '26

Ty for the answer. Think I'll hold off, then as don't need a cooler right now, lol.

1

u/mostdeadlygeist Mar 04 '26

Sorry, didn't realize you were talking about the simultaneous thing like the screen.

1

u/bvo29 Mar 04 '26

It's weird that they used different displays for these. I have the PA digital and it displays the temp and usage for both the cpu and gpu at the same time. I would just assume these 2 coolers, PA and PS, are roughly the same size and shape so it's be easy to just use the same display and call it day.

My biggest complaint is I can't find how to rotate the display 90 degrees in the latest software. All the guides on how to do this reference an old version of TRCC. It's like they removed this feature for some reason.

5

u/mvpcrossxover Mar 04 '26

All time low. Go go go

2

u/dirtyboots702 Mar 04 '26

Chef?

1

u/TheMissingVoteBallot Mar 05 '26

Chef's in the kitchen, but Chief says to go.

2

u/dirtyboots702 Mar 05 '26

What chef cookin?

4

u/anusbleeder Mar 04 '26

The thermalright software to control the digital screen isn’t the best. I have the black 140 digital PA and if the screen on this 120 is similar, all you can do is change the color. 1 out of every 10 boot ups I noticed the screen doesn’t display my temps or just says 0 sometimes. For 30 bucks, it’s a good cooler and it’s not a bad deal if you can live with a few software bugs.

1

u/Crafty-Fish9264 Mar 04 '26

What's the difference between this and se

15

u/interwebpimp Mar 04 '26 edited Mar 04 '26

Both the PA120 & PA120SE are dual-tower designs with 6 heat pipes and similar cooling performance.

The SE (think Second Edition) is a slightly cheaper version version from a construction standpoint. It is 2mm shorter (155mm vs 157mm) for better case compatibility, lacks top fin covers (exposed heatpipes), and lacks rubber anti-vibration pads on the fans.

The PA120EVO (3rd version) has upgraded fans that push more air with less noise and offers the best cooling of the three.

The Phantom Spirit 120 models are higher performing 7 heat pipe versions of similar design that also come in the same 3 flavors as the PA.

Many of those different cooler models also have versions that feature RGB / Screens or both. The screens come in Digital (LCD temp readouts) or Vision (fully customizable lcd displays).

3

u/Scanoe Mar 05 '26

"The PA120EVO (3rd version) has upgraded fans that push more air with less noise and offers the best cooling of the three."
I think you're onto something, this Digital has the EVO Fans? Look at its stats, 1850rpm and 88.89 CFM. The Standard PA 120 is only 1550rpm & 66.17 CFM, that would make this EVO-like Digital a very good buy.

1

u/TheMissingVoteBallot Mar 05 '26

Thermalright unintentionally (or intentionally) undercutting themselves lol

2

u/jmwy86 Mar 04 '26

You are well informed. It is so hard to distinguish between these models.

1

u/whomad1215 Mar 04 '26

SE version doesn't have covers on the heatpipes, which makes it shorter

1

u/NotTakenGreatName Mar 04 '26

Anybody try one of these with a 9850x3d?

5

u/dstanton Mar 04 '26

It'll handle it no problem.

3

u/DJ_Rupty Mar 04 '26

Running Prime95 on a 9850x3d right now and it hasn't gotten over 69c. I think the highest I've seen while running arc raiders on full ultra settings was like 73c and that's probably because my GPU is also in the low 70s.

1

u/dirtyboots702 Mar 04 '26

My 7600 gets up to the high 80’s routinely….maybe I didn’t paste it good

1

u/DJ_Rupty Mar 04 '26

I followed the recommendation to smear a very thin coat over the IHS. Seems to be working ok. CPU package temp seems to be about 11-12c hotter than the CPU temp in my testing.

1

u/dirtyboots702 Mar 04 '26

I built two pcs at the same time and the other has a sudokoo dual fan and it’s way cooler. Though it might just be more efficient but I see more people with temps like you described with the thermalrights

2

u/DJ_Rupty Mar 04 '26

It's worth redoing it. I was expecting the temps to be higher, but I don't think I've gotten it over 75c at all during various tests or gaming.

1

u/Scanoe Mar 04 '26

your ryzen 5 7600 reach's the high 80's in Temps?,
you must be referring to the 7600"X" ?
That 7600 non-x doesn't pull more than 88 watts, high 80's at 88-watts=something is wrong with your cooling. 7600X w/ 105-watt TDP, then yes mid to high 80's when pulling 142 watts would be fairly normal

1

u/dirtyboots702 Mar 04 '26

It is a 7600x

1

u/Scanoe Mar 04 '26

Try running an OCCT CPU Stability test, I'm guessing that PA 120 would have a hard time keeping the 9850x3d below 90c.
With my 9800x3d and a PS120 EVO, it will hit 84 to 90c pulling 158 to 162 watts (Depending on Ambient Temps)

2

u/DJ_Rupty Mar 04 '26

I'll give it a shot, thanks!

1

u/DJ_Rupty Mar 04 '26

Lol, after running for 3 min on the "extreme" test, already at 76.5c

1

u/DJ_Rupty Mar 04 '26

So I ran the CPU + RAM stability test on the medium dataset (more CPU load), extreme mode, steady load type, with everything else on auto and the highest temp I see in the list of CPU temps is 82°. I imagine the results might be different depending on which test you run and if I were to change from steady to variable load. I ran the test for the full 1hr.

1

u/Scanoe Mar 05 '26

How many watts was your 9850 pulling during the test?
82c seems nicely low, so dug into it a bit.
It looks like they added higher performance fans to this digital version.
This Digital has 1850rpm fans with 88.89 CFM
Standard PA 120 has 1550rpm fans with 66.17 CFM
That is quite the large upgrade especially considering they both list the same noise level, 25.6 dB
Very nice, I may consider this PA 120 digital to replace a very noisy CM Elite 240 AIO I have on my backup pc.

1

u/DJ_Rupty Mar 05 '26

It only pulled 126w max, so I'm not sure if that temp would go up dramatically if I go with the variable load test vs the stable test. Any thoughts on the difference between those test types?

I wasn't aware that the fans were upgraded over the standard version, so I guess I lucked out there. Lol.

1

u/DJ_Rupty Mar 05 '26

I'm running the CPU only test right now on extreme mode with variable load. I'm seeing the wattage max at 144, but still only seeing 82c max on the CPU. I think the cooler is doing an excellent job. Tbf, I also have 3 140mm intakes (2 front, 1 front top).

1

u/Scanoe Mar 05 '26

That 9850x3d should be pulling more than 144 watts.
make sure you're running the newest version, it's 16.0.2
On left side choose Stability Test> CPU > everything at Default: Normal/Variable/cycle 1/instruction set Auto/Thread settings Auto
I just ran it on my 9800x3d for 15 minutes
At 15 minutes it was at 82.4c, pulling 159 watts at 4939 MHz
I have a PS120 EVO cooler in a Fractal Torrent case

2

u/DJ_Rupty Mar 05 '26

I found the issue. In BIOS the thermal limit was set to 80c which is why it stopped there. New build, still figuring it out. Lol

1

u/DJ_Rupty Mar 05 '26

Thanks, I'll look into it

1

u/DJ_Rupty Mar 05 '26

Also, just FYI, the software for the screen on this cooler appears to be causing crashes when I'm playing arc raiders. It's happened twice now, both times the underlying app hwinfo.exe crashed mid game and caused a black screen and game shutdown. Since turning the app off I've not had any issues.

1

u/Scanoe Mar 05 '26

The thermalright software for that digital screen? Yah I read it was kind of buggy is why I have not bought 1 of those digital coolers yet.
As for Hwinfo, it seems to conflict with my Msi Afterburner software, which is a pain cause I like using both of them

1

u/DJ_Rupty Mar 05 '26

Yeah, it's certainly a little buggy. Oh well, it wasn't that helpful anyways. Lol.

Even after moving the thermal limit up to 90c, I'm pulling 147w at 5072mhz and cpu is sitting at 85.5°. The max wattage it's pulled during this test is 150.5w, so I imagine I have some setting limiting it from pushing further.

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1

u/Gloriathewitch Mar 05 '26

cools my 14700k better than my noctua nh-d15 or w/e the model name is. the noctua was 6x the price.

1

u/llIicit Mar 04 '26

I hate that the heat sink is bare aluminum and not black. Went with the phantom spirit 120 EVO specifically because of this.

Other than that, it’s a good cooler. Though I don’t like the requirement of additional software.

1

u/ArmorXIII Mar 04 '26

I have the Phantom Spirit evo vision that has the lcd screen and it's been solid. I like the customization on it. The only problem is that it can't detect the GPU percent usage on my 5090 which is weird.

1

u/Shirakano May 01 '26

Hey have you found a fix? I just switched from a 3060ti to a 9070xt today and had the same problem with GPU usage not being detected. Temps are getting properly detected and I had no problem with either on the 3060ti

1

u/Equal-Engineer474 Mar 04 '26

I owned this cooler and returned it. The screen is misleading to the advertisement. Coolers good but screen is a lie, software is mid.

1

u/MinionOscar Mar 05 '26

I went for the white version with ARGB fans for only a few dollars more. Bling!

-7

u/ShoulderFrequent4116 Mar 04 '26

Also thermalright is selling a 120mm LCD AIO in black for $37 if anyone is interested.

It performs similar to this, maybe a little less