Gaming: New Thermalright Peerless Assassin 120 Se Review 2026
A superb choice for many gaming PCs, offering excellent performance and a robust design. It's a little louder than some, and a little larger, but you can't complain at this price.
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When I wrote my review of Arctic's Freezer 36, I was inundated with comments telling me to test the Thermalright Peerless Assassin. Subsequently, two of my colleagues recommended the very same cooler as one of their favourite purchases in recent years. So, I bought one, and in this review I'll cover why my colleagues, and the internet at large, are correct. This thing rules.
I purchased the Peerless Assassin 120 SE V2, a version of the cooler with six heatpipes, for £26. It's currently $33 on Amazon US. Thermalright has around 40,000 variants of any one cooler, all with names using a combination of around ten words, and spanning nine pages on its website. I opted for one of the cheapest available at the time, but if you wanted something prettier, there are many more to choose from.
It arrived in a nondescript brown cardboard box, which slightly tempered my expectations for the cooler within. Though I shouldn't have judge a cooler by its box here; it's a mighty impressive unit once you remove it from the packaging. It's much larger than the other budget options I've reviewed recently, including the Arctic Freezer 36 and Cooler Master Hyper 212 Pro.
It's a dual-tower cooler, one more than most in this price range, and comes with two 120 mm fans. These are basic units with a not-so-basic name, TL-C12C-X28 V2, and use a fluid dynamic bearing (FDB).
Type: Dual-towerDimensions: 125 x 135 x 155 mmHeatpipes: 6 x 6 mmCompatibility: LGA1700/1150/1151/1200/1851 | AM4/AM5Fans: 2x TL-C12C-X28 V2 120 mmPrice: $33/£32
The longevity of any fan bearing can be pretty variable depending on how well they're made. I've not run these for any suitable length of time to comment on their lifespan. Though, presuming they last a couple years at the very least, replacing them with something similar wouldn't cost much at all.
The heatsink is fairly basic with six heatpipes and a small cutout on the outer edge to reduce any chance of compatibility issues with memory kits. The version I have is bare metal, though there are smarter options available. Personally, I don't mind the bare metal look, especially
Source: PC Gamer
