Ordered the Thermalright Peerless Assassin 120 - should I do a mini review?

[Filingo]

Is anyone interested in the results I'll get? Including noise

 

My specs are 5600x + Tomahawk b550, 16gb 3600Mhz 2x8GB 

 

For reference: With stock cooler and PBO on, I throttled at 95C immediately 

[freeagent]

I would be interested. I pulled my 5900X out last night and put my 5600X back in. Such an easy CPU to cool

 

This is with FC140 and an all core clock of 4700 1.3v

 

[Filingo]

28 minutes ago, freeagent said:

I would be interested. I pulled my 5900X out last night and put my 5600X back in. Such an easy CPU to cool

 

This is with FC140 and an all core clock of 4700 1.3v

 

Yooo you changed the CPU but you forgot to change your signature to R5 and not R9

[freeagent]

52 minutes ago, Filingo said:

Yooo you changed the CPU but you forgot to change your signature to R5 and not R9

Aha you got me!

 

whoops..

[Filingo]

Update: It landed here and should arrive in a few days!

[Filingo]

Update 2: Since the last comment, 2 more reviews on Amazon reported the fans being noisy and one of them replaced the fans with Arctic P12.. I mean at this price you guys should probably order the Fuma 2

 

(Mine still hasn't arrived)

[Kinda Bottlenecked]

the fans included on mine aren't noisy to me though. 

 

Don't knock it till you try it, I have noctuas and arctic p12, scythe, deepcool and coolermaster fans in my systems and the coolermaster fans are the loudest so far. 

 

I'd say the thermalright fans are a tad louder than the p12s because it has a motor hum BUT I had to put the fan right by my ear to hear it and that is not realistic. Siting in my normal position I don't hear either fans at all. 

[Blue4130]

40 minutes ago, Kinda Bottlenecked said:

the fans included on mine aren't noisy to me though. 

 

Don't knock it till you try it, I have noctuas and arctic p12, scythe, deepcool and coolermaster fans in my systems and the coolermaster fans are the loudest so far. 

 

I'd say the thermalright fans are a tad louder than the p12s because it has a motor hum BUT I had to put the fan right by my ear to hear it and that is not realistic. Siting in my normal position I don't hear either fans at all. 

I agree with this. I have a mix of P14 for case fans and a FS140 for my cooler. I really can't hear either (PC on floor) over the other various house noises.

[Filingo]

43 minutes ago, Kinda Bottlenecked said:

the fans included on mine aren't noisy to me though. 

 

Don't knock it till you try it, I have noctuas and arctic p12, scythe, deepcool and coolermaster fans in my systems and the coolermaster fans are the loudest so far. 

 

I'd say the thermalright fans are a tad louder than the p12s because it has a motor hum BUT I had to put the fan right by my ear to hear it and that is not realistic. Siting in my normal position I don't hear either fans at all. 

And do you hear this hum at any speed? I was thinking about just limiting it to 1200~ RPM for example if that's where it starts to get loud.

It's because my Pc is on the table right next to me. Anyway soon I will get it and try it so I'm giving it a chance

1 minute ago, Blue4130 said:

I agree with this. I have a mix of P14 for case fans and a FS140 for my cooler. I really can't hear either (PC on floor) over the other various house noises.

Good to know. (Just my pc is on the table close to me so I will find out only when I get it if it has annoying sound or not)

[Filingo]

It has arrived!

 

 

 

Ok let's unlock the chill force

[Filingo]

Do I need to worry if the box was wet inside?

 

 

 

[Dogzilla07]

7 hours ago, Filingo said:

Do I need to worry if the box was wet inside?

Nope, other that discoloration (and very hard for the colored you have, and the small amount, like really need a lot of water on the fins), there's nothing that can happen to the heatsink or the fans.

 

check the fans for water, maybe dry them out a bit with a fan, but shouldn't be any problems.

[alyen]

That box looks like it took a beating. What is the condition of the product? I have read Amazon review of products with lot of bent fins on the heat sink. I have also noticed Amazon has other Thermalright heatsinks being sold by various sellers which made we wonder if other sellers are reselling salvaged items.

[Filingo]

1 hour ago, Dogzilla07 said:

Nope, other that discoloration (and very hard for the colored you have, and the small amount, like really need a lot of water on the fins), there's nothing that can happen to the heatsink or the fans.

 

check the fans for water, maybe dry them out a bit with a fan, but shouldn't be any problems.

It seem ok, I took the foam out, and only this edge is wet, so everything inside is dry, but the fans look shit if you see my other post:

https://linustechtips.com/topic/1378870-is-it-normal-for-a-fan-cable-to-look-like-that/

30 minutes ago, alyen said:

That box looks like it took a beating. What is the condition of the product? I have read Amazon review of products with lot of bent fins on the heat sink. I have also noticed Amazon has other Thermalright heatsinks being sold by various sellers which made we wonder if other sellers are reselling salvaged items.

Inside it looks OK actually, I saw that there are several ThermalDirect (1,2,3 etc..) Maybe that's how Chinese work. You can see that in AliExpress as well

 

I might just return it. But first I will install it and then return. 

[freeagent]

Why bother installing it? You seem like you have your mind made up.. I would install it. I would also run the shit out of my system to see how it held up. And if it sucked I would send it back. Mine came from china, it was a rough journey for sure lol.. I tracked it and it made like 20 stops between here and there. But no bent fins and the fans are good.. I am using them as case fans right now.

[Kinda Bottlenecked]

4 hours ago, Filingo said:

Inside it looks OK actually, I saw that there are several ThermalDirect (1,2,3 etc..) Maybe that's how Chinese work. You can see that in AliExpress as well

 

I might just return it. But first I will install it and then return. 

 

Make sure to run benchmarks and stress tests first and record the temps

[Filingo]

6 hours ago, freeagent said:

Why bother installing it? You seem like you have your mind made up.. I would install it. I would also run the shit out of my system to see how it held up. And if it sucked I would send it back. Mine came from china, it was a rough journey for sure lol.. I tracked it and it made like 20 stops between here and there. But no bent fins and the fans are good.. I am using them as case fans right now.

 

5 hours ago, Kinda Bottlenecked said:

 

Make sure to run benchmarks and stress tests first and record the temps

Haha of course guys! I am installing it  

 

@Kinda Bottlenecked don't worry I'll do the tests 

 

Ok so tell me now, what tests do you want? Any specific stress test softwares?

[Relations]

Not sure if there's still any interest in this, perhaps this will be considered necro-posting. 

I just built my rig with the PA120 (white as well, looks sick) on a 5900X in a Tecware Fusion (white as well hehe). Temps are fine but PBO2 is definitely limited by the cooler.
I'm running -20 All core curve, +100 Max boost with motherboard limits (MSI B550M Motor WiFi). Pegged at 90C running P95 small FFTs. It can do all core 4.7-.4.9 for awhile before quickly settling back around 4.6 for most tasks. 

The retail box I got looks different and is in excellent condition (I'm in Malaysia). No issues with cable sleeves on the fans or anything. Enough thermal paste for perhaps 3 or 4 installations max.

 

Edit: Forgot to mention, the fans WHINE at around 1200-1400RPM and is driving me nuts. Its less annoying at max rpm (around 1550) than at the 70% speed. Anything below 1200 is inaudible for me (room noise > system noise)
Edit: Pegged at 90C, not 80C as I posted before. Slip up~

 

TLDR: Runs fine, not much headroom to OC with this cooler on 5900X. 

[Filingo]

Good that you added that, because I returned my PC so I have no PC to test it. I do have the PA left though.

And yes, I also heard that whine before I returned that PC just did not have time to thoroughly test it so I did not want to add that.

 

So yes, you confirm that the fans do have a weird sound. 

 

Also you tested it on 5900x whereas I had the relatively cool 5600x so your test is probably more helpful.. meaning their spec is not true, i.e rated for 245W TDP.

 

Also I did not like the installaton system with those 4 plastic spacers which are just sitting there

[freeagent]

35 minutes ago, Filingo said:

plastic spacers which are just sitting there

Sitting there doing what? You found many things about your computer that you didn’t like. Now you don’t have one because you didn’t like it. 

 

38 minutes ago, Filingo said:

 

Also you tested it on 5900x whereas I had the relatively cool 5600x so your test is probably more helpful.. meaning their spec is not true, i.e rated for 245W TDP.

You have no clue, just shhh..

[Filingo]

I do have a computer, i3-2100 

[Kinda Bottlenecked]

On 10/24/2021 at 12:36 PM, Relations said:

Not sure if there's still any interest in this, perhaps this will be considered necro-posting. 

I just built my rig with the PA120 (white as well, looks sick) on a 5900X in a Tecware Fusion (white as well hehe). Temps are fine but PBO2 is definitely limited by the cooler.
I'm running -20 All core curve, +100 Max boost with motherboard limits (MSI B550M Motor WiFi). Pegged at 90C running P95 small FFTs. It can do all core 4.7-.4.9 for awhile before quickly settling back around 4.6 for most tasks. 

The retail box I got looks different and is in excellent condition (I'm in Malaysia). No issues with cable sleeves on the fans or anything. Enough thermal paste for perhaps 3 or 4 installations max.

 

Edit: Forgot to mention, the fans WHINE at around 1200-1400RPM and is driving me nuts. Its less annoying at max rpm (around 1550) than at the 70% speed. Anything below 1200 is inaudible for me (room noise > system noise)
Edit: Pegged at 90C, not 80C as I posted before. Slip up~

 

TLDR: Runs fine, not much headroom to OC with this cooler on 5900X. 

 

You'd suprised to find that its extremely difficult to cool an oc'd 5900x on air even with the noctua nhd15. 

Further more you live near the equator so ambient temps do not help. 5900x are mostly faulty 5950x so power draw is also still pretty high. 

 

For air cooling. As long as the cooler is able to keep temps down on stock boosts I would consider that a success. Any more than that, consider a 360mm aio. 

 

The fans do suffer from some unfortunate hum like the arctic p12s but thankfully the heatsink is not the bottleneck.

[Nets]

On 10/25/2021 at 12:49 PM, Kinda Bottlenecked said:

 

You'd suprised to find that its extremely difficult to cool an oc'd 5900x on air even with the noctua nhd15. 

Further more you live near the equator so ambient temps do not help. 5900x are mostly faulty 5950x so power draw is also still pretty high. 

 

For air cooling. As long as the cooler is able to keep temps down on stock boosts I would consider that a success. Any more than that, consider a 360mm aio. 

 

The fans do suffer from some unfortunate hum like the arctic p12s but thankfully the heatsink is not the bottleneck.

I ordered a artic freezer 360mm this week but still because i want get away of white, i have my 5900x running with a 240mm aio Corsair h100i platinum white and can handle fine... 

 

Default Settings i got 35-40 idle and around 70 load... 

On 4.7 OC get 75max and idle around 35-40 to...

 

This very same cooler handled a 5800x before with a bit lower temps, but when i first mount it on 5800x with pré aplyed paste went to 80's after a clean repaste with noctua's got fine.. sometimes a good thermal paste can make some difference 

[tony95]

I run the PA120 on my 5800X with two Thermaltake TF120s and temps are almost equivalent to my 240mm custom water loop. The NF-A12 can probably get another degree out of the heatsink.  I do not recommend the PA120 with stock fans, it is cheap enough replacing fans shouldn't be a problem.  If you really want to stick to a low budget Arctic Bionix or even the Arctic P12 PWM will get better performance and a lot better noise levels.

[Filingo]

3 hours ago, tony95 said:

I run the PA120 on my 5800X with two Thermaltake TF120s and temps are almost equivalent to my 240mm custom water loop. The NF-A12 can probably get another degree out of the heatsink.  I do not recommend the PA120 with stock fans, it is cheap enough replacing fans shouldn't be a problem.  If you really want to stick to a low budget Arctic Bionix or even the Arctic P12 PWM will get better performance and a lot better noise levels.

Haha I just made a post about replacement fans for my PA120, their sound is annoying, though they cool well.

But I wonder if someone don't have readily available fans around if it's still worth buying this cooler for $40 and like spend extra $30-40 for better fans..?

 

At this point it might be better to just buy something like Dark Pro 4 on a sale.. or a Noctua?