Thermalright Peerless Assassin 120 Mini Black CPU Cooler, 6 Heat Pipes AGHP Technology, with 120mm PWM Fan

Great for budget, cheap, and value for money builds. Noise may vary. I've become a fan of this cooler despite owning two of the Peerless Assassins and other variations. 1st off is the compact nature, and have shoved this into a Zalman Cubix case, literally have 2mm of clearance but allowing the system to run on a Ryzen 5600, some people have run it on higher end hardware like Rzyen 9800s and even the x3d processors. I'm replacing my trusty DeepCool AK400 for a 5800x I'm putting on my primary Bazzite gaming pc. The key of this cooler is the recessed nature of the fan, allowing it snugly fit into places others can't and it offers good cooling. It is best paired up with 1-2 intake fans at the front and an exhaust fan from the rear, ensuring a good flow of air and keeps the CPU happy. For most standard CPUs, I usually see it going from 45-60 C and will go to 80s and even 90s depending how the user pushes the system. I wish Noctua would release a fan specifically for this cooler, the best combo is now noctua fans + thermalright coolers for a superior air cooler. Sure the Noctua fans are more expensive, but combined with the thermalrights sturdy and robust features, it can cool the most aggressive CPUs.

Bob White · 2025-07-15 · via amazon

Perfect little cooler. I think Thermalright was brilliant for entering this weird little niche of SFF coolers. This thing punches way above its weight class. I'm using it on a standard I7-12700 and have 0 complaints. It fits well, runs quiet, and keeps my CPU cool even in the tiny little case I'm using. Great little cooler.

jberna · 2026-03-23 · via amazon

Great cooler for the price and temps are in the 60c under load and fitment was perfect

Elizabeth Blythe · 2026-02-17 · via amazon

My 5 year old system with i9-9900K and RTX 3080 is still working great. Been playing Borderlands 4 with FSR enabled, this uses the CPU to generate frames and it has made the game buttery smooth at 1440P. After a few months and over 300 hours, my previous cooler started to make some weird noises and ultimately failed. I use a Silverstone Technology Grandia 11 Compact ATX Home Theater PC (HTPC) case, its very low and makes it hard to find a cooler capable of cooling this know to be hot CPU. Installation was a little challenging, the thermal paste that came with it, so thick and dry, I couldn't use it, luckily I had lots of it from all my pc building experiments. It took some effort to allign it and get it screwed down. The cooler blows to the side, one one side is my RTX 3080 which runs very hot and on the other side the power supply. I decided to blow the hot air to the power supply side, wish it could have been rotated to blow to the back. I'm back playing Borderlands 4 and the case gets very hot, but so far I don't experience thermal throttling and I am ready for the next DLC ! Was one of the very few coolers that fits inside the 146mm height limit of the case.

dbguru · 2026-01-19 · via amazon

Very quite cooler and is performing well paired with a 9600x in a SFF case.

Amazon Customer · 2026-02-27 · via amazon

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Price

$20