Thermalright Peerless Assassin 120 SE Black CPU Air Cooler, 6 Heat Pipes Heatsink Dual Towers Cooler, with Dual PWM Fans

Long story so please bear, but honest review! Pros: Easy to install, budget friendly, performance gains, lower temps, aesthetics, value for money. Cons: none I have a high end build consisting of 7700X, X670 and 6900XT, and I bought MSI Mag280R last year, and I won’t say anything bad to the company or my previous cooler, but I had idle temps of 50-60 jerks and upon running Cinebench, my cpu used to hit 5.1GHz choking itself at 95C. (18K score) It was constantly running at 80-90 playing CS GO, Fifa, Jedi Survivor, Avengers almost everygame. Checked multiple videos of PBO and used to crash at every point with -30 -25 and -20. So I lowered the thermal limit and GHz (basically loss of performance but only to have it running smoothly, thought AM5 was shit) (my friends were saying my cooler is shit, but whatever) However, my friend got 7900X and bought this cooler, and he ran cinebench, and his wasn’t even hitting 85C with 5.8GHz. So, I got frustrated that even spending almost $600, I can’t even get the performance I desired so what was the point of buying AM5. Long story short: I got this cooler, and when I installed it. Idle temps were not going above 40C. I ran cinebench on stock settings, it hit 5.3GHZ with 90C. (Didn’t even hit 5.15 previously) Upon making the PBO -30, it hit 5.34 GHz with temps being at 87-88C at the max. No crash, performance drops or anything whatsoever. Tested few games, didn’t cross 50C at any point. (I have attached snapshots of hardware info as-well) All in all, the MSI cooler costed me more than a $100 whereas this beast costed me less than 50%, giving me extra performance. I truly recommend this cooler.

Faraz Shahzad · 2023-07-18 · via amazon

Didn't take measurements before buying, but with some creativity I was able to rig it up to fit. Had to move the fans around a bit. Works great considering my dumb self leaves my computer on 24/7. Been a year and a half and havent had any cooling issues. Easy to install - even for an idiot like me.

Tim · 2026-01-21 · via amazon

The value of this cooler is absolutely incredible. I paired it with an Intel i5-13600k and even running Burn test for hours and hours at max the hottest the CPU gets is 76 C, and that's just on two cores, the rest are less than 75 C, with the E cores being less that 60 C. The boost is going to max most of that time too, so there is no throttling. The room I was testing is was about 67 F, maybe slightly cooler, and all the fan profiles were set to normal and rarely maxing out, so this cooler can definitely handle more. Compared to other coolers it performs at very high levels, though not the highest admittedly. For an air cooler it's up there with the best. Given the price of these, and that you can get RGB fans too (if you want that I turned mine off) I only see the value in going with something more expensive if you plan to go liquid cooled, and I would only do that if you plan to do overclocking on an i7 or higher. This is one of the best value PC parts available, and for any but the most demanding this will be a cooler that performs better than you need it to. Install is very simple, the build quality is amazing, and the performance is beyond belief. If you need a CPU cooler on a budget you can't do better, and if you just don't like wasting money, then there is no reason not to go with this over the more expensive options.

Rory Shauan · 2023-12-09 · via amazon

Works excellent. Keeps the system nice and cool. I'd buy another one if I needed it.

Danny Grimes · 2026-05-04 · via amazon

I replaced the crummy stock fan which came with my computer with the PA 120. If I could give this thing 6 stars, I would. Only downside I could mention is installation instructions and videos are so-so. With the stock fan, my PC would hit warning temperatures under heavy load. It also sounded like a jet engine taking off as it struggled to cool my i7 12700. The PA 120 is quieter and keeps things super cool. Idle temps are ambient for the room rather than 30-40 C. Max load temps are 50s-60s rather than 80s and 90s. And you can barely hear it. I thought maybe I needed to go AIO to cool the system. I am very happy I decided to go with the PA 120 SE RGB. The RGB effects are a nice touch. Easy to setup and control with GCC. Thermalright has the bang for buck champion for sure!

Purple Grimmus · 2023-03-09 · via amazon

Best Buy

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MSI

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Newegg

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Newegg (Open Box)

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VALUE SCORE

Price

$20