Verdict
With a worth underneath $40, but packing six heatpipes, two followers, and RGB lighting, the Thermalright Peerless Murderer is a incredible price range CPU cooler selection, whether or not you are rocking an AMD or Intel CPU.
- Extremely low worth
- Plenty of cooling energy
- Moderately quiet in regular use
- Cannot fairly match cooling of dearer coolers
- Not the very quietest cooler
- Cumbersome in comparison with AIO coolers
The Thermalright Peerless Murderer 120 SE ARGB may need a relatively overblown and incomprehensible title, however do not let that put you off. This sub-$40 CPU cooler is {powerful} sufficient to chill high-end CPUs whereas remaining fairly quiet, and providing you with an RGB lightshow as well.
It is a mixture that drives this Thermalright design straight onto our finest CPU cooler information, as the highest choice for most individuals. It isn’t going to be for everybody, although, so learn on to seek out out what it will probably and might’t do.
Why you possibly can belief our recommendation ✔ At PCGamesN, our specialists spend hours testing {hardware} and reviewing video games and VPNs. We share trustworthy, unbiased opinions that will help you purchase the perfect. Discover out how we check.
Specs
Design and dimensions
The Thermalright Peerless Murderer 120 SE ARGB has a design that is about as commonplace because it will get for this sort of cooler. It makes use of two 120mm followers mounted through spring clips to 2 stacks of heatsinks, every of which receives warmth from six heatpipes that run all the way down to the CPU mounting plate on the backside.
Whereas easy sufficient, this fashion of cooler does inherently take up numerous house. At 155mm tall, it ought to nonetheless slot in most traditional PC circumstances fairly simply – in contrast to the even taller Noctua NH-D15, as an example – however it would take up many of the house above the CPU socket. Likewise, its footprint of 110 x 125mm means it stretches pretty far and large into the confines of your case.
Specifically, the entrance fan will sit over the RAM modules in most setups, so in case your reminiscence has tall heatsinks, you may both should swap it for shorter RAM or mount the fan larger up on the heatsink. You’ll be able to try our information to the finest gaming RAM to seek out our favourite choices for low-profile reminiscence.
Avoiding this general bulk is among the foremost advantages of AIO CPU coolers and water cooling, as these setups hold the realm above your CPU comparatively clear. This not solely makes for a a lot tidier-looking system, but additionally makes a number of upgrades and different PC tinkering duties simpler.
Nonetheless, the Thermalright Peerless Murderer 120 SE ARGB is definitely no worse than another dual-fan air cooler of this fashion.
As for styling, this is not what you’d name a flowery or high-end cooler, however it has just a few touches that barely elevate its look. The primary one is that the highest plates of every heatsink stack are coloured black, which matches the followers and makes for a barely extra cohesive look than you’d get with plain aluminum plates, when seen from the highest/via a case glass panel. The heatpipes and copper base have additionally been nickel-plated, giving a extra uniform silvery look to the remainder of the cooler.
Then, after all, there’s the RGB lighting. The 4 lights are mounted within the central hub of every fan, with the lighting dispersing fairly successfully all through the translucent fan fins, although it is undoubtedly most concentrated within the heart of every fan.
To energy and management the lighting, there is a second cable for every fan together with the principle fan management cable, making for a barely cumbersome four-cable setup. Nevertheless, you possibly can at the very least mix the 2 fan cables into one connector through an included dongle, leaving solely the lighting cables needing to discover a separate dwelling every.
The lighting will be managed through commonplace ARGB headers in your motherboard, which, relying in your board, might in flip imply you possibly can management the lighting through software program equivalent to Corsair iCUE, to be able to sync your fan lighting with the remainder of your system.
General construct high quality is respectable, with no apparent sharp, unfinished elements, whereas touches such because the nickel plating elevate this cooler over the very most cost-effective choices. Its base plate is not polished to a shine however it’s easy and flat.
Set up
The Thermalright Peerless Murderer 120 SE ARGB is designed to work with each AMD and Intel CPUs and is appropriate with AM4 and AM5 sockets in addition to Intel LGA115X, LGA1200, LGA1700, and LGA1851 sockets. Successfully, which means it would work with any commonplace desktop CPU from the previous few years, with the principle exception being assist for both AMD or Intel’s high-end desktop PC (HEDT) CPUs, equivalent to AMD’s Threadripper and Intel’s LGA 2011 and 2066 chips.
In any other case, whichever socket you are utilizing, set up of the Peerless Murderer 120 SE ARGB is easy, although as ever with these tall, dual-fan coolers, it may be a bit fiddly and you will want an extended skinny screwdriver, equivalent to this one.
The method is less complicated for each AMD sockets than for Intel ones, because the cooler simply makes use of the usual AMD backplate, so that you need not entry the again of your motherboard.
You simply take away the usual AMD cooler plastic brackets from the entrance, then “match” the pink plastic standoffs over the screw holes earlier than inserting the the AM4 steel brackets over these and screwing them down. I say “match” as that is the principle fiddly a part of this course of, because the plastic standoffs solely sit loosely, so that they’re simple to dislodge – it isn’t a cooler you may wish to try to mount together with your PC sat vertically or in another orientation apart from laid fully flat.
The second considerably tough bit is then screwing the cooler to the bottom steel plates. The cooler has built-in fittings, however it takes a little bit of drive to get them to begin gripping onto the brackets, and once more, you want an extended screwdriver to suit between the 2 heatsink stacks. Nonetheless, it is nonetheless a comparatively simple course of.
As soon as the cooler is absolutely screwed down into place, the followers simply clip onto the heatsink. There is a knack to hooking these spring clips onto the followers in the precise orientation and getting them to clip onto the heatsink, however as soon as you’ve got realized it to put in one cooler, they mainly all work the identical approach.
As for Intel sockets, these require the removing of any current backplate on the motherboard and becoming one of many equipped plates. The latter simply slot into place, with the screw holes poking via the holes within the board, prepared so that you can match the remainder of the {hardware} in the identical method because the AMD sockets.
Cooling efficiency
To check the Peerless Murderer 120 SE ARGB’s cooling efficiency, I put in it atop an AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D mounted in an Asus ROG Crosshair X670E Hero motherboard, utilizing the board’s fan and RGB headers. I then ran a number of assessments utilizing Cinebench’s multi-threaded ten-minute stress check to load all cores, testing for CPU temperature and noise degree. I additionally examined the CPU temperature and noise degree of the cooler utilizing completely different motherboard fan profiles, to see how the fan’s noise ramps up at numerous load ranges underneath 100%.
Beginning with the CPU absolutely loaded and the followers at 100%, this cooler managed to maintain the eight cores of this 120W TDP CPU at 79°C, exhibiting that it will probably cope fairly comfortably with the warmth output of this chip.
By way of utilizing much more {powerful} CPUs, the Peerless Murderer 120 SE ARGB is rated to deal with as much as 265W of warmth output, which places the likes of the Intel Core i9-14900K outdoors the scope of this cooler however technically means it ought to address an AMD Ryzen 9 9750X, although it will be at its restrict with such a strong CPU. We would recommend this cooler is as an alternative finest used to chill CPUs with as much as 12 cores.
Noise degree
At full pace in our 100% CPU load check, this cooler hit 46dB of noise, measured from a distance of 20cm from the highest of the cooler in an open case. That is removed from a horrible quantity of noise, however it’s additionally removed from the quietest cooler round. This cooler additionally stayed at this noise degree throughout gaming periods.
By way of how this pertains to a traditional setup, this resulted in a noise degree of 35dB at ear degree when sat at a desk with the cooler in a closed case sat underneath a desk. This was with an ambient noise degree of 32dB, so it is noticeable however not terrible. In the meantime, as you’d anticipate, at idle the cooler is successfully silent from this distance.
On the whole use, the default motherboard fan profile has the cooler hitting 100% pace at round 70°C, and at 50% pace at 50°C, which leads to the cooler often ramping as much as fairly noticeable and barely irritating noise ranges simply from small spikes in CPU utilization. Nevertheless, switching to the motherboard’s silent profile units the 100% pace at round 75°C and 50% pace at round 55°C, which significantly reduces the noise, and you’ll simply dial in a handbook profile that reduces the severity of those noise spikes even additional.
Finally, this is not absolutely the quietest cooler round proper out of the field, however with the precise fan profiles, it may be tuned to be largely undisruptive whereas nonetheless coping effectively with CPU warmth output.
Value
The Peerless Murderer 120 SE ARGB worth is simply $39.99, so it isn’t absolutely the most cost-effective cooler obtainable, however it’s very fairly priced for what it provides. Its measurement and cooling capability, together with the inclusion of RGB, nickel plating, and a usually sensible (if unflashy) design, simply justify its worth.
Alternate options
Noctua NH-D15
When you actually wish to step as much as a very {powerful} air cooler that can address probably the most {powerful} desktop CPUs whereas remaining impressively quiet, the Noctua NH-D15 is it. Nevertheless, it prices 3 times as a lot because the Peerless Murderer 120 SE ARGB and is significantly bigger too. Try our Noctua NH-D15 overview for extra info.
Cooler Grasp Hyper 212 Halo White
In case your CPU has six cores or fewer, you possibly can possible get away with a fair cheaper and smaller cooler than the Peerless Murderer 120 SE ARGB. The Cooler Grasp Hyper 212 Halo White is our choose of the perfect single-fan 120mm air coolers, because it’s low cost, seems nice, and performs effectively. Try our Cooler Grasp Hyper 212 Halo White overview for extra info.
Verdict
The Thermalright Peerless Murderer 120 SE ARGB is not the final phrase in ultra-powerful, ultra-quiet, or ultra-compact CPU coolers. Nevertheless, in case you’re after a cooler that may cope simply with the types of wise CPU choices we suggest for many avid gamers, it is a fantastic selection. Rocking an AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D or Intel Core i5 14600K? This cooler will tame it with ease.
Crucially, it does this whereas being extremely low cost but providing stable construct high quality, fairly quiet operation, and together with RGB lighting. Spend extra and you will get better-built and quieter coolers, whereas even cheaper coolers will be had that lower just a few extra corners. Nevertheless, for the perfect stability, the Peerless Murderer 120 SE ARGB is difficult to beat and turns into our new go-to choice because the finest CPU cooler for many avid gamers.
To seek out out which CPUs we suggest for many PC avid gamers, learn our listing of the finest gaming CPUs, which incorporates choices for a variety of budgets all examined to see how they really carry out within the newest video games.
