Tuesday, May 2nd 2023

Thermalright Intros Assassin Spirit 120 V2 CPU Cooler

Thermalright today introduced the Assassin Spirit 120 V2, a slim, tower-type CPU air cooler. Measuring 120 mm x 48 mm x 154 mm (WxDxH), and weighing in at 500 g, this cooler is designed for thermal loads of up to 235 W, which means it should run even high-end processors at their stock settings, at lower noise levels from the single fan. Its design involves a copper base, from which four 6 mm-thick copper heatpipes make direct contact with the processor, conveying heat through the aluminium fin-stack, which is capped off by a die-cast metal top-plate.

The TC-C12C V2 120 mm fan included with the Thermalright Assassin Spirit 120 V2, features a fluid-dynamic bearing, takes in 4-pin PWM input, turns at speeds of up to 1,500 RPM, pushing up to 66.17 CFM of airflow, at a maximum static-pressure of 1.53 mm H₂O, and noise output of 25.6 dBA. A 2 g syringe of 9.5 W/mK Thermalright TF4 thermal paste comes included with the cooler. Among the CPU socket types supported are LGA1700, AM5, AM4, LGA1200, and LGA115x. The company didn't reveal pricing.
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11 Comments on Thermalright Intros Assassin Spirit 120 V2 CPU Cooler

#1
Leavenfish
Sounds great!
Why would anyone opt for liquid in their case which has to be maintained...and the much higher pricing when something like this is available??
Posted on Reply
#2
bonehead123
Yee haw ma, lookie here......

yet ANUTHA Hyper 212 wannabe/clonerzoner.. hehehe :)
LeavenfishSounds great!
Why would anyone opt for liquid in their case which has to be maintained...and the much higher pricing when something like this is available??
If you need cooling powah above what this one is rated for, like for overclocked CPU's, small cases with limited airflow potential, things like that .....

And contrary to what the PR says, most of the new-ish CPU's are run hotter (even at stock speeds) than what this little unit can cool sufficiently, although it might be ok for the older ones :)
Posted on Reply
#3
ymdhis
This looks like a Hyper 212 with a NF-P12 Redux fan.
Posted on Reply
#5
freeagent
Space Lynx@freeagent

*eats popcorn and smiles*
Pretty low end, this guy despises milled pipes.

I only buy their high end stuff.. go look at their product page, they have many coolers.
Posted on Reply
#6
Space Lynx
Astronaut
freeagentPretty low end, this guy despises milled pipes.

I only buy their high end stuff.. go look at their product page, they have many coolers.
i just having fun mate haha

i still want a scythe fuma 2 rev b... sadly they are no in stock, for 8 months now... i guess that company discontinued it sadly.
Posted on Reply
#7
Bones
freeagentPretty low end, this guy despises milled pipes.

I only buy their high end stuff.. go look at their product page, they have many coolers.
I agree:
Anything with the pipes making direct contact with the CPU surface is low end to me.
It's really a cost-cutting design by manufacturers to make them cheaper and yes.... You get cheaper results with it too even though you've still paid a premium for it in some cases.

I do have a few with the pipes doing that but they don't cool as well as the ones I've got that has an actual base to them, those handling heat better overall.
More mass where it has to absorb heat means it can soak up and move more heat along too.

@Space Lynx I guess you're out of luck because I looked and haven't seen any in stock anywhere.
I know I'm lucky because my Scythe cooler is just a tad bigger than that and has an actual base to it.
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#8
dirtyferret
BonesAnything with the pipes making direct contact with the CPU surface is low end to me.
It's really a cost-cutting design by manufacturers to make them cheaper and yes.... You get cheaper results with it too even though you've still paid a premium for it in some cases.
Are you saying Cooler Masters's Continuous Direct Contact technology is simply a cost cutting move and not the generational cooling improvement they claim it to be (even if CM own high end cooler's don't use it)?

Posted on Reply
#9
sLowEnd
BonesI agree:
Anything with the pipes making direct contact with the CPU surface is low end to me.
It's really a cost-cutting design by manufacturers to make them cheaper and yes.... You get cheaper results with it too even though you've still paid a premium for it in some cases.
It is a cost-cutting method, but from what I've seen, it does work well to improve the performance of cheap coolers. Direct touch heatpipes got popular around the time when Xigmatek came out with their HDT-S1283. That was a fantastic cooler for the price, and was almost as good as premium coolers like the TRUE and Megahalems.

The big downside to direct touch heatpipe coolers is they're pretty sensitive to manufacturing variance, and bad samples will perform noticeably worse than good samples. You can see the result pretty clearly in LTT's recent Amazon cooler test.


I personally don't have an aversion to direct touch coolers on CPUs. On GPUs though, I avoid them completely. In my experience, direct touch heatpipe coolers are prone to bad hotspot temperatures if used on something that doesn't have an IHS.
Posted on Reply
#10
Bones
dirtyferret1: Are you saying Cooler Masters's Continuous Direct Contact technology is simply a cost cutting move

2: and not the generational cooling improvement they claim it to be (even if CM own high end cooler's don't use it)?

1:
Yes I am.
I have samples of both with these different base types to know it.... And don't forget what I do as a hobby.
The ones with a base with pipes going into it can absorb and move more heat under load when it comes down to it.
More material to soak up the heat and pass it along means better cooling under load - Under load being the operative term here.

2:
When you say "Generational cooling improvement" that can vary widely in how it applies. Is it for coolers that have direct cooling pipe contact to the CPU surface or just for piped coolers in general, including older designs that have a base?

All that matters.

I can also tell you sometimes direct contact coolers can have a manufacturing defect or maybe damage that causes a pipe to not be level with rest, skewing contact with the other pipes to the CPU lid's surface.
That's because these pipes collectively are not a single, solid surface if they are not bonded level to each other somehow. They can move independently from the other pipes, either to stick out or depressed, not make good if any real contact with the chip's lid.
If you happen to drop the cooler, bump it or some other thing happens to cause this, unless you can get it's machined mating surface back level with the others the cooler will never cool right again.

I had one with that problem out of the box and it had the chip running way warmer than it should have, took some doing to figure it out but when I did I promptly retired that one from service.
Posted on Reply
#11
dirtyferret
Bones1:
Yes I am.
I have samples of both with these different base types to know it.... And don't forget what I do as a hobby.
The ones with a base with pipes going into it can absorb and move more heat under load when it comes down to it.
More material to soak up the heat and pass it along means better cooling under load - Under load being the operative term here.
I was being sarcastic, I know it was a total manufacturing cost cutting decision they tried to pass off as a performance improvement.
Posted on Reply
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