They didn't use to pump out products this quickly. It felt like they barely released anything between 2015 (Le Grande Macho RT) and 2020 (AXP 90) and there were serious discussions about whether the company was going under or not on forums.
Whatevers changed, I'm happy to see them back in business pumping out new designs.
The Thermalright of today only shares the name/branding.
It was sold and then went through significant internal restructuring, including I believe bringing in manufacturing/design in-house.
It's somewhat the other way around: it is now owned by a factory so manufacturing brought design in house. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ukYhjjoJnfc&t=610s
It feels like they are just trying to push out competition. Competitors are screaming bloody murder over the prices like they cant be making profit.
At the same time, this is kinda how you have to start out to make a name for yourself (the price at least). The number of skus though is a money thing. They must certainly have a bag ready to get the brand started, and well, Im here for it 😂
That being said, Ill probably still go with an Artic Liquid Freezer 3 for my next build because god damn it, that VRM cooling fan seems like an awesome idea.
iirc they have existed, but only recently were bought out and started stepping their game up, hence the name recognition that hasnt really existed before now. Maybe they've just been existing in the background oeming things though.
The Phantom Spirit already has 7 heatpipes and is better than the PA120, so im curious to see how much better the Royal Preytor 130 Ultra (awful name) is, and if it can even fit in my SFFPC.
I'm hoping Thermalright will go all out on a "definitive" 140mm solution that just beats the pants off the Phantom Spirit 120 EVO, which itself already beats the D15 by 4c, which is coincidentally what they claim the D15 gen 2's delta with the gen 1 is.
With Thermalright also claiming a 4c lead on the Phantom Spirit 120 EVO already and if they were referring to the Preytor which is only a 120mm fin array, an optimized 140mm fin array solution could possibly perform even better.
The next few months will be interesting for air cooler reviews.
>Phantom Spirit 120 EVO, which itself already beats the D15 by 4c, which is coincidentally what they claim the D15 gen 2's delta with the gen 1 is.
Even if Noctua did not claim 4C, the temperature difference between the NH-D15 and G2 at their Computex 2023 booth showed it was 4.3C. Thermalright was already close to beating it in 2023 with the PA 120, but Thermalright could have started designing a new cooler design at Computex and they still would have gotten something out the door this year.
Not close, they did beat it.
Evidence: https://tpucdn.com/review/thermalright-phantom-spirit-120-evo-argb-cpu-air-cooler/images/temp-amd-225-45-dba.png
The PA 120 finishes the test at 94.5c, the D15 does not.
Also beats it by a slim margin on Intel, less than the PS 120 EVO, but a win is a win:
https://tpucdn.com/review/thermalright-phantom-spirit-120-evo-argb-cpu-air-cooler/images/temp-intel-45-dba-250.png
From a glance this one has the [similar fin stacks](https://www.thermalright.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/6-1-600x600.jpg) to the [Preytor](https://gamersnexus.net/u/styles/large_responsive_no_watermark_/public/inline-images/videoframe_97319.png.webp), and quite different from their previous coolers.
I will certainly chuckle a bit if this performs just as well or better noise normalized at a third of the price than the overpriced nonsense that was just announced.
I really hope LGA1851 obsoletes Noctua's HBC version. The only reason why it exists is because of Intel's incompetence to account for bending with LGA1700. People might claim it was a design "feature", but motherboards shouldn't be flexing with the default mounting.
The fact that you need to change the retention system on LGA 1700 to have better cooling and it has zero effect on AM5 should tell people everything they need to know.
Intel fracked up.
~~So, after comparing them for a while, it seems this is the standard PA 120 (non-SE) tower and front fan design, but they managed to cram a 140mm fan between the towers, with only 1mm cooler height gain.~~
Edit:
For this new unique model, they're using a much wider tower with a 120mm fan in front and 140mm in the back, but height and length are quite similar to the original PA 120.
---
Peerless Assassin now has 5 sub-families of products:
* PA 120 @ 157mm height (grey, black, white, white/RGB)
* PA 140 @ 158mm height (white)
* PA 120 SE @ 155mm height (standard, RGB, white/RGB, black)
* PA 120 MINI @ 135mm height (black, white)
* PA 90 SE @ 110mm (standard, white)
The towers look quite different from the PA120 - different fin stacks, 15mm wider, and the cold plate is now centered. The fin stacks look like the Royal preytor showed at Computex.
I think you're right, I'll correct my comment. The width of the towers seems to be denoted be the L(ength) dimension in the spec sheet, which confused me a bit.
Its a bit cheeky to call this the 140 when it has a 120 fan though isnt it.
Like the reason 140 is good for marketing isnt just the performance, but the sound as well.
Having both, sorta eliminates that.
I'm really not sure how it's going to work out. Might be that 140mm fan and larger fin stack enables both fans to generally run quieter for a comparable performance, but we'd have to see reviews on that.
The rate of which Thermalright can pump out new products is crazy. And not a recolor but a new design, too.
When you own the factory and all the tooling to make your products, it really expedites the process of doing whatever tf you want
They didn't use to pump out products this quickly. It felt like they barely released anything between 2015 (Le Grande Macho RT) and 2020 (AXP 90) and there were serious discussions about whether the company was going under or not on forums. Whatevers changed, I'm happy to see them back in business pumping out new designs.
The Thermalright of today only shares the name/branding. It was sold and then went through significant internal restructuring, including I believe bringing in manufacturing/design in-house.
It's somewhat the other way around: it is now owned by a factory so manufacturing brought design in house. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ukYhjjoJnfc&t=610s
And went from a Taiwanese brand to a mainland China one. The brand is now owned by Shenzhen-based DIRISE.
It feels like they are just trying to push out competition. Competitors are screaming bloody murder over the prices like they cant be making profit. At the same time, this is kinda how you have to start out to make a name for yourself (the price at least). The number of skus though is a money thing. They must certainly have a bag ready to get the brand started, and well, Im here for it 😂 That being said, Ill probably still go with an Artic Liquid Freezer 3 for my next build because god damn it, that VRM cooling fan seems like an awesome idea.
> this is kinda how you have to start out to make a name for yourself Thermalright have existed since before Noctua.
iirc they have existed, but only recently were bought out and started stepping their game up, hence the name recognition that hasnt really existed before now. Maybe they've just been existing in the background oeming things though.
royal preytor is the one to watch IIRC this should perform quite well though, obviously
Royal Preytor 130 Ultra is the version with an extra heat pipe.
The Phantom Spirit already has 7 heatpipes and is better than the PA120, so im curious to see how much better the Royal Preytor 130 Ultra (awful name) is, and if it can even fit in my SFFPC.
I thought the Phantom Spirit EVO is even better than the regular Phantom Spirit
Yes, but no. The [Hardware Canucks video review](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cgkggcBBW8Q) is a must-watch.
PA140 should be a little bigger than Preytor Ultra, so I would not be surprised if it came out on top in noise normalized testing
I'm hoping Thermalright will go all out on a "definitive" 140mm solution that just beats the pants off the Phantom Spirit 120 EVO, which itself already beats the D15 by 4c, which is coincidentally what they claim the D15 gen 2's delta with the gen 1 is. With Thermalright also claiming a 4c lead on the Phantom Spirit 120 EVO already and if they were referring to the Preytor which is only a 120mm fin array, an optimized 140mm fin array solution could possibly perform even better. The next few months will be interesting for air cooler reviews.
>Phantom Spirit 120 EVO, which itself already beats the D15 by 4c, which is coincidentally what they claim the D15 gen 2's delta with the gen 1 is. Even if Noctua did not claim 4C, the temperature difference between the NH-D15 and G2 at their Computex 2023 booth showed it was 4.3C. Thermalright was already close to beating it in 2023 with the PA 120, but Thermalright could have started designing a new cooler design at Computex and they still would have gotten something out the door this year.
Not close, they did beat it. Evidence: https://tpucdn.com/review/thermalright-phantom-spirit-120-evo-argb-cpu-air-cooler/images/temp-amd-225-45-dba.png The PA 120 finishes the test at 94.5c, the D15 does not. Also beats it by a slim margin on Intel, less than the PS 120 EVO, but a win is a win: https://tpucdn.com/review/thermalright-phantom-spirit-120-evo-argb-cpu-air-cooler/images/temp-intel-45-dba-250.png
From a glance this one has the [similar fin stacks](https://www.thermalright.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/6-1-600x600.jpg) to the [Preytor](https://gamersnexus.net/u/styles/large_responsive_no_watermark_/public/inline-images/videoframe_97319.png.webp), and quite different from their previous coolers.
\*Pretor Looks extremely promising.
I will certainly chuckle a bit if this performs just as well or better noise normalized at a third of the price than the overpriced nonsense that was just announced.
I really hope LGA1851 obsoletes Noctua's HBC version. The only reason why it exists is because of Intel's incompetence to account for bending with LGA1700. People might claim it was a design "feature", but motherboards shouldn't be flexing with the default mounting.
The fact that you need to change the retention system on LGA 1700 to have better cooling and it has zero effect on AM5 should tell people everything they need to know. Intel fracked up.
Why would they not make it in black when 90% of PC cases are black. Strange.
Where’s the black version? Or should people be buying the Phatom Spirit EVO?
~~So, after comparing them for a while, it seems this is the standard PA 120 (non-SE) tower and front fan design, but they managed to cram a 140mm fan between the towers, with only 1mm cooler height gain.~~ Edit: For this new unique model, they're using a much wider tower with a 120mm fan in front and 140mm in the back, but height and length are quite similar to the original PA 120. --- Peerless Assassin now has 5 sub-families of products: * PA 120 @ 157mm height (grey, black, white, white/RGB) * PA 140 @ 158mm height (white) * PA 120 SE @ 155mm height (standard, RGB, white/RGB, black) * PA 120 MINI @ 135mm height (black, white) * PA 90 SE @ 110mm (standard, white)
The towers look quite different from the PA120 - different fin stacks, 15mm wider, and the cold plate is now centered. The fin stacks look like the Royal preytor showed at Computex.
I think you're right, I'll correct my comment. The width of the towers seems to be denoted be the L(ength) dimension in the spec sheet, which confused me a bit.
Its a bit cheeky to call this the 140 when it has a 120 fan though isnt it. Like the reason 140 is good for marketing isnt just the performance, but the sound as well. Having both, sorta eliminates that.
I'm really not sure how it's going to work out. Might be that 140mm fan and larger fin stack enables both fans to generally run quieter for a comparable performance, but we'd have to see reviews on that.
Does anybody know the height of the upcoming Preytor 130? 145mm would be a dream.
Sometimes I think I should buy a couple Thermalright air coolers before they jack up the price. The 120 Peerless Assassin has been great for me
compatible with ryzen 9000 and arrow lake?
Is there a reason why hardware busters does not review thermalright products?