2024 CPU Cooler Test Bonanza – Five Air Coolers Compared

If you have looked at the accompanying charts, you know that is a lot of data, and I really wish I could have come up with a better way to present it. Spreadsheets are boring and bland, but for showing a lot of data, they function well.
When looking at the fan speed numbers, it is also important to go back to the fact that due to the Dark Rock Pro 5’s mismatched fan design, and the proprietary connector linking them, the reported fan speed is only for the middle, 135mm fan. The front, 120mm fan is spinning much faster in each instance.
At 42 dB, the fan speeds between the coolers are reasonably close, until the above factor is considered, then you realize that the front fan on the Dark Rock Pro 5 would be spinning somewhere around 1300 rpm, which is a much higher speed than the fan speeds of the competitors.
It is probably for this reason that, at this low noise level, the Dark Rock Pro 5 was the cooler to beat at every load level. At 250 watts the Dark Rock Pro 5’s average temperature was a full 2 degrees lower than its closest rival.
Almost without fail, that closest Rival was the Phantom Spirit 120 EVO, with the Peerless Assassin 120 ARGB right on its heels. All three of these full sized coolers were able to manage the 250 watt load, but failed at various intervals at 275 watts.
In the battle of the somewhat lower profile coolers, at 42 dB the two fan design of the Dark Rock TF2 easily outmatched the single 120mm fan on the Peerless Assassin Mini. One thing I did notice during these tests is that due to the top flow design of the TF2, it took much longer between tests to normalize the temperatures as the hot air just built up around the motherboard. This would only be a problem on an open test bench, or in a case with no exhaust fan positioned nearby, but I still thought it worth mentioning.
At max fan speeds, things start to get a little more interesting. The overall advantage has now shifted to the Thermalright Phantom Spirit 120 EVO, although the Dark Rock Pro 5 is almost equal, and the Peerless Assassin 120 is still very close behind.
These results were a good example of why I elected to measure both peak and average temperatures. The peak temperatures between the Phantom Spirit EVO and the Dark Rock Pro 5 were never more than 1 degree C different, and sometimes identical, however the average temperatures on the Phantom Spirit were always lower by up to 2 degrees.
One thing to consider here is that at this max fan speed, the Dark Rock Pro 5 was substantially quieter than either of the Thermalright dual tower models. Decibels are a logarithmic unit, and 3 dB is a doubling of sound pressure. It takes roughly about 10 dB for a human to believe a sound has doubled. The Dark Rock Pro 5 is not only quieter (imagine that) than the Thermalrights, but it has a more pleasant sound signature.
When looking at the max fan speed test results for the two smaller coolers, something interesting has occurred. The little, single fan Peerless Assassin Mini 120 has flipped the script and now outperforms the Dark Rock TF2. I will admit to some confusions as I was recording this data. It then occurred to me that the max speed of 1385 rpm on the TF2 just doesn’t flow enough air to dissipate the heat as well as the single 120 spinning at almost 1600 rpm, and pushing air through a much tighter fin array with more heatpipes.