Compare CPU Coolers

17 ranked products · Two to 4 at a time · Updated 17 Aug 2026

Pick any two to four of the 17 ranked cpu coolers and read them side by side. This page opens on the board's top 3, Arctic Liquid Freezer III Pro 360, Noctua NH-D15 G2 and Thermalright Phantom Spirit 120 SE.

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CPU Coolers compared side by side. Each column is one product, each row is one measure taken from the same research that built the board.
Measure	Arctic Arctic Liquid Freezer III Pro 360	Noctua Noctua NH-D15 G2	Thermalright Thermalright Phantom Spirit 120 SE	Lian Li Lian Li Galahad II Trinity Performance 360	Thermalright Thermalright Grand Vision 360	Thermalright Thermalright Peerless Assassin 120 SE	ID-COOLING ID-COOLING FX360 PRO	Arctic Arctic Freezer 36	be quiet! be quiet! Dark Rock Pro 5	Noctua Noctua NH-D15 (original, chromax.black)	Corsair Corsair Nautilus 360 RS	MSI MSI MAG CoreLiquid A13 360	be quiet! be quiet! Pure Rock Pro 3	DeepCool DeepCool Assassin IV	Corsair Corsair iCUE Link Titan 360 RX LCD	Cooler Master Cooler Master Hyper 212 Black Edition	NZXT NZXT Kraken Elite 360
Tier	S	A	A	B	B	B	C	C	C	C	C	D	D	D	F	F	F
Rank on this board	1 of 17	2 of 17	3 of 17	4 of 17	5 of 17	6 of 17	7 of 17	8 of 17	9 of 17	10 of 17	11 of 17	12 of 17	13 of 17	14 of 17	15 of 17	16 of 17	17 of 17
Ladder points	965 LP	775 LP	726 LP	636 LP	579 LP	551 LP	493 LP	442 LP	433 LP	399 LP	386 LP	268 LP	259 LP	243 LP	96 LP	86 LP	60 LP
Our verdict	The best AIO to actually own: top thermals, 6-year warranty, and Arctic's support reputation. Ranked below the air coolers only because every AIO carries pump and permeation wear.	Best air cooler ever tested, no pump to fail, 6-year warranty, free socket upgrades for future platforms. The most ownership-proof product in the category.	The Peerless Assassin formula, slightly refined; loses a spot to its sibling purely on having a shorter track record.	Superb performance with a 5-year warranty, docked for pump-top display and software dependencies the Nautilus avoids.	Ranked #6: strong thermals plus an LCD display at a price that humiliates the premium screen-coolers.	Near-flagship air performance at budget money per Tom's Hardware; at this price, even an out-of-warranty failure costs almost nothing to fix.	Ranked #4: GamersNexus' budget AIO king; 360mm liquid cooling at air-cooler money.	The budget air pick with a flagship warranty; for most mid-range builds it makes more expensive coolers irrational.	Noctua-grade build and the quietest premium air experience, held back by a shorter 3-year warranty and a higher price.	Nearly the same ownership story as the G2 with a decade of field-proven reliability behind it; ranked second only because the G2 cools better for new buyers.	A no-software, no-RGB 360mm AIO that a group test called among the best AIOs tested; simplicity is its longevity story.	The weakest case for ownership: adequate-at-best performance, unremarkable pump and fans, and the thinnest cooler-specific support story here; buy an ID-COOLING FX360 PRO or a Thermalright air tower instead.	A competent, durable mid-range air cooler with nothing to fail but a fan; unremarkable in the best way.	The best hardware on this list that you should not buy: post-sanctions, US warranty and support are effectively void, and an unserviceable product finishes last. Buy the NH-D15 G2 or Dark Rock Pro 5.	Great thermals buried under proprietary connectors, an expensive LCD pump-top, and the iCUE software burden; the Nautilus 360 RS is the same brand's better answer.	Still a functional, reliable air cooler, so it beats the troubled AIOs below on pure durability, but the Peerless Assassin 120 SE has made it pointless at its price. Buy the Thermalright.	Mediocre value wrapped around an LCD and chained to CAM software; the Arctic Liquid Freezer III Pro 360 out-cools it for less with a longer warranty.
What reviewers rate	PC Gamer's pick for best liquid CPU cooler Top-class thermals, in the top tier of the 360mm AIO group test 6-year warranty with a strong track record of honoring it Rare AIO where the ownership proposition matches the review scores	Named the best air CPU cooler by PC Gamer in both its general and air-specific guides Passive heatsink with no pump to wear out 6-year warranty and the best long-term support reputation in the industry Proven policy of free mounting kits for new sockets	Slightly better thermal performance than the Peerless Assassin at the same budget price Dual-tower air cooling with no software and no pump Trivial replacement cost Thermalright lineup value found exceptional across the board in stack testing	One of the strongest-performing 360mm AIOs tested anywhere 5-year warranty backing the pump	Strong thermal performance from a 360mm AIO Includes an LCD pump display at a price where competitors charge double for the same feature set Matches LCD-equipped premium AIOs for far less money	One of the best-performing air coolers Tom's Hardware has tested Whisper-silent operation Costs very little PCGamesN's best CPU cooler overall for balancing cooling, noise, and price	Named a Best Budget CPU Cooler in GamersNexus' 2025 roundup of 26 tested coolers A 360mm AIO at budget money Embarrasses the big-brand liquid coolers on price Matches the Corsair Nautilus 360 RS for roughly half the money	Compact, quiet, and cheap Backed by the same 6-year warranty as Arctic's flagship AIO Simplicity is its durability Removes every argument for a more complicated cooler on mid-range CPUs	Premium dual-tower air cooling with build quality that rivals Noctua Class-leading acoustics Essentially no wear-out mechanism beyond its fans A set-and-forget decade-long component	Longest verified field record of any product here, a decade on sale Same 6-year warranty and free socket-upgrade policy as the G2 Still among the best air coolers ever tested Remains a mainstream recommendation the market still buys new	Group test found it among the best all-in-one liquid coolers tested No RGB controller and no software requirement Strong pump and radiator Fewer electronics and no software dependency means fewer failure points	Nothing recorded	Dual-tower cooling competent enough for hot mainstream CPUs be quiet! build quality Nothing to fail but a fan	As hardware, one of the best air coolers ever made	Excellent raw thermal performance	Still a functional, reliable air cooler Nothing mechanically wrong with it	LCD pump-top is the flashiest marketing hook in the category Thermal performance on par with cheaper rivals
Where it falls short	Still an AIO: gradual coolant permeation and pump wear cap its lifespan versus air coolers	Nothing recorded	Shorter long-term field record than its sibling	Pump-top display adds cost and failure surface L-Connect software adds dependency the Freezer III Pro largely avoids	Nothing recorded	Nothing recorded	Nothing recorded	Suited to mid-range CPUs rather than flagship chips	3-year warranty versus Noctua's 6 Higher price than rivals	Cools worse than the newer G2 for new buyers	Still an AIO, so pump and permeation wear apply	Nothing recorded	Nothing recorded	DeepCool was hit with US sanctions in 2024 and effectively withdrew from the US market Warranty claims, RMAs, and spare-part support in the largest market are functionally dead A cooler you cannot get serviced is a liability no matter how good the heatsink is	iCUE Link ecosystem locks fans, pump, and lighting into a proprietary connector chain LCD pump-top adds cost and failure surface iCUE remains one of the most resource-hungry, complaint-generating utilities in PC hardware A poor ownership proposition despite the thermals	Decisively beaten on cooling and noise by the Thermalright Peerless Assassin 120 SE for roughly the same money Coasting on a decade-old reputation Simply outclassed at its own price point	Large price premium for the LCD pump-top Performance merely matches cheaper rivals Full dependence on NZXT's CAM software, with a years-long reputation for bloat, bugs, and account nagging Shorter warranty than the Arctic Liquid Freezer III Pro 360
Evidence behind it	50 sources across 33 outlets	113 sources across 75 outlets	18 sources across 11 outlets	18 sources across 14 outlets	39 sources across 27 outlets	22 sources across 18 outlets	2 sources across 2 outlets	48 sources across 29 outlets	13 sources across 13 outlets	43 sources across 35 outlets	24 sources across 18 outlets	20 sources across 17 outlets	12 sources across 7 outlets	39 sources across 27 outlets	10 sources across 10 outlets	43 sources across 37 outlets	56 sources across 39 outlets
Flagged as one to avoid	Not flagged	Not flagged	Not flagged	Not flagged	Not flagged	Not flagged	Not flagged	Not flagged	Not flagged	2 of 6 research runs	1 of 8 research runs	Not flagged	Not flagged	1 of 6 research runs	3 of 9 research runs	2 of 5 research runs	3 of 9 research runs
Announced	Not recorded	Not recorded	Not recorded	Not recorded	Not recorded	Not recorded	Not recorded	Not recorded	Not recorded	Not recorded	Not recorded	Not recorded	Not recorded	Not recorded	Not recorded	Not recorded	Not recorded
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Every column is the same research that built the board. Nothing here is a specification sheet copied from a maker. Read how we rank for what a tier and a ladder point mean.