# Thermalright Phantom Spirit 120 SE

- Source: https://stierproducts.com/products/thermalright-phantom-spirit-120-se
- Category board: https://stierproducts.com/categories/cpu-coolers
- Placement: #3 of 24 in CPU Coolers, A tier
- Brand: Thermalright
- LP on this board: 818
- Last researched: 2026-09-10T07:50:31.460Z
- Method: https://stierproducts.com/methodology
- Dataset: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.22062813 - every board at once, one dated snapshot per release, same licence, prices and photographs left out
- Reuse: Text, rankings, tier assignments, LP values and verdicts are free to quote and reuse with attribution to stierproducts and a link to the source URL (CC BY 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Product photographs are not covered: they belong to their respective owners and are reproduced to illustrate the product being reviewed. Do not redistribute them under this licence.

## Verdict

The Peerless Assassin's higher-capacity sibling with the same pump-free, software-free simplicity. Only its slightly lesser direct citation coverage keeps it just below its twin-tower stablemate.

## For

- Higher-capacity twin-tower design for hotter CPUs
- No pump, no software, cheap replaceable fans
- From the Thermalright twin-tower line that anchors Tom's Hardware's and PCGamesN's cooler guides
- Dual-tower air cooling that beats 120mm-class AIOs outright in testing
- Delivers close to Noctua NH-D15-class thermals for a fraction of the outlay

## Against

- Shorter long-term field record than its sibling

## Evidence

Consolidated from 16 cited sources across 8 outlets

| Outlet | Said by | Stance | Link | Link status |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| PC Analytics | kaeru-o1d | B | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mcQPkKZ15VQ#comments | fetched and confirmed |
| CasuallyGamin9 | jund8169 | C | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O4MaQz4-9i4#comments | fetched and confirmed |
| Hardware For Gamers | Greenalex89 | B | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xHsBOSLOQ8U#comments | fetched and confirmed |
| Black [Phantom Spirit 120 SE] | centrecom.com.au | B | https://www.centrecom.com.au/thermalright-phantom-spirit-120-se-dual-tower-cpu-cooler-black?srsltid | fetched and confirmed |
| r/buildapc | u/the_keranaci | B | https://www.reddit.com/r/buildapc/comments/1nssemo/is_the_thermalright_phantom_spirit_120_se_enough/ | fetched and confirmed |
| Tom's Hardware Forum | Earth412 | D | https://forums.tomshardware.com/threads/would-this-cooler-be-suitable.3891092/ | fetched and confirmed |
| Hardware For Gamers | Hardware For Gamers | B | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q0ncCVK8484 | fetched and confirmed |
| AlinTech | AlinTech | B | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=031KZ3uHHGw | fetched and confirmed |
| Hardware For Gamers | wizzgamer | B | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q0ncCVK8484#comments | fetched and confirmed |
| PC Analytics | asian_raisin | B | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WItM0WVS0yA#comments | fetched and confirmed |
| PC Analytics | UncleButterworth | B | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pW4ix2NygMc#comments | fetched and confirmed |
| PC Analytics | titanuranus2136 | B | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X1iaAvWvYW4#comments | fetched and confirmed |
| CasuallyGamin9 | 15k-k9v | C | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rpBCZjlBlpI#comments | fetched and confirmed |
| PC Analytics | PC Analytics | B | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WItM0WVS0yA | fetched and confirmed |
| PC Analytics | PC Analytics | B | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mcQPkKZ15VQ | fetched and confirmed |
| note（ノート） | 漫画大好きたぎたぎ | B | https://note.com/tagitagi/n/n3848afb8a2b2?hl=en | fetched and confirmed |

## Nearest alternatives on this board

| Rank | Product | Tier | Page |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | Arctic Liquid Freezer III Pro 360 | S | https://stierproducts.com/products/arctic-liquid-freezer-iii-pro-360 |
| 2 | Noctua NH-D15 G2 | S | https://stierproducts.com/products/noctua-nh-d15-g2 |
| 4 | Noctua NL-LC1-36 | A | https://stierproducts.com/products/noctua-nl-lc1-36 |
| 5 | Thermalright Peerless Assassin 120 SE | B | https://stierproducts.com/products/thermalright-peerless-assassin-120-se |
| 6 | Lian Li Galahad II Trinity Performance 360 | B | https://stierproducts.com/products/lian-li-galahad-ii-trinity-performance-360 |
| 7 | Thermalright Grand Vision 360 | B | https://stierproducts.com/products/thermalright-grand-vision-360 |
| 8 | Arctic Freezer 36 | B | https://stierproducts.com/products/arctic-freezer-36 |
| 22 | Corsair iCUE Link Titan 360 RX LCD | F | https://stierproducts.com/products/corsair-icue-link-titan-360-rx-lcd |
| 23 | NZXT Kraken Elite 360 | F | https://stierproducts.com/products/nzxt-kraken-elite-360-rgb |
| 24 | Cooler Master Hyper 212 Black Edition | F | https://stierproducts.com/products/cooler-master-hyper-212-black |

The full board is at https://stierproducts.com/categories/cpu-coolers.

## What this tier means

- A: Excellent. Strongly recommended, beaten only by the very best.

## How to read this

- Each category is researched in four independent runs, one per lens (expert consensus, value, reliability, community pulse). Every run ranks a board of candidates that deliberately includes products buyers cross-shop but should avoid. Placements score on a ranked ladder (LP), and tiers are derived from LP, so no tier is ever assigned by hand.
- LP is this product's points on its own category ladder. It is comparable within a category and not across categories.
- Link status reports what our pre-publication link check found when it fetched the cited URL. It says nothing about the quality of the review.
- A citation with no usable link is listed rather than dropped, and is excluded from the counted total above.

## Image

https://stspimgdevmfyk46r5vwkay.blob.core.windows.net/images/products/thermalright-phantom-spirit-120-se.webp

Product photographs are not covered: they belong to their respective owners and are reproduced to illustrate the product being reviewed. Do not redistribute them under this licence.