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Stock Cooler Replacement Done Right!
Review Summary
The Thermalright Assassin X 90 SE is a compact air cooler that punches way above its weight, especially considering the $17 price tag. With 4 direct-contact copper heat pipes and a quiet 92mm ARGB fan, it easily handles 65W TDP CPUs and even manages bursts of 130W heat in stress tests. It’s ideal for replacing stock coolers on mid-range builds and fits well in small cases. While it’s not made for high-end CPUs or heavy overclocking, the Assassin X 90 SE delivers excellent value and solid cooling for budget-conscious users.
Hours Tested: 8
Overall
Pros
- Incredible Value at $17
- Excellent Performance at 65W TDP
- Small Form Factor Tower Design
- Supports AM5/AM4 and LGAA 1700 Sockets
Cons
- None
When it comes to air coolers, Thermalright is one of the brands you cannot miss, especially in terms of value and performance. Thermalright is a globally renowned brand for its Assassin series and is often rated higher by reviewers due to its outclass performance for the lower price.
Today, we’ll test the Thermalright Assassin X 90 SE cooler, which only costs $17 and uses aluminum as the heatsink material, has a 92mm ARGB fan, and 4×6 mm copper heat pipes. In the small size, Thermalright is offering a lot for the price. You don’t see the 4 copper heat pipes even in the $30 category coolers.
Key Takeaways
- The Thermalright Assassin X 90 SE is a small, affordable CPU air cooler with surprising performance for the price, making it a great upgrade over stock coolers for mid-range systems
- You should buy the Thermalright Assassin X 90 SE if your CPU has a TDP of around 65W and you want a cooler that does the job well at a low budget.
- You should not buy the Thermalright Assassin X 90 SE if your CPU’s TDP exceeds 65W, as it is a tiny cooler that does not perform well for power-hungry CPUs.
These are the key specs:
| Thermalright Assassin X 90 SE ARGB Specification | |
| Dimension | L94 mm x W52 mm x H118 mm |
| Weight | 360g |
| Heat pipes | 6mm heatpipe x 4 units |
| TL-P9-S Fan Spec | |
| Dimension | L92 mm x W92 mm x H25 mm |
| Weight | 110g |
| Rated Speed | 2200 RPM ±10% (MAX) |
| Noise Level | 23.85 dBA |
| Air Flow | 32.77 CFM (MAX) |
| Air Pressure | 1.98 mm H2O (MAX) |
| Ampere | 0.10 A |
| Connector | 4 Pin (PWM Fan connector) |
| ARGB Connector | 3 PIN 5V |
| Bearing Type | S-FDB Bearing |
Packaging & Accessories
The following are provided:
- Aluminium Heatsink
- Intel Backplate LGA115X/1700
- Intel / AMD Mounting Bracket x2
- Intel Screw x4 / AMD Screw x4
- Standoff Screws x4 Intel / Standoff Screw x4 AMD
- Thermalright TF4 Thermal Paste
- Fan clip x2
Design
The heatsink uses a compact, small form factor tower design with a dark top shroud, giving a nice touch to the cooler; it supports all the latest Intel up to LGA 1700 and AMD AM4 and AM5 sockets. The base is u-shape nickel plated and offers 4 copper heat-pipes direct touch process to the CPU IHS. Thermalright has also included a TL-P9-S 92mm Static Pressure ARGB fan with the cooler; the RPM goes up to 2200 RPM at 32.77CFM. The fans are not that powerful, but it’s extremely quiet, with a maximum noise level of ≤ 23.85 dB.
Installation (AMD)
This is what you need to do to install the cooler on an AMD CPU:
- 4x AMD Standoff
- 4x AMD Screws
- 2x Metal Mounting Bracket
To install, first remove the pre-installed AMD brackets on the motherboard, but don’t remove the backplate. Then, install the 4x AMD Stand-Off and put them in place as demonstrated in the picture below.
Assassin X AMD Mounting
Now take the metal brackets, align and place them on the AMD standoffs. Screw the bracket in with the provided 4x AMD screws. Make sure to apply thermal paste. In our case, we are using NOCTUA NTH2.
Assassin X Standoff AMD
Assassin X Metal Bracket
Your cooler is now ready to be installed. Peel the sticker from the bottom of the heatsink, where the four copper heat pipes are located.
It’s time to seat the cooler on the mounting bracket. At each end on both sides of the cooler, there are two built-in screws. Align them with the metal bracket screws and tighten them up, applying equal pressure on both sides. Do not tighten one side completely before the other—this is important.
Assassin X Seating on AMD Metal Bracket
Your cooler is now fully seated. It’s time to install the fan on the heatsink!
Place the provided fan clips on the fan—one on each side.
Fan Installed on Assassin X
The fan has two cables:
- The ARGB cable needs to be installed into the motherboard’s 5V ARGB header.
- The 4-pin PWM cable goes into the CPU fan header.
Testing Setup
- CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 9700X
- RAM: XPG Lancer 16×2 6000MHz CL30
- Motherboard: MSI B650 TOMAHAWK WIFI
- Cooler: Deepcool Mystique 360 Liquid Cooler | Assassin X 90 SE ARGB | AMD Wraith Stealth
- GPU: ZOTAC SOLID RTX 5080
- BIOS: 7D75v1L AGESA ComboAM5 1.2.0.2b
- Windows Version: Windows 11 24H2 (OS Build 26100.3194)
Testing Methodology
- For our cooler testing, we are using three different power settings on our Ryzen 7 9700X: Stock 65W TDP, 105W TDP, and Unlocked power achieved with the PBO. We are not using a curve optimizer or any undervolting technique.
- The room temperature is strictly set to 22c. We are using Cinebench R23 for the results, and two runs are given for each power profile.
- We are reading the data from HWINFO and only taking average and peak temperatures, average effective clock frequency, and average power for our benchmarks.
- We use NOCTUA NTH2, the same thermal paste for all the coolers’ testing, and the same application method.
- We’ve removed the panels from the Lian-Li O11D, Side Tempered Glass, Front Tempered Tempered Glass, and the top shroud has also been removed.
- All case fans are set to 50% RPM.
Benchmarks – 65W TDP Temperatures
Benchmarks – 105W TDP Temperatures
Benchmarks – How Many Watts Cooled?
Should You Buy It?
Buy It If
✅You’re aiming to run the CPU at the 65W TDP: Assassin X 90 SE can easily withstand the load of 65W TDP.
✅You’re replacing your CPU stock cooler: Assassin X 90 SE demonstrates amazing performance over the AMD Wraith Spire.
Don’t Buy It If
❌ Your CPU TDP Exceeds 65W TDP: Assassin X 90 SE is a small form factor cooler so you can’t expect much from this tiny cooler.
Conclusion
Thermalright Assassin X 90 SE provides incredible value at $17 while offering the 4 direct heat pipes. It manages to cool down the Ryzen 7 9700X at the 65W TDP; it’s a small form factor tower cooler and can fit almost every tiny case available.
Thermal Assassin X 90 SE can be an alternate option if you want to replace your stock-cooler heatsink. However, Asking so much from this cooler at this price wouldn’t be wise.
We cranked up the CPU TDP to 105W, which throttled after several minutes. Furthermore, after removing the power limits from the CPU, this cooler managed to cool 130W of the heat, which is incredible.
This cooler supports AM4/AM5 and Intel CPU sockets until LGA 1700; there is no Core Ultra series support, but who would purchase this cooler for the known space heaters? As we said, you can’t expect much, so if you have mid-range CPUs such as Ryzen 5 7500F, Ryzen 5 5600, Ryzen 5 3600, or Intel 12400/13400/14400, This cooler is capable of cooling them down at the stock.
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