fan help

nerdshack888

nerdshack888

nerdshack888

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Joined
16 Aug 2025
Posts
65
Location
uk
Hi building a new pc and i think i prefer a air cooler over water cooling for my cpu, looking at the thermalright pretor 130 or the thermalright royal knight which helps with the ram clearance, has anything got any experience of either.

expected build :
9800x3d
9070 xt/5070 ti
msi b850 edge ti
64 gb ram
 
Just like the excellent Peerless Assassin and Phantom Spirit they have been recieving excellent reviews plus the Royal Knight has offset towers to clear the ram, what's not to like. Just remember that on the Pretor 130 only the fan between the two towers is 130mm, the other is 120mm.
 
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i just wonder about ram clearance thats why i am leaning to the royal knight. i have seen people on the other thermalright fans just slighty move the fan upwards to avoid the ram but i wonder if this will keep the cpu as cool as not moving it.
 
It doesn't seem to make any difference because I had to do it with my Peerless Assassin but still got excellent temps on my 7800x3d. I would have preferred not having to do it though because it looked weird with the fan sticking up a inch or so higher than the cooler. I would be tempted with the Royal Knight also as it solves the problem altogether although the front fan is only 15mm and the front tower is thinner than the rear but it still manages to do well in reviews. It's probably behind the Peerless Assassin and Phantom Spirit when it comes to cooling performance but not drastically so.
 
Just looked at some of the thermaltake range and here are the prices :


royal pretor £39
Thermalright RK120 SE £35
Thermalright Royal Knight £39
Peerless Assassin 120 se £30
Thermalright Peerless Assassin 120 £35

whats my best option as there really is not much price difference.
 
You need to shop around because they are all much cheaper with free delivery elsewhere with the Royal Knight being less than £24.
 
Another giant vote for the Thermalrite Peerless Assassin. It's the best air cooled CPU fan out there right now.

Personally mine is a little overkill which sounds fine for a cooler but it's too bloody big, takes up so much space it gets annoying to work around.

My Noctua NH-D15 keeps my 8700K between 40 - 75oC on average while it's overclocked to 5GHz.

EZLGNnP.jpeg
 
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yeah so choices are peerless assassin, royal knight or pretor, the pretor is more expensive, based on the info for the height of the ram i probably wont need to worry about ram clearance on the cpu cooler so royal night not really an advantage except it is cheaper than the pretor.
 
trentlad said:
Another giant vote for the Thermalrite Peerless Assassin. It's the best air cooled CPU fan out there right now.

Personally mine is a little overkill which sounds fine for a cooler but it's too bloody big, takes up so much space it gets annoying to work around.

My Noctua NH-D15 keeps my 8700K between 40 - 75oC on average while it's overclocked to 5GHz.

EZLGNnP.jpeg
Click to expand...
theres something about the nh-d15 especially in chromax that i dunno i just love the look of them it never gets old even though ive got one in my machine right next to me so i can see it by just turning my head i always find myself drawn to where people post a picture of theirs lol im sure its a weird addiction to noctua or something lol
 
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