High-end Air Cooling Face Off – Featuring the Corsair A115

Air Cooling Face Off – The Contenders

Introduction – Not a standard review

Today we are having a look at the new A115 CPU air cooler from Corsair. This new high-performance air cooler has new fans, a new retention mechanism and a completely new design than any prior Corsair heatsink. This is a beefy heatsink, and it aims to be a top performer.

The past year has seen the market for CPU air coolers rapidly shift. It wasn’t long ago that Noctua’s legendary NH-D15 was considered the top air cooler. Now, Noctua’s design is no longer top dog, and there is no shortage of better performing alternatives. That’s why today’s review will be more of an air cooling face off. Who makes the best air cooler? Let’s find out.

Corsair A115

Corsair’s A115 is the new kid on the block. In the UK it will ship for £99 and it should be available at retailers starting today. Like the other CPU coolers that we are testing today, the A115 is a dual-tower CPU cooler that features a twin-fan design. These fans are Corsair’s AF140 Elite PWM fans, which max out at 1600 RPM to ensure low noise levels. We will look more at this CPU cooler specifically later in this article.

DeepCool Assassin IV

When we first tested DeepCool’s Assassin IV, it was the best CPU air cooler that we ever tested. We reviewed its standard black model in August 2023, and its newer white model in December. This heatsink proved to us that the era of the Noctua NH-D15 was well and truly over, and that the air-cooler market has become a truly competitive landscape.

be quiet! Dark Rock Pro

We first reviewed be quiet’s Dark Rock Pro back in October. It again was a Noctua-beater in our testing. It is a sold all-black heatsink design with some RGB flash for those who want to enable it. This is be quiet’s first “Elite” series heatsink, and they clearly put a lot of time into finalising its aesthetic. Just look at its front fan!

Cooler Master MasterAir MA824 Stealth

Cooler Master’s MasterAir MA824 Stealth was the first heatsink that we tested that was a true Noctua-beater. We reviewed the MA824 back in June 2023, and it proved that Noctua’s NH-D15 was no longer the go-to heatsink for air-cooled PC builds. Today the MasterAir MA824 faces stiff competition, as many of their competitors have also launched Noctua-beating heatsinks.