Hunting an M.2 Heatsink

[PLAfiller]

What's up gals and gurrels,

some lighthearted Friday night starter here. I saw in the purchase thread @QuietBob scored a Jonsbro M2. Heatsinks and I said to myself...it's time. 11.11 is the annual Aliexrpess sale, the moment is here. I am a sucker for gimmicky stuff, so I am hoping you guys, could knock some sense into my head. Anyhow, I've narrowed it down to these below. Please don't suggest original products like: EKWB / Aquacool/ Silverstone. I don't have access to these and they cost too much . The only comparison I saw featuring something cheaper was this video on the Tube. Vote away my friends

1.) A chunk of aluminum: 2.) A chunk of copper: 3.) A Gelid knock off: 4.) A Sabrent knock off: 5.) Sci-fi-OLED-real time temp:



6.) Cheaper dispaly:

 

[QuietBob]

Wow, I haven't seen the one with an OLED display Would be a nice fit in a glass panel case.
But with a one-sided drive I'd go for the big ol' alu heatsink. Provided there is enough clearance for the neighboring components.

And then there's the Cryorig Frostbit:

 

[QuietBob]

@lZKoce
So, which one did you go for in the end?

grab any one of those heatsinks and glue one of those tiny 40nm fans on them.

I've never seen such a tiny fan. Electron microscopes are way over my budget
No offense man

Maybe something that's easy to assemble and doesn't use rubber bands?

I really like the efficient design of this one. They don't seem to be available in retail though.

 

[TheLostSwede]

Maybe something that's easy to assemble and doesn't use rubber bands?
Also keep the height clearance in mind.

ICEBERQ M.2 NVMe/SSD Heat Sink with Thermal Pad

The Vantec ICEBERQ M.2 NVMe/SSD Heat Sink with Thermal Pad keeps your M.2 NVME/SSD cool near ambient temperatures by dissipating and protecting your M.2 module from heat. This High Vented Fins Heat Sink is easy to install on any standard M.2 2280 size module. It will help to extend your M.2...

www.vantecusa.com

 

[Vya Domus]

Just so you know the biggest issue with these things is that they do not receive any real airflow, so the heat is not dissipated. So if you really want to cool them down for good I'd grab any one of those heatsinks and glue one of those tiny 40nm fans on them.

 

[Keullo-e]

I had a cheap Alphacool chunk of aluminium on my Intel 600p and it did its job just fine

 

[PLAfiller]

@lZKoce
So, which one did you go for in the end?

I got the 6th one with the cheaper display (I told you, I am a sucker for gimmicky stuff ). I show pictures when it arrives in a month or so. @TheLostSwede that actually looks pretty nice and I would get if I see it around. 10x for the idea.

 

[Ramo1203]

I have used different models through the years:

- first I used the motherboardshield
- then tried a EK one with clips.
- after changed for an Icy Box with rubber band
- now using an Icy Box that uses and PCI-E slot and with a nice big heatsink

My favorite is my latest as it cools the SSD super good and looks nice. My idle is around 35°C and load around 45°C with my 970 EVO.

 

[ColdFlo]

Did you call that a sabrent knockoff? I think you got that a little backwards there brandwash.... obviously sabrent(sabrent drives are no good and their popularity proves people cant understand hardware specs most overhyped brand ive ever seen its all about 4k mixed and io latency not sequential) just labeled an aliexpress chinese cooler as their own and probably got sole license for it in the us market thats why you dont see the acasis m.2 ngff on amazon............ which is its aliexpress name... you check aliexpress it has a better selection and it has all of them even the thermalright pro nvme heatsink all of them except the new ineo ones (m12 and that one with the fan look like contenders) which must be inhouse only likely they are ovepriced anyway you can get the acasis ngff for 12 bucks soon off aliexpress........ hard to tell with any of these cause there are no benchmarks but I think they are crucial and so im researching this because I dont want to have to go as far as watercooling... but who knows when pcie 5 drops we might end up going there.... sorry but there arent many of these threads and they all have bad information time someone who can research gave people some real info..........

 

[GerKNG]

flash memory does not like low temps. (it even degrades a lot faster when it's "cold".)

the only thing that needs cooling is the controller and that is mostly no problem with case fan airflow. (neither my 970 evo plus, 980 pro, MP600 (and Pro) or Crucial P5 has any thermal problems... even when moving half a terabyte of games at once.

 

[ColdFlo]

an air cooler isnt going to make it cooler than ambient..... likely the whole thing will sit at lowest 30c unless you have ac shooting directly into the case.... says jedec spec is 40c and 25c halves write life performance thus writing at 25c is twice as bad as 40c but theres a simple fix for that just put a copper shim on the controller and use some particularly low w/mk thermal pads on the nand chips you know something 4w/mk or less so just dont use something from a good thermal company or fujipoly and I think the heatsink is still the best solution also at the other end of the scale pcb breakdown starts to occur at 60c(I keep all my chips under 50c just an oldschool standard thats good to go by these days most of my chips except my 9900k sit at around 30c) yes i know the rest of your are brainwashed that gpu at 90c is fine but I know better than you... still getting the heatsink just gonna switch up the thermal pads....... too bad there arent any easily accessible nand temp sensors to access that im aware of.....

 

[bonehead123]

And then there's the Cryorig Frostbit:

View attachment 174688View attachment 174689

Wow, that's some serious sinkin goin on right there, just for a measly ole m.2, guess I'll take about 127 please, hehehehe

 

[AsRock]

Been using the Sabrant cooler on mine and the temps have never gone over 44c. Never know the knock off one the surface might not be as good and the pipes might be even fake.

Be nice to hear what you did if any thing after all this time.

 

[PLAfiller]

Be nice to hear what you did if any thing after all this time.

I got the one with a cheaper display. I hooked it to my Lamptron fan controller and set the tiny fan to spin just above the "stop" mark. If left on default the fan is noisy at least to me. The on-screen display always shows something between 44-50 degrees when drive is idle, but according to HWinfo64 temp is 34. Not sure which is one is correct, but I've never had any issue anyway. Looking back after so much use, it's not bad, but if you intend to use the PCI slot above the m.2 slot, I'd go with something slim.

 

[AusWolf]

I voted "Something else". By that, I mean that you don't need an m.2 heatsink unless you do large file transfers (over several hundred GBs), or have a really bad m.2 drive in terms of heat. Most consumer models with normal usage in a gaming setup don't need a heatsink - it's all for the show.

 

[Vario]

I voted "Something else". By that, I mean that you don't need an m.2 heatsink unless you do large file transfers (over several hundred GBs), or have a really bad m.2 drive in terms of heat. Most consumer models with normal usage in a gaming setup don't need a heatsink - it's all for the show.

Old thread, but if its still an active discussion I agree with this, there is no need for a heatsink. Modern NVMe do not need a heatsink, their temperatures typically sit around 40C-50C. Also a worst case scenario is poor thermal conductivity due to improper mounting design causing the drive's controller to cook under the heatsink.

 

[Caring1]

I got the one with a cheaper display. I hooked it to my Lamptron fan controller and set the tiny fan to spin just above the "stop" mark. If left on default the fan is noisy at least to me. The on-screen display always shows something between 44-50 degrees when drive is idle, but according to HWinfo64 temp is 34. Not sure which is one is correct

I'd say the lower reading is correct as mine usually sits around 31 - 32C
I did read constant higher temps can lead to data corruption.

 

[ColdFlo]

I guarantee you its not a knockoff its just sabrent had the oem heatsink maker put their branding on the chinese one and doubled the price. You guys need to use your head and get it in 2021 man thats an old way of thinking, and sabrent is not a good brand their 4k mixed random speed is always low on those drives and thats what matters for os drive speed which is the primary use of a good specd ssd which the best for that is was optane but of course intel discontinuted it also these recent intel 670p drives were also good but no one acknowledged them and now they are selling their nand business to sk hynix.

It looks like the best ones are the ineo m3 30mm fan ideally i would just strap a larger quiet fan on that heatsink with zipties or maybe cut the fins for a larger fan slot, the acidalie(this is a fake amazon brandname(oem rebrand you just mass order and ask the oem to put your brandname on it presto chango now its ur brandname)(2nd heatpipe doesnt go all the way through fan in the way) so its hard to search and find elsewhere) also this is under the fake amazon brandname elecgear this one also has a 30mm fan you would want to switch out these may be the 2 best(impossible to tell but we are never gonna get benches i might buy 3 of the top ones and find out i kinda wanna stay around 10 bucks which i can get the sabrent oem chinese 3 heatpipe and the thermalright pro(made in taiwan so i think the aliexpress are the real deal) for 10 bucks or close to it off aliexpress right now I was gonna go for sn850 or 980 pro but i just went cheap and got the 2 intel 670p 1tb for 80$ each and one spatium m470 1tb 80$(might still return this one slow 4k random but the sequential is really high and I just might make it a steam folder so then does it really matter and scratch drive for initial stream temporary storage). Then there is the JEYI(same name on aliexpress) with the thick fins on it this one does well no fan but you could put a fan on it has decent looking temp delta c from amazon reviews and there is the ineo m12 passive no heat fins but definitely the highest number of heatpipes but Im not finding any deals on the ineos look inhouse not an oem rebrand and the acidalie elecgear one likely has similar performance the ineo m3 and the acidalie(2nd heatpipe doesnt go all the way through fan in the way) both with 30mm fans(this size of fan is always noisy just pull it and put a larger 80+mm fan on it(measure with analog vernier caliper(more dependable less annoying than the digital ones batteries always funky)) or whatever size you measure it to be.... I spent a long time doctoring my optane drives and Im not happy with the performance thats why im digging into these third party solutions need something that cools a little better but I would like to do this as cheap as possible thats all my researching has dug up so far should give people the current high end options. Oh yeah theres one more option that might be good on aliexpress the flat ones with the squirrelcage fan in the middle just like an old stock gpu those might be really good too theres a lot of variations of those so just pick whichever one catches ur fancy not sure about noise but that fan is gonna be harder to replace.....

 

[freeagent]

The other day I added a PWM fan hub to my system because my board really likes to let my iPPC fans rev. So now when the system is not busy the fans all drop down to the basement, the lowest revs my TY-143 shows is 632rpm. So my 3Ks are definitely under 1k right now. That said.. I am using my mobo heatsinks to cool my NVME's, so only the top half of the drives are sinked, but still running under 30c right now with fans moving as slow as they can.. I don't think I have seen them over 37c even with the GPU lit up..

 

[chrcoluk]

Might be in the market for one, I got a 980 pro as it was a very good deal, but its possible I may stick it in my PS5. However I didn't buy the official heat sink as it was £115 for the SSD and £285 for the SSD + heatsink lol.

 

[Jose Jeswin]

some from Amazon India...
Advancing Gene
Jonsbo
Adwits

 

[QuietBob]

To check whether your SSD needs sinking, I'd recommend downloading SMI NVME SSD flash id v0.25a and generating a report.

In the resulting file smi_nvme_flash_id.txt search for similar lines:

Throttling light count (transit to PS1 from PS0 and PS2)
Throttling heavy count (transit to PS2 from PS1)
Throttling light duration (sec)
Throttling heavy duration (sec)

In my experience, this has been the only tool to provide any meaningful data related to NVME thermal throttling.

 

[oobymach]

My vote is for the 1st one, the giant block of aluminum, if you have space for it that looks like your guy, especially if you have active cooling ie airflow over it, although the cryorig frostbit looks adequate too.

 

[ColdFlo]

yeah also that ineo m12 says its just a copper tube not a heatpipe its also not flattened on the base like proper heatpipe implementations

 

[FreedomEclipse]

Maybe something that's easy to assemble and doesn't use rubber bands?
Also keep the height clearance in mind.

ICEBERQ M.2 NVMe/SSD Heat Sink with Thermal Pad

The Vantec ICEBERQ M.2 NVMe/SSD Heat Sink with Thermal Pad keeps your M.2 NVME/SSD cool near ambient temperatures by dissipating and protecting your M.2 module from heat. This High Vented Fins Heat Sink is easy to install on any standard M.2 2280 size module. It will help to extend your M.2...

www.vantecusa.com

View attachment 175755

Big like from me - I thought Vantec had passed away without the PC modding community knowing Happy to see they are still around.