Best SSD heat sink?

[neueneuen]

Hello,

 

I hope you are well.

 

I'm choosing an SSD heat sink for Samsung 990 Pro 4TB and WD SN850X 8TB, and it seems there are few thorough reviews online. And most reviews seem like SEO for affiliate links, rather than a review.

 

Reasonable reviews I could find are

https://wccftech.com/review/ssd-heatsink-guide-the-best-cooling-options-for-your-nvme-drive/ (and other posts from this author reviewing specific heat sinks - not for the review itself, but rather for the comparative graphs in them)

https://www.tomshardware.com/pc-components/storage/id-cooling-zero-m05-and-m15-review

 

Am I missing anything?

 

 

Could you kindly advise a good passive narrow(!) SSD heat sink, please?

 

I'm not particularly constrained by vertical space (though the lower, the better because my next configuration might always be vertically challenged), but I am constrained horizontally. I have two M.2 slots nearby, and 24 mm + 24 mm is the absolute maximum that fits.

 

I don't want to pay an arm and a leg for it. I want it to be passive. (I don't want an additional moving part that can break on a cheap product from a rather unknown brand. Had Noctua produced SSD heat sinks...)

 

 

At first, I eyed Orico M2HS3 (merely because it's narrow enough and from logical conclusions off the picture and good experience from their other products, there are no reviews online as far as I can tell) - see last three pictures https://www.orico.cc/usmobile/product/detail/id/8282. But they have not been in stock for quite a while.

I considered be quiet! MC1 Pro https://www.bequiet.com/en/accessories/2252, but I worry it'll be too wide. Also, the cooling performance seems to be on the edge for PCIe 4 with ambient temperature of 23C, and I want some headroom.

 

I considered ID-Cooling Zero M15 https://en.idcooling.com/product/detail?id=314&name=ZERO M15 Tom's Hardware recommends, which seems to be good enough (with headroom) for me. However, as it is already quite vertically high, I'm now looking at Thermalright HR-09 Pro https://www.thermalright.com/product/hr-09-2280-pro/ which provides (much) better cooling, and I don't particularly care that it's vertically higher.

 

 

Is this a good choice? Or is ID-Cooling a much more respectable brand than Thermalright, and I should choose it for that reason? ID-Cooling is narrower, should I pick it for that reason? (Is it bad if heat sink bases of two SSDs touch?) ID-Cooling specs say it only supports single-side SSD, and at least one of mine is double-sided, does it eliminate ID-Cooling choice?

 

Any other candidates I should consider?

 

 

Thank you for the help in advance.

[Needfuldoer]

I don't know, over-the-top cooling for an M.2 SSD always seems like snake oil to me. Yes they need some cooling, but they're not like desktop CPUs. For example, the datasheet for the Samsung 990 Evo says it draws less than 6 watts when the drive's busy.

 

A cheap ol' lump of aluminum should be fine as long as there's some air movement.

[TatamiMatt]

9 minutes ago, neueneuen said:

I'm choosing an SSD heat sink

Which SSD are you looking to get a heatsink for?

[neueneuen]

2 hours ago, Needfuldoer said:

I don't know, over-the-top cooling for an M.2 SSD always seems like snake oil to me. Yes they need some cooling, but they're not like desktop CPUs. For example, the datasheet for the Samsung 990 Evo says it draws less than 6 watts when the drive's busy.

 

A cheap ol' lump of aluminum should be fine as long as there's some air movement.

Colloquially, I agree.

 

However, looking at the review, https://www.tomshardware.com/pc-components/storage/id-cooling-zero-m05-and-m15-review/2, lowering temperature does make a difference to the performance. And since my SSDs are quite top of the line (Samsung 990 Pro 4TB and WD SN850X 8TB), I want the best for them.

 

That being said, I am bothered by the fact of Custom IOMeter Script, in a sense that I cannot say how reproducible his "study" is and should I blindly trust it.

 

 

 

 

[Tan3l6]

Thermalright HR-09 and HR-10 are quite cool. Pro versions more than regular.

[neueneuen]

2 minutes ago, TatamiMatt said:

Which SSD are you looking to get a heatsink for?

Sorry, missed important information. Samsung 990 Pro 4TB and WD SN850X 8TB.

[TatamiMatt]

Just now, neueneuen said:

Sorry, missed important information. Samsung 990 Pro 4TB and WD SN850X 8TB.

Furthermore actually, what read/write loads are you expecting to experience on these, is this for gaming or something more drive heavy?

 

Usually the motherboards heatsinks are plenty so long as you have airflow over them

[neueneuen]

Just now, TatamiMatt said:

Furthermore actually, what read/write loads are you expecting to experience on these, is this for gaming or something more drive heavy?

 

Usually the motherboards heatsinks are plenty so long as you have airflow over them

Something more drive-heavy. This is a home lab server/NAS with 32 cores, 256 GB RAM, they're installed in a PCIe to M.2 bifurcator.

[neueneuen]

8 minutes ago, Tan3l6 said:

Thermalright HR-09 and HR-10 are quite cool. Pro versions more than regular.

Is Thermalright a trusted brand? I'm not that familiar with cooling nowadays.

[neueneuen]

Somewhat tangential question: there are full-copper SSD heat sinks on Amazon like e. g. https://www.amazon.com/icepc-DIY-Heatsink-Silicone-Thermal-70x20x2mm/dp/B083FK6RPL/ are they any good? better than the similar sized candidates mentioned above?

[GuiltySpark_]

28 minutes ago, Needfuldoer said:

I don't know, over-the-top cooling for an M.2 SSD always seems like snake oil to me. Yes they need some cooling, but they're not like desktop CPUs. For example, the datasheet for the Samsung 990 Evo says it draws less than 6 watts when the drive's busy.

 

A cheap ol' lump of aluminum should be fine as long as there's some air movement.

Yeah, der8auer has shown quite a few times even the most basic heatsink and some airflow and there is essentially no concern for thermal throttling a Gen4 drive like this. Especially consumer drivers in consumer workloads.  

 

It used to be real easy with Gen5 drives but even those have got much better with the latest generation of controllers. The concerns people have are certainly considerably overblown. 

[Tan3l6]

22 minutes ago, neueneuen said:

Is Thermalright a trusted brand? I'm not that familiar with cooling nowadays.

Thermalright has, in my opinion, one of the best of selection of price to performance coolers nowadays. 

[TatamiMatt]

40 minutes ago, neueneuen said:

Is Thermalright a trusted brand? I'm not that familiar with cooling nowadays.

Probably one of the mosted trusted as of recently to consistently provide top tier cooling (among the best in class) at quite literally the cheapest price on the market (bar cheap knockoff coolers etc) and does this very reliably

[Somerandomtechyboi]

42 minutes ago, neueneuen said:

Something more drive-heavy. This is a home lab server/NAS with 32 cores, 256 GB RAM, they're installed in a PCIe to M.2 bifurcator.

tbh was thinking itd be more like a workstation but this works aswell since its a legit usecase for high end gen4

 

what specific mobo? that config sounds like its amd epyc as 2011-3 isnt pcie gen 4 and intel isnt really worth buying due to abysmal pricing and power efficiency

 

if there are no heatsinks on the board which i suspect there arent then sticking a generic m.2 sink and pointing a fan at it will work though the thermalright ones @Tan3l6 mentioned will probably be alot more convenient and better as theyre actually designed for ssds and you can probs run it passive unlike with a generic metal heatsink though ofc you might aswell run a fan over it if you can

 

42 minutes ago, neueneuen said:

Is Thermalright a trusted brand? I'm not that familiar with cooling nowadays.

branding doesnt matter in this space but thermalright just so happens to be one of the brands with top tier value and cooling performance with the phantom spirit 120 beating the nhd15 (cooling perf is similar but the ps120 is smaller so less ram compatibility issues and far cheaper so thats a win by a landslide imo) so youll see alot of ppl reccomending them including myself

 

id also argue the same thing about ssds as theyre all using controllers dram chips and nand from the same few brands (phison, silicon motion, micron, hynix, etc.) with different firmware and pcbs though samsung and hynix seem to be completely in house for all of those parts, basically those same few manufacturers are not going to be making garbage otherwise theyd go bust due to bad reputation and noone buying their stuff

[TatamiMatt]

41 minutes ago, neueneuen said:

Somewhat tangential question: there are full-copper SSD heat sinks on Amazon like e. g. https://www.amazon.com/icepc-DIY-Heatsink-Silicone-Thermal-70x20x2mm/dp/B083FK6RPL/ are they any good? better than the similar sized candidates mentioned above?

Id say itll be good for a while as the copper can store so much heat so quickly, but with sustained use in an enclosed environment id say theyd be much worse as they have much less capacity to dissipate heat due to the stubby "fins" if you could even call them that, compared to the thin fins in a good quality heatsink with just a ridiculous amount of surface area in comparison. Even moreso if it has heatpipes

[neueneuen]

Thanks everyone for the responses.

 

Reminder - I have no vertical constraints, but who knows, that might change, so vertically lower is marginally better but not strictly necessary.

 

The shortlist is

Thermalright HR-09 Pro https://www.thermalright.com/product/hr-09-2280-pro/ (two pipes, vertically highest, highest passive performance)

Thermalright HR-10 https://www.thermalright.com/product/hr-10-2280/ (two pipes, vertically mid-high, unknown but probably high passive performance)

Thermalright HR-10 Pro https://www.thermalright.com/product/hr-10-2280-pro/ (four pipes, vertically mid-high, I don't intend to use/connect the fan (maybe will even unscrew it) but who knows maybe my preferences change, unknown but probably high or very high passive performance)

 

The price difference is negligible to me - let's ignore it.

 

Am I reasonable to prefer HR-10 Pro in passive mode to HR-09 Pro (mostly due to four vs two pipes)? Or should one prefer HR-10 to HR-09 Pro? Or is HR-09 Pro the way?

 

HR-10/HR-10 Pro are also 0.3 mm narrower, which helps a little specifically in my case.

[freeagent]

I have been using Thermalright since 2004, always top notch products imo.

 

I am using their HR-09 pro on my SN850 and the 09 on SN850X

 

 

 

[David A. Tatum]

I've got a related question.  Scenario:  You've got a motherboard with multiple M.2 slots.  When you initially build your computer, you buy an SSD that comes with a heatsink, but use one that your motherboard comes with, instead, because the one slot the motherboard has its own SSD cooling solution for is also the best one for the boot drive.  Later, looking to add storage, you buy a second SSD, but find the new one DOESN'T come with its own heatsink.  Is it likely that the heatsink from the first SSD be able to work with the second, or are these included heatsinks designed to be proprietary?

[GuiltySpark_]

6 minutes ago, David A. Tatum said:

I've got a related question.  Scenario:  You've got a motherboard with multiple M.2 slots.  When you initially build your computer, you buy an SSD that comes with a heatsink, but use one that your motherboard comes with, instead, because the one slot the motherboard has its own SSD cooling solution for is also the best one for the boot drive.  Later, looking to add storage, you buy a second SSD, but find the new one DOESN'T come with its own heatsink.  Is it likely that the heatsink from the first SSD be able to work with the second, or are these included heatsinks designed to be proprietary?

If your motherboard has built in heatsinks you buy drives without them, not the other way around. 

 

 

[neueneuen]

13 minutes ago, David A. Tatum said:

I've got a related question.  Scenario:  You've got a motherboard with multiple M.2 slots.  When you initially build your computer, you buy an SSD that comes with a heatsink, but use one that your motherboard comes with, instead, because the one slot the motherboard has its own SSD cooling solution for is also the best one for the boot drive.  Later, looking to add storage, you buy a second SSD, but find the new one DOESN'T come with its own heatsink.  Is it likely that the heatsink from the first SSD be able to work with the second, or are these included heatsinks designed to be proprietary?

I don't have an answer for you and I don't think there is an answer to such an unspecific question - model to model would differ (and I expect there would be not enough knowledge for most models because no one ever investigated their heat sinks to such an extent).

 

That being said, I do want to make a tangential observation. Warranties for SSDs are quite long lately. And removing the included heat sink usually voids the warranty. So, unless your SSD is ancient (like more than 3-5 years old depending on the model), you don't want to remove its heat sink.

 

I would say as a rule of thumb, if you consider explicitly cooling SSDs necessary, buy a version of SSD without the heat sink, and buy an after market heat sink. They are typically cheaper than the difference between the SSD version with and w/o heat sink while being better at cooling.

[neueneuen]

That being said, if you already detached the proprietary heat sink from SSD1 and use it with the motherboard-provided heat sink, and SSD2 is without heat sink, checking whether the proprietary heat sink from SSD1 fits SSD2 is quite easy. Heat sinks are not complex products, it's unlikely you break anything, check whether it aligns with the chips on one or both sides on SSD2, and check temperature before and after installation. I think you'd spend more time looking around and asking than doing this.

 

Whether it would be a very good heat sink for SSD2 and worth saving ~$10 is a whole different question.

[David A. Tatum]

55 minutes ago, neueneuen said:

I don't have an answer for you and I don't think there is an answer to such an unspecific question - model to model would differ (and I expect there would be not enough knowledge for most models because no one ever investigated their heat sinks to such an extent).

 

That being said, I do want to make a tangential observation. Warranties for SSDs are quite long lately. And removing the included heat sink usually voids the warranty. So, unless your SSD is ancient (like more than 3-5 years old depending on the model), you don't want to remove its heat sink.

 

I would say as a rule of thumb, if you consider explicitly cooling SSDs necessary, buy a version of SSD without the heat sink, and buy an after market heat sink. They are typically cheaper than the difference between the SSD version with and w/o heat sink while being better at cooling.

In this case, there was no "removal" of a heat sink; the specific model was a Team Group T-Force G70 Pro with Aluminum heatsink, where the heatsink is kept separate and installed by the user.  The G70 Pro has multiple heatsink options, and this is the more expensive option.  It's probably packaged this way to save some money on labor.

Now, it's a long story (any time you have to say something like "the build was interrupted because my mother had to have emergency brain surgery, and while she was in the hospital there were floods in two separate basements owned by two different members of the family that caused a ton of damage to both houses and equipment, and..." to explain the whole story, it would get too long to fit into this post), but originally I bought the model with the aluminum heatsink expecting this SSD to be a second or third drive... but instead, with the SSD originally earmarked as the boot drive taken for something else, it became the boot drive SSD, and the position for the boot drive SSD had its own thermal solution.  Which meant I had paid extra for a heatsink I didn't wind up using (though if I'm honest, I didn't pay extra for it, because it was on a sale that made the "with aluminum heatsink" the same price as without it).  It's been running fine, so I guess the motherboard solution was good enough.

Now, however, I've found a new (much larger, though also a bit slower) SSD from a different brand that will be added to the build.  This SSD did not come with a heatsink at all.  I was wondering if it would be worth it to dig out that unused heat sink and see if it would work with the new SSD, instead.  Edit:  It should be noted I do not have this new SSD, yet; it's been ordered and has shipped, but hasn't arrived, yet, and I obviously cannot test-fit it until then.

[David A. Tatum]

(Accidental double post; deleted)

[steamrick]

22 hours ago, neueneuen said:

Am I reasonable to prefer HR-10 Pro in passive mode to HR-09 Pro (mostly due to four vs two pipes)? Or should one prefer HR-10 to HR-09 Pro? Or is HR-09 Pro the way?

I'd avoid the HR10 Pro on account of the fan having a minimum speed of 3500rpm according to the spec sheets. That's going to be tinnitus level whining, 30mm fan or not.

Without the fan the HR10 has more surface area than the HR10 Pro because it doesn't have a fan cutout. The extra heat pipes don't matter since the cooling performance is not limited by the heat pipe.

 

But personally I'd use the HR09 Pro if you can fit it. It's a 65mm tall design vs 44mm, giving it more area to work with. The measurements on length aren't done the same - if the drawings are to scale, the fin stack should be about 64mm wide for the HR-10 and 60mm for the HR-09.

 

This gives the the following 'front surface area' to work with:

HR-09: 65*60 = 3900mm²

HR-10: 44*64 = 2816mm²

 

Yes, the HR-10 is more densely packed, but in semipassive cooling with a fairly dense finstack, that's not necessarily an advantage. Also, the top plate will cost the HR-10 cooling performance in a 'standing up' scenario.

 

As long as you can accomodate the very tall HR-09, it would be my preference. 

 

More anecdotal: The HR-09 does an excellent job of keeping my very power hungry Micron 7400 Pro m.2 at an acceptable temperature range.

[neueneuen]

TWIMC and for future reference, my temperatures on SanDisk WD_BLACK SN850X 8TB with Thermalright HR-09 Pro are min-max 25-39 Celsius (I've already tried extensive load) so approx. +2-16 Celsius to room temperature.

 

On 12/5/2024 at 4:03 PM, freeagent said:

I have been using Thermalright since 2004, always top notch products imo.

 

I am using their HR-09 pro on my SN850 and the 09 on SN850X