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  • plopke - Thursday, July 6, 2017 - link

    now that actually looks like a heatsink instead just a flat fancy cover and heatpads
  • Samus - Thursday, July 6, 2017 - link

    This is almost too good to be true for $10. Can't believe they are selling them that cheap.
  • Railgun - Friday, July 7, 2017 - link

    For something that small, I'm sure the margins are still reasonable instead of the usual thousand percent markup.
  • justaviking - Thursday, July 6, 2017 - link

    I can't believe it... someone actually makes a computer component without RGB LED lighting.
  • futrtrubl - Thursday, July 6, 2017 - link

    Shhhhhhh, they may realize!
  • Alexvrb - Thursday, July 6, 2017 - link

    I want one that matches my Noctua fans!
  • jardows2 - Thursday, July 6, 2017 - link

    I recall some reviews of the Plextor product showing that the heat sink actually made performance slightly worse, acting more like a heat shield rather than a heat sink. While I like the idea of a heat sink for M.2 devices, I really want to see some reviews to see if it actually does any good.
  • HomeworldFound - Thursday, July 6, 2017 - link

    I'm not a fan of EK but they're not in the habit of releasing coolers that don't cool. The best feature of these coolers is the ability to hide ugly M.2 SSDs that are a different colour from the motherboard.
  • sartwell - Thursday, July 6, 2017 - link

    I don't see the allowance for the different heights of the ICs on the 960 pro.
  • DanNeely - Thursday, July 6, 2017 - link

    If they're small, different thickness pads. If they're large it's not compatible.
  • willis936 - Thursday, July 6, 2017 - link

    I'm really disappointed that this isn't a line of products to watercool SSDs.
  • meacupla - Friday, July 7, 2017 - link

    at first, I thought EK must be crazy, releasing an aluminum block for M.2 SSDs, but then I saw it was a sensible air cooled aluminum heatsink.

    Why would you want a water cooled M.2 block anyways? How is that even going to fit between video cards?
  • satai - Thursday, July 6, 2017 - link

    To rebenchmark 960 EVO with such a cooler could be interesting...
  • Bullwinkle J Moose - Thursday, July 6, 2017 - link

    Anodized Aluminum does not transfer heat well

    Clean bare Aluminum is great until it grows an oxide skin

    Bead blasted clean bare aluminum is even better due to the increased surface area

    The bottom of many cheap heat sinks is not perfectly flat AND is also anodized

    To transfer heat from the SSD to the sink as fast as possible, you can use a medium grit wet/dry paper on a flat table top and remove the anodized finish from the bottom of the heat sink

    I take photos of the bottom as the anodized finish is being removed if I see that it is not really flat for future reference and temp measurements before and after the the sinks are lapped

    If the bottom is not really flat, you may only have a few tiny contact points on the flash memory to transfer the heat

    Many thincoat metal treatments are available to prevent oxidation if you choose to beadblast the top surface and work much better than anodization

    Stock coolers may look pretty but you won't win any races!

  • Lord of the Bored - Monday, July 10, 2017 - link

    "Stock coolers may look pretty but you won't win any races!"
    What is stock about this cooler?
  • Bullwinkle J Moose - Thursday, July 6, 2017 - link

    The mods listed above work best on "Silent" computers without a fan

    If you are using a fan to remove heat, a copper sheet is probably all you really need

    Thermal transfer paste should be the best you can get at a reasonable price

    A 1 degree difference between the best thermal paste and the second best can be a $20 difference in price

    I'll take second best if that's the case
  • cfenton - Friday, July 7, 2017 - link

    This probably makes me a sucker, but I might buy one of these just because they look good. I have a 960 EVO and it really sticks out on my motherboard. For this price, if it helps cool the drive down that's great, but I'd probably be happy as long as it doesn't hurt performance.
  • Beaver M. - Saturday, July 8, 2017 - link

    Im skeptical. I made heatsinks myself for a few M.2 SSDs and the hottest thing on there isnt the NAND, its the controller chip. It can and will get up to 100C hot, but is often seated a bit higher or lower than the NAND, which makes using an uniformly heatsink like this kinda useless, because it wont sit properly.

    Also a fun fact: The temperature diode, which shows the temperature in monitoring software is located between the NAND and controller. So it will never show how hot the controller will really get. Or the NANDs real temperature, for that matter. In most cases, when the diode showed 60-70C degrees, the controller temperature was 90-100C and the NANDs around 50.
  • Beaver M. - Saturday, July 8, 2017 - link

    Also if they say it will only reduce controller temperature by 8-10C, that is not very good. I only placed a aluminum heatsink only a little bigger than the controller on it and it went down 20C. Placed a small fan above it and it went down another 15-20.
  • ads295 - Monday, July 10, 2017 - link

    Very interesting. How did you mount the heatsink and fan onto the controller? What was the size of the fan? Must've been tiny.
  • jabber - Saturday, July 8, 2017 - link

    I've used those copper RAM heatsinks with adhesive thermal tape to good effect. Cheap and still looks neat.
  • Bullwinkle J Moose - Saturday, July 8, 2017 - link

    Ooooh, Good info Beaver!

    I could totally overthink this thing before Monday Morning for no apparent reason other than boredom!

    Sand Castings will shed more heat than die cast Aluminum and I could make a sealed tub around the controller chip for mineral oil with pins drawing heat from the oil to the Alum heat sink above

    I should be ready with a prototype the day after XPoint SSD's (that do not exhibit thermal throttling) obsolete, and then we can call it a day
  • Bullwinkle J Moose - Saturday, July 8, 2017 - link

    "make this obsolete"
  • Bullwinkle J Moose - Saturday, July 8, 2017 - link

    There's still something missing......

    Foamed Copper Fins?

    no........

    RACING STRIPES!

    gotta have those

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