If a few weeks ago we talked about RAM modules with active cooling and, therefore, with fans, this time we bring you a heatsink with active cooling in the style of a central processor or CPU, but for an M2 SSD unit. Is this M2-Three from the Chinese company Jiushark really necessary or is it just a mere curiosity with no short-term use for our PCs?
There are two trends that are inevitable in terms of hardware, the first is that their processors have more power, their memories with greater capacity. This causes communication to be faster and faster. Well, while the performance per watt of components increases, the number of components increases more and more every number of years. One of the biggest factors? The amount of information that is transmitted between components is the biggest concern and we are finding that certain components are already beginning to require more complex cooling.
Jiushark M2-Three, active cooling for M.2 SSD drives
If you look at the photo below these lines, what you will see is a heatsink with a fan like the one we usually place on processors in order to keep them cool. However, it sits not on top of a CPU, but rather a solid-state drive. Which at the moment is something that is still anecdotal and is not necessary. Although as the speed of communication increases with the adoption of subsequent generations of PCI Express, this type of cooling will become more and more necessary.
And it is that the M.2 SSDs in a few months will adopt the PCI Express 5.0 standard that doubles the bandwidth compared to the current one. The problem? Well, the consumption per transmitted data is not reduced in the same way and this is more heat released in the PC with the new generations of solid state drives. At the moment the current passive heatsinks do the job, but in the future and with the appearance of faster units we may find ourselves with hotter units. So the concept is to add active cooling based on placing a fan to circulate the air and lower temperatures.
It can be said that this Juishark M2-Three manages to reduce the temperature generated by an SSD by half . Specifically a 500 GB Samsung 980 Pro. Its price? Between US$8.80 and US$13.30 , with the black version being the most expensive. Of course, at the moment they are only available in the Chinese market .
Technical specifications, pros and cons
- 35.5 mm thick, 74.5 mm long and 82 mm high.
- 113g total weight including fan.
- The fan is of the 6610 type, can rotate up to 3000 RPM, with a capacity of up to 14 CFM and generates 25.4 dBA of noise.
- The heatsink is an aluminum block with 27 fins.
- The structure that holds the different pieces is made of stainless steel.
It is still a curious piece, however, solid-state drives still do not generate enough heat to require cooling of this type. Of course, every product has its associated utility, and this seems to be more likely to be designed for data centers that store information in several units on a single computer and need to be connected 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. In such equipment it is necessary to always be at the right temperatures and any help is always welcome.
To finish, it is also not necessary to highlight the fact that a component of this type is unfeasible to be able to mount it on a laptop. Since they are the most used type of home PC, we do not believe that the temperatures reached by NVMe SSDs reach the limits of needing a heatsink like this M2-Three.
