This Insane M.2 SSD Cooler Will Blow You Away

News
By
last updated

The ElecGear M11 M.2 SSD cooler promises a 12°C to 25°C temperature drop.

ElecGear
(Image credit: ElecGear)

Some ultra-high-end M.2-2280 SSDs tend to overheat under high loads, which is why some users tend to install high-performance aftermarket coolers on such drives. We have recently seen ultra-large M.2 coolers with heat pipes and a fan from RaidSonic and a couple of other makers. But ElecGear probably decided to outperform all of them with its M11 cooler in terms of performance, usability, dimensions, and... noise levels. 

The ElecGear M11 M.2-2280 SSD cooler (discovered by @momomo_us) features two aluminum heatsinks, a backplate, a 6-mm heat pipe that is in direct contact with the drive, and a 30mm high-pressure fan that spins at up to 9300 RPM producing a 3.16 CFM airflow (rather strong for such a small fan). The heat pipe removes the heat directly from the SSD controller and 3D NAND memory chips and transfers it to the larger heatsink that is cooled down using the PWM-controlled fan. The manufacturer bundles thermal paste and pads with the cooler.

(Image credit: ElecGear)

From a performance point of view, ElecGear promises that the M1 can lower the temperature of a high-performance SSD by 12°C to 25°C, which is impressive if you are dealing with a drive that overheats under high loads (which tends to happen to today's best SSDs with a PCIe 4.0 x4 interface). Since some next-generation PCIe 5.0 controllers may actually get even hotter under heavy loads, cooling could become even more critical on the upcoming Gen5 M.2 SSDs.

Measuring 83×32.6×52 mm (3.15×1.32×2.05 inches), the ElecGear M11 is actually the largest M.2 coolers that we have encountered thus far (including those two from RaidSonic), so users should ensure that such a big device can fit into their rigs. Meanwhile, a good thing is that the larger radiator is height and angle adjustable, which is meant to improve its compatibility.

(Image credit: ElecGear)

There is no word about the noise levels this fan produces, but typical numbers for 30mm 9000-RPM high airflow fans vary between 25 dBA and 30 dBA. While the noise levels are not that high (they are in line with what we see from larger coolers), keep in mind that the noise emitted by large fans resembles humming, whereas noises produced by small fans are close to whining. 

ElecGear's M11 SSD is now available from Amazon for $27.98.

See more Cooling News
Anton Shilov
Anton Shilov
Contributing Writer

Anton Shilov is a contributing writer at Tom’s Hardware. Over the past couple of decades, he has covered everything from CPUs and GPUs to supercomputers and from modern process technologies and latest fab tools to high-tech industry trends.

18 Comments Comment from the forums
  • gargoylenest
    I am not sure about the usefulness of such a drastic cooling method for a SSD, but at least price is decent.
    Reply
  • pixelpusher220
    gargoylenest said:
    I am not sure about the usefulness of such a drastic cooling method for a SSD, but at least price is decent.
    The HP All-In-One Big Vat o Oil cooling system really isn't far off. If everything needs specialized cooling, and we seem to be going that way, pretty soon the 2 cooler custom loops are going to look downright quaint.
    Reply
  • georgebaker437
    Really! This product is sitting on that fine line between silly and stupid.
    Reply
  • brandonjclark
    Do you guys remember those electric bug-destroying "guns" that were essentially vaccums that kids could run around with in the summer and chop up little bugs?

    I imagine this thing sounds like that.
    Reply
  • expired56k
    gargoylenest said:
    I am not sure about the usefulness of such a drastic cooling method for a SSD, but at least price is decent.

    Based on personal experience this would depend on many factors including SSD itself, case airflow and most importantly usage. In most consumer scenarios you are unlikely to put enough load on that SSD for it to get really hot but in work usage, they can get blistering hot and this results in throttling. So while it won't fail, you just won't get the performance you paid for. Regarding this specific cooler, I'm not sure one would be able to fit it as most boards have NVMe drive obstructed by other hardware. But like you said, at least price is reasonable so would be worth trying. I'd start with just a HW monitor to see where your SSD temps are and if you even card to bother with something like this. I might worry about its weight on the SSD and slot as neither is designed to bear the heft of such a cooler.
    Reply
  • TechLurker
    I have one of these to help cool an second, lower (on the mobo) NVMe that the normal aesthetic aluminum slab "heatsink" on the mobo couldn't. Main thing I don't like is that it's effectively installed "backwards", pushing air against the flow coming from front-mounted fans, and looking rather out-of-place when everything else is set up in front-back and bottom-up airflow pattern. Noise at full power isn't very notable vs the soft "whoosh" of air coming from the front fans (which were set at a higher RPM more to pull air through the fine dust filters I installed for dust management). My main concern is actually the longevity of the fan, as it doesn't look like replacement fans are readily available and if it somehow dies, I'd have to rubber-band or zip-tie a tiny Noctua to it, further ruining the aesthetic.

    Installing it with the fan facing the proper way is a major PITA, if not borderline impossible, simply due to the way the copper pipe is in the way of the M.2 screw even when angled off.
    Reply
  • Co BIY
    I'd like to see Tom's request a test sample and give it a proper review.

    More fodder for the best cooler article.

    Even passive I can see this working much better than a grooved aluminum slab.
    Reply
  • hannibal
    This is mean to be used in formula 1 racing games and similar. You get real turbo whine!

    :ROFLMAO:
    Reply
  • sizzling
    Small case mod and this will look great on a PS5 :ROFLMAO:
    Reply
  • Darkbreeze
    Actually, this looks like a fairly clever design and if the performance is even half of advertised, probably a very good option. I too would like to see Tom's or another site do a legitimate review on this product as it's relevance might become increasingly obvious as these drives get hotter and hotter, since they are already problematic enough in some scenarios to warrant the use of some form of cooling.
    Reply