Team Group Launches Liquid-Cooled M.2 NVMe SSD

Team Group has launched the world's first liquid-cooled M.2 SSD, which we first saw earlier this year at Computex. The Cardea Liquid SSD features a self-cooling liquid design that the company says has been proven to lower operating temperatures by up to 10 degrees Celsius.

(Image credit: Team Group)

The Cardea Liquid SSD complies with the M.2 2280 form factor, but due to its liquid cooling system, the drive measures 83.9mm long and 14.1mm high. It communicates with your system through a typical PCIe 3.0 x4 interface and respects the NVMe 1.3 protocol. Due to the liquid cooling aspect of the drive, the Cardea Liquid is recommended for desktop computers. It certainly isn't going to fit in a laptop.

(Image credit: Team Group)

Team Group's patented self-circulation cooling system consists of transferring the heat from the SSD to the aluminum alloy heatsink through silicone thermal conductive pads. The heatsink is actively cooled with liquid through a convection process. The drive has a translucent indicator on the left of its transparent body so you know when to adjust the balance between the coolant and air. The black sliding rail gives you access to a screw inlet so you can add more coolant or replace the default blue coolant with another color. Team Group notes that you should only use the brand's special coolant and avoid using tap water or distilled water as it will reduce the cooling system's efficiency.

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ModelProduct NumberCapacitySequential ReadSequential WriteRandom ReadRandom WriteEndurance
Cardea Liquid 1TBTM8FP5001T0C1191TB3,400 MBps3,000 MBps450,000 IOPS400,000 IOPS1,665 TBW
Cardea Liquid 512GBTM8FP5512G0C119512GB3,400 MBps2,000 MBps350,000 IOPS300,000 IOPS800 TBW
Cardea Liquid 256GBTM8FP5256G0C119256 GB3,000 MBps1,000 MBps200,000 IOPS200,000 IOPS380 TBW

Team Group backs its Cardea Liquid SSD with a limited three-year warranty. The manufacturer offers the SSD in three capacities: 256GB, 512GB and 1TB. The 1TB drive has the highest specifications of the trio. It boasts sequential read and write speeds of 3,400 MBps and 3,000 MBps, respectively. Random read and write performance is rated for 450,000 IOPS and 400,000 IOPS, respectively. The 1TB model has a 1,665 TBW (terabytes written) rating.

The 512GB model offers sequential performance in the range of 3,400 MBps reads and 2,000 MBps writes. Random read and write speeds go up to 350,000 IOPS and 300,000 IOPS, respectively. Team Group rates the 512GB model for 800 TBW. Lastly, the 256GB model delivers sequential read and write speeds of 3,000 MBps and 1,000 MBps, respectively and random read and write speeds of 200,000 IOPS. It has an endurance of 380 TBW.

Team Group didn't reveal the Cardea Liquid's pricing or availability.

Zhiye Liu
News Editor and Memory Reviewer

Zhiye Liu is a news editor and memory reviewer at Tom’s Hardware. Although he loves everything that’s hardware, he has a soft spot for CPUs, GPUs, and RAM.

  • Giroro
    Their special coolant is highly refined ultra-pure 100% genuine snake oil.
    Reply
  • bit_user
    This is too gimmicky. If it needs better cooling than a solid heatsink, they should really just use a vapor chamber. That would not only work better, but be maintenance-free, as well. I'm not even sure it would cost much more.
    Reply
  • salgado18
    Interesting, but it should be actually useful on PCIe 4.0 drives, which reach higher speeds and probably create more heat.
    Reply
  • TJ Hooker
    Team Group's patented self-circulation cooling system consists of transferring the heat from the SSD to the aluminum alloy heatsink through silicone thermal conductive pads. The heatsink is actively cooled with liquid through a convection process.
    So there is some sort of tiny pump in there? Because that's the only way I could see it being appropriate to call it "active". Regardless, I fail to see how circulating what looks like on the order of maybe 10 ml of liquid is going to help.

    This looks like it was designed for people who think "liquid cooling" is automatically superior but don't actually understand how it works. Liquid cooling is just a heat transfer medium that allows heat to be moved from the component to a rad with a large surface area to dissipate heat. Given that liquid doesn't seem to have anywhere to go nor any radiator to transfer heat to for this product, I don't see the point. In fact, given the whole thing appears to be enclosed in plastic, it may actually be somewhat insulated, possibly reducing its ability to transfer heat into the air that is blowing through the case.

    I guess the liquid would add a bit of thermal mass, which could help for cooling for short, busty loads. But just having a bigger metal heatsink would accomplish the same thing, but probably better.
    Reply
  • bit_user
    TJ Hooker said:
    So there is some sort of tiny pump in there? Because that's the only way I could see it being appropriate to call it "active". Regardless, I fail to see how circulating what looks like on the order of maybe 10 ml of liquid is going to help.
    Yeah, I had the same thoughts, but too lazy to find better pics or info to see if it's truly active or just mislabeled.

    TJ Hooker said:
    This looks like it was designed for people who think "liquid cooling" is automatically superior but don't actually understand how it works.
    At some level, I think someone must've understood that. IMO, this is a cynical marketing ploy to play on "liquid cooling" and fancy RGB lighting.
    Reply
  • Gam3r01
    If I had to guess, they are only using the liquid as a larger thermal buffer for the drive. Yes it operates at a lower temp for short periods of time, but once the liquid heats up its just going to run the same.

    I would be willing to bet their 10C claim is only reflected in short length tests.
    Reply