Review TeamGroup T-Force Dark AirFlow I SSD Cooler Review: The strongest NVMe heatsink you can buy

[Admin]

The T-Force Dark AirFlow I SSD Cooler is an NVMe heatsink that packs an active fan, but does it really need active cooling?

TeamGroup T-Force Dark AirFlow I SSD Cooler Review: The strongest NVMe heatsink you can buy : Read more

 

[bit_user]

This could cool a low-end CPU!

I would love to have such a capable cooler for the SoC in my mini PC. My, what crazy times we live in!
: )

The Dark Airflow I supports double-sided SSDs and will keep both sides of the unit cooled effectively, which enables maximum unthrottled performance.

Did you find any way of checking to see how well the bottom side of the SSD was cooled? FWIW, it seems to be only partially-populated:

​

I always thought the best way to use these double-sided coolers would be to put some thermal compound in between where the top & bottom parts of the cooler overlap. That way, you might get more effective transfer of heat from the bottom to the top. If there were a way to measure the temperature of the bottom NAND chips, this hypothesis could be tested.

 

[dmitche31958]

I always loving the Pros and Cons. "Pitch black aesthetic". I view this as a con and I would prefer Pitch white myself. Why are simple personal choices that have no baring on a product considered Pros and Cons? Really.

 

[bit_user]

I always loving the Pros and Cons. "Pitch black aesthetic". I view this as a con and I would prefer Pitch white myself. Why are simple personal choices that have no baring on a product considered Pros and Cons? Really.

Yeah, it seems like such subjective points really should be listed under a separate category, like Other Points of Interest.

 

[Notton]

In my experience, cooling the underside of an SSD is all about slapping on the thickest thermal pad that the mobo allows. The top side cooler does a decent job of sucking away the heat, if it's large enough.

I would love to have such a capable cooler for the SoC in my mini PC. My, what crazy times we live in!

If you need replacement heatsinks for a N100, like I did, definitely look at old northbridge/VGA coolers, 1U server CPU heatsinks, and mosfet heatsinks.
If the heatsink mounting holes are non-standard length, you can use a slotted flat metal repair bracket, some washers, and longer screws (usually M2 or M3) to mount it.

I had an old Thermalright HR-05 with most of the hardware needed for completely passive cooling.

 

[bit_user]

In my experience, cooling the underside of an SSD is all about slapping on the thickest thermal pad that the mobo allows.

Thermal pads are far less heat-conductive than aluminum or copper, so you'd rather have one that's thin and devote excess room to a thicker backplate. If someone were serious about M.2 backside cooling, I'd expect the bottom part should be made of copper.

If you need replacement heatsinks for a N100, like I did, definitely look at old northbridge/VGA coolers, 1U server CPU heatsinks, and mosfet heatsinks.

Thanks for the advice, but being BGA the boards each tend to have custom-spaced mounting holes. My SoC is the N97, which has higher power & frequency limits. I can get CPU + GPU workloads to push package power up to 18 W (software-reported). At that point, system power is mysteriously 48 W, though I'm not sure where the other 30 W goes. You can feel everything else on the board and the CPU is far-and-away the hottest thing. Even the VRM isn't very hot.

If the heatsink mounting holes are non-standard length, you can use a slotted flat metal repair bracket,

Not sure what you mean by "length". Can you give an example of "slotted flat metal repair bracket"? Not sure if it would help me.

 

[Notton]

Not sure what you mean by "length". Can you give an example of "slotted flat metal repair bracket"? Not sure if it would help me.

This stuff is usually used for wood furniture repair, but can also be used to clamp down a heatsink.
caveat: the heatsink needs to have a flat top
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09XX22BSF

 

[PEnns]

The SSD coolers are getting ever bigger by the day.

At this rate, the inside of a PC would look like a Manhattan silhouette!

 

[dwd999]

For those of us who obsess about such things, it would be interesting to try one of these with a Noctua NF-A4x10 or NF-A4x20 PWM fan to see if its quieter. Although those fans do not come in black.

 

[Albert.Thomas]

Did you find any way of checking to see how well the bottom side of the SSD was cooled? FWIW, it seems to be only partially-populated:

​

I don't have a way of separately measuring the temperature of the bottom NAND, but if the bottom isn't cooled properly throttling is observed in my tests.

 

[Amdlova]

I got a 22110 here with some thermal pads on bottom of ssd you can make the motherboard grab some heat. But will be a limit over time before the ssd hit the limit wall.

Put an old am3 atlhon fan 70x70mm at lowest rpm (650 rpm) just to maintain the temperature of the components

 

[bit_user]

I got a 22110 here

Same. The only double-sided 110 mm heatsink I found, that covers the full length of both sides, is this:

JEYI 22110 SSD Heatsink M.2 NVME Radiator Aluminum
https://www.ebay.com/itm/155880372217

https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256805322538618.html

 

[TheJoker2020]

I would prefer Pitch white myself.

https://www.etymonline.com/search?q=pitch

As you see from this rather old word, it is descriptive of something, and that something happens to be very black, and became a phrase "pitch black", ergo there is no such thing as "pitch white" any more than there is "pitch red", blue, green etc because they would then not be "pitch".