Hmm...its too bad products like this are actually useful. Granted we are packing a lot of storage capacity that can read and write data quite rapidly into a very small space so heat problems are to be expected, but it is a pity that companies designing such storage technologies aren't paying closer attention to thermal issues. It does leave room for quick-reacting companies to slice and paint some metal bits to land sales though.
There are companies selling PC DIY market oriented products with heatsinks.
An issue is that the m.2 spec itself has Z height restrictions and therefore OEM products and specifically things like notebooks/laptops would require that m.2 products used for them meet those small Z height restrictions.
Further more if say 90% of your user base is going to rely on burst work loads that aren't affected by the thermal issue while only 10% is, which group do you spec and optimize your design for? The real distribution would be even less in of % of workload affected by thermal issues.
It seems overpriced to me. I'd understand if it was copper, but... it isn't. Aluminum doesn't cost that much. A bag of stick-on heatsinks is what, five bucks? I think they're literally buying the same stock extrusion and then making fewer cuts.
I'm sure they have excellent quality control and design to make sure this won't be some cheap pieach of metal attach to your SSD, for the price it is more expensive than their regular m. 2 heatsink but remmber that they are selling it for very limited audience that have no issue paying the extra considering the price of the optane drives. Again this is not your average 5$ mass produced chinese crap that has horrible design.
You're probably right. In looking more closely at it, the design seems remarkably similar to the plethora of RPi heatsinks so EKWB probably put in a bulk order from a similar supplier for the same design cut at longer intervals. I highly doubt a company like EKWB owns the manufacturing and machining capacity to produce most of what they design, but instead farms it out to other comapanies. I mean even Apple just submits a design to Quanta for their laptops and gets a finished product back.
Already exists. Saw it on Amazon just a couple minutes ago. Tiny blower fan with a SATA power connector. Actually, for less than what EK is asking for this one.
Just checked newegg and this heatsink is offered for free with purchase of 905 M.2. Eagre to read review of this SSD and if it does really need that heatsink to keep controller cool.
Actually there is a perfect solution to all of these thermal dissipation issues for Optane. And it's really pretty simple. Just don't purchase any flavor of Optane in m.2 format. Problem solved. In fact, you could just go a step further and avoid anything in m.2 format. Then you'll never have to deal with any of it's shortcomings.
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PeachNCream - Thursday, February 14, 2019 - link
Hmm...its too bad products like this are actually useful. Granted we are packing a lot of storage capacity that can read and write data quite rapidly into a very small space so heat problems are to be expected, but it is a pity that companies designing such storage technologies aren't paying closer attention to thermal issues. It does leave room for quick-reacting companies to slice and paint some metal bits to land sales though.limitedaccess - Thursday, February 14, 2019 - link
There are companies selling PC DIY market oriented products with heatsinks.An issue is that the m.2 spec itself has Z height restrictions and therefore OEM products and specifically things like notebooks/laptops would require that m.2 products used for them meet those small Z height restrictions.
Further more if say 90% of your user base is going to rely on burst work loads that aren't affected by the thermal issue while only 10% is, which group do you spec and optimize your design for? The real distribution would be even less in of % of workload affected by thermal issues.
Lord of the Bored - Friday, February 15, 2019 - link
It seems overpriced to me. I'd understand if it was copper, but... it isn't. Aluminum doesn't cost that much. A bag of stick-on heatsinks is what, five bucks? I think they're literally buying the same stock extrusion and then making fewer cuts.This is the cheapest possible heatsink design.
Eliadbu - Friday, February 15, 2019 - link
I'm sure they have excellent quality control and design to make sure this won't be some cheap pieach of metal attach to your SSD, for the price it is more expensive than their regular m. 2 heatsink but remmber that they are selling it for very limited audience that have no issue paying the extra considering the price of the optane drives. Again this is not your average 5$ mass produced chinese crap that has horrible design.PeachNCream - Friday, February 15, 2019 - link
You don't understand manufacturing and branding do you?Eliadbu - Friday, February 15, 2019 - link
More than youPeachNCream - Friday, February 15, 2019 - link
Clearly not.Lord of the Bored - Saturday, February 16, 2019 - link
It is an aluminum heatsink, of the simplest kind. How much design and quality control do you think there is?Like I said, if there's any sanity in their production process they're buying a stock extrusion and cutting it to length.
PeachNCream - Friday, February 15, 2019 - link
You're probably right. In looking more closely at it, the design seems remarkably similar to the plethora of RPi heatsinks so EKWB probably put in a bulk order from a similar supplier for the same design cut at longer intervals. I highly doubt a company like EKWB owns the manufacturing and machining capacity to produce most of what they design, but instead farms it out to other comapanies. I mean even Apple just submits a design to Quanta for their laptops and gets a finished product back.watzupken - Thursday, February 14, 2019 - link
At the rate they are going, I am not surprise an active cooling solution is not that far away. Intel's Optane while fast consumes too much power.Lord of the Bored - Friday, February 15, 2019 - link
Already exists. Saw it on Amazon just a couple minutes ago. Tiny blower fan with a SATA power connector. Actually, for less than what EK is asking for this one.Chaitanya - Friday, February 15, 2019 - link
Just checked newegg and this heatsink is offered for free with purchase of 905 M.2. Eagre to read review of this SSD and if it does really need that heatsink to keep controller cool.jabber - Friday, February 15, 2019 - link
I just fix a small Raspberry Pi type heatsink to the controller and be done with it.Magichands8 - Saturday, February 16, 2019 - link
Actually there is a perfect solution to all of these thermal dissipation issues for Optane. And it's really pretty simple. Just don't purchase any flavor of Optane in m.2 format. Problem solved. In fact, you could just go a step further and avoid anything in m.2 format. Then you'll never have to deal with any of it's shortcomings.