ASRock To Bring The Chill To Toasty PCIe Gen 5 SSD Temps With A Cooler That Blows
by
Zak Killian
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Monday, March 20, 2023, 02:50 PM EDT
PCIe 5.0 SSDs are about to be out, and they're super-fast, with peak transfer rates up over 12 GB/second. Anything moving data around that quickly is going to use some significant power to do it, and as you are likely already aware if you read this site regularly, PCIe 5.0 SSDs get pretty warm. There's a variety of companies selling SSD coolers already, but ASRock is throwing its hat into the ring with the Blazing M.2 Fan-Heatsink.
If you're familiar with ASRock nomenclature, you'll know that Hyper M.2 are PCIe 4.0 slots, and Blazing M.2 are PCIe 5.0 slots. Indeed, this heatsink is specifically intended for PCIe 5.0 SSDs installed in particular ASRock X670E, B650(E), and Z790 motherboards, although we're not completely clear on any reason that it wouldn't work in other motherboards including those from other vendors.
The product seems to have been engineered based on the cooler already included with a few of the company's motherboards, such as the ASRock X670E Taichi. To be frank, it looks hilariously oversized—ASRock doesn't give any performance numbers, but we suspect it could probably significantly drop the temperatures of an SSD even without the built-in fan, and that might be a preferable option if you have good airflow and are noise-sensitive.
As effective as it looks, most motherboards like to place their M.2 sockets in and around the spaces between the PCIe slots. With this thing installed on an M.2 drive between your PCIe slots, you might have a hard time cramming a card into the nearby slots—especially considering how big current high-end graphics cards are.
ASRock hasn't said when the Blazing M.2 Fan-Heatsink will be available, but TechPowerUp reports that it should be around $30 when it hits store shelves.