Aqua Computer Unveils KryoM.2 PCIe Riser, Heatsink, and Block for M.2 SSDs

[btarunr]

M.2 SSDs offer enormous fast transfer rates but the downside is they can also become quite hot. When the temperature reaches a critical point the M.2 SSD starts to throttle which results in a reduced performance. The German-based liquid cooling specialist Aqua Computer has addressed this issue with the high quality PCIe 3.0 4x card kryoM.2 which can be also equipped with a passive heat sink or water block.

The kryoM.2 uses a multilayer PCB with gold surface where the individual layers are connected to each other to optimize the thermal management. To ensure a good quality and reliability the connector for the M.2 SSD comes from Amphenol, the PCIe contacts are plated with hard gold and the circuit paths are impedance controlled.



The M.2 SSD is mounted with a thermal pad so that the adapter card alone can already offer a passive cooling. For the best cooling performance the adapter card can be also used with a passive heat sink made of black anodized aluminum or a water block made of copper. When using these heat sinks a second thermal pad also covers the front side of the M.2 SSD.

The water block offers common G1/4 threads into both directions. The connector terminal is the same as used for Aqua Computers kryographics blocks. This allows using kryoconnect adapter kits to connect several blocks directly with each other.

The kryoM.2 card and the heat sinks can be already ordered through Aqua Computers web-shop. The shipping will start by the end of May.

Available variants and prices (inc. VAT):

• kryoM.2 PCIe 3.0 x4 adapter - 18.90 EUR
• kryoM.2 PCIe 3.0 x4 adapter with passive heat sink - 29.90 EUR
• kryoM.2 PCIe 3.0 x4 adapter with water block - 67.90 EUR
• Passive heat sink for kryoM.2 PCIe 3.0 x4 adapter - 12.90 EUR
• Water block for kryoM.2 PCIe 3.0 x4 adapter - 49.90 EUR

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[Bjørgersson]

Do M.2 SSDs heat so much you have to cool them with heat sinks or even water cooling?

 

[G4M3B0Y]

Did they really show a picture of them applying a heatsink to an SSD with a sticker? Doesn't seem like it will work well.

Do M.2 SSDs heat so much you have to cool them with heat sinks or even water cooling?

Unfortunately yes, there have been instances of thermal throttling with them before.

 

[Chaitanya]

Should be perfect for Samsung 950 Pro.

 

[Crazy zookeepster]

Wouldn't one want to remove the sticker first? I'm almost sure it will be hindering the cooling capacity of the M.2 SSD.

 

[Legacy-ZA]

Well, it's good to know I won't have to upgrade my motherboard anytime soon. I can just use one of these and buy a M.2 drive.

 

[PLAfiller]

I've never even remotely thought about a product like that, but I guess this is the difference between PC enthusiasts- the water-cooling guys have a different perspective .

 

[techy1]

this is actually very useful - there has been a lot of thermal throttling with these ones and in normal conditions 80C+ is not uncommon cuz in many cases those m.2 do not get any air flow at all. By the way - price is good... so guys wanting to upgrade a systems just to get m.2 could skip on costly cpu+mobo+ram upgrade - cuz there is close to zero performance gains in these departments over last 5 years.

 

[nickbaldwin86]

because watercool all the things!!!!

yes it would be useful if you really hit the M.2 hard.

Yes if you removed the sticker it might net you a 2c lower temp. (worth it, NO! just devalued the M.2 completely)

They shouldn't remove the sticker from the product launch because marketing!

 

[n0tiert]

useless due single side cooling, m.2 Card are severall on the market atm

 

[hojnikb]

Now all we need is ability to overclock those suckers

 

[TheinsanegamerN]

Do M.2 SSDs heat so much you have to cool them with heat sinks or even water cooling?

My samsung 950 pro m.2 sits at 52C at idle, and can hit 78C at load, while it begins to throttle speeds. The bottom of my alienware 15r2 gets uncomfortably hot during gaming, but not from the cpu or gpu. Rather, the heat is coming from the SSD compartment.

By contrast, my 1TB mushkin reactor tops out at 40c during sustained transfers. It just wasnt a problem with 2.5 inch sata drives.

useless due single side cooling, m.2 Card are severall on the market atm

Um...what? Yes, m.2 cards have been out for awhile, not sure what that has to do with cooling, and no, being single sided does not make cooling harder. If anything it makes it easier, since you only need to cool one side.

Not really sure what you were going for there.........

 

[thekaidis]

Do M.2 SSDs heat so much you have to cool them with heat sinks or even water cooling?

Heat sinks? Definitely. Water cooling? Definitely no, although there's no kill like overkill.

 

[cristi_io]

I think a small heatsink like the ones on the memory modules would solve the problem. And ofcourse, it would be interesting to mount the M2 SSD like a memodry module, vertically, and thus there would be enough space for airflow/cooling. not to mention enough space to have 2 or 3 M2 SSDs.

 

[broken pixel]

I put heatsinks on my two 950 Pro's, they sit under my GPUs & idle temps are around 40C & hit 54C- 57C when being stressed.

 

[AsRock]

Do M.2 SSDs heat so much you have to cool them with heat sinks or even water cooling?

Normal 2.5 inch SSD's can get a little warm, in fact after their warranty runs out always stick a heat sink on them lol.

 

[xvi]

Well, this makes me sad for the two 950s in my laptop.

The back of the 950 doesn't have anything on it, so only one side should need to be cooled.

 

[Caring1]

Well, this makes me sad for the two 950s in my laptop.

The back of the 950 doesn't have anything on it, so only one side should need to be cooled.

It would make more sense to have the sticker on the rear of the drive, not covering the chips like a blanket on top.
Once exposed it would also make it easier to apply heatsinks directly.

 

[AsRock]

It would make more sense to have the sticker on the rear of the drive, not covering the chips like a blanket on top.
Once exposed it would also make it easier to apply heatsinks directly.

but they not going do that unless the temp is at risk of hitting 70c+, another reason would to make checking if some one has tampered with it or not.

I have found drr3 ram with heat sinks and still have the sticker on the chips lol.

 

[R-T-B]

As someone who has tested both the Angelbird PX1 Wings adapter (similar to this) and a simple pack of Copper heatsinks, the (far cheaper) copper heatsinks work fine to prevent throttling, even with the sticker.

but they not going do that unless the temp is at risk of hitting 70c+

It can. It hits thermal throttle temp (75C) under heavy benchmarking.

 

[AsRock]

As someone who has tested both the Angelbird PX1 Wings adapter (similar to this) and a simple pack of Copper heatsinks, the (far cheaper) copper heatsinks work fine to prevent throttling, even with the sticker.



It can. It hits thermal throttle temp (75C) under heavy benchmarking.

Well don't do heavy benching on a drive you know works lol.

 

[R-T-B]

Well don't do heavy benching on a drive you know works lol.

I was just pointing out it can happen, theoretically a database or something could do the same.

Though I guess that's why these are consumer drives... heh.

 

[Rubble]

Would this work as a sort of add in board, giving Z87 support for example, or Z97 (without an m.2 slot)? Or is this strictly for boards that already have a controller and support for it? Would love to have a 950 pro in my rig but no m.w slot on my mobo

 

[5DVX0130]

The passively cooled version is rather interesting, but considering you can get the same from eBay (adapter $5.5, heatsink $2.5) it’s just not worth it. Even considering the quality premium. Well at least not to me, but I’m sure they will sell plenty of them.

 

[Breit]

Perfect! Time to replace my Angelbird Wings PX1!