Today we’ll be looking at a NVMe SSD heatsink from Ineo, a company I had never heard of Ineo until I went shopping for NVMe heat sinks on Amazon. According to Ineo’s website, they were founded 16 years ago in California and their headquarters are located in New Taipei City, Taiwan. Their product lineup currently includes things like USB to NVMe adapters, Hard drive bays, USB hubs, headphones and speakers, and what we’re reviewing today – NVMe heat sinks.
I recently reviewed Ineo’s M12 heatsink, a rather unique SSD heatsink that utilizes an array of copper heatpipes. This review will cover Ineo’s M4 SSD heatsink, which is a more traditional form factor of heatsink. But it wouldn’t be Ineo without a unique twist – this heatsink incorporates a copper heatpipe and a small fan for heat dissipation.
Packaging
Ineo’s M4 heatsink arrives in a small box about as long as my hand.
Opening the box reveals the m.2 heatsink and fan, protected by molded cardboard. Underneath the cardboard is the base of the unit, screwdriver, and other parts.
Features of Ineo’s M4 SSD Heatsink
Quiet fan that provides active cooling
The biggest feature of Ineo’s M4 C2600-II heatsink is that it incorporates a quiet 20mm fan to provide active cooling to the unit. It really is quiet too – I wasn’t able to perceive it’s sound separate from the sound of my system fans.
Large Heatsink Fins
The fins of the heatsink have been designed with the unit’s 20mm fan in mind, giving the air pathways to flow in order to move the heat from the SSD efficiently.
Copper Heatpipe to facilitate heat transfer
Most NVMe heatsinks are made of “only” a heatsink, Ineo’s model has a copper heatpipe to facilitate thermal transfer from the SSD to the heatsink.
Specifications
Installation
The installation of the SSD heatsink is extremely simple.
Step 1) Apply the thermal pad to the base, remove the plastic peel, and insert the m.2 SSD
Step 2) Apply the second thermal pad to the top of the SSD (don’t forget to remove the plastic peel!), and then secure the heatsink to the base using the included screws and screwdriver.
Step 3) Secure the heatsink and SSD to a m.2 slot on your motherboard
Benchmarks & Testing Configuration
To test the performance of the heatsinks cooling ability, I’ve run a custom IOMeter script which takes 30 minutes to complete testing. This script is designed to cause the drive, and especially it’s controller, to create as much heat as possible. You might consider it a “Furmark” of SSD testing, it’s a power virus designed for the purpose of testing NVMe cooling.
CPU: Intel i7-13700K
Motherboard: MSI Z690 A Pro DDR4
Computer Case: BeQuiet Silent Base 802, System fans set to low
SSD: TeamGroup T-Force Z540 PCI-e 5 SSD
Comparison Coolers:
Uncooled SSD
BeQuiet MC1 and MC1 Pro Heatsinks
Ineo M4 Heatsink
Ineo M12 Heatsink – Previous review at Boring Text Reviews
While the SSD being used is capable of PCI-e 5 speeds, the motherboard is not. This might reduce the total potential heat output, but in my limited testing thus far PCI-e 4 hasn’t prevented testing from getting the drive hot.
Thermal Performance
Ineo’s addition of a small, active fan proved useful. Ineo’s M4 C2600-II SSD cooler kept the SSD 9 degrees cooler than BeQuiet’s MC1 Pro, which features a similar design without a fan.
Conclusion
Having an active fan for an SSD might have seemed strange in the past, but for modern storage solutions it can provide a welcome boost to thermal performance. At $19.99 Ineo’s M4 heatsink is a bit more expensive than most other units, which usually run about $10 USD – but it also cools the SSD much more effectively.
If this were a more expensive item, I might balk at paying twice as much as competing units – but it’s $20. In my opinion, it’s worth investing a few bucks into your SSD cooling – not only will it allow your drive to operate a peak performance, but it will also increase it’s lifespan and reliability.
