Teamgroup shows off SSD cooling including a 120mm radiator — seems a bit overkill for 12W M.2 SSDs

Photograph of TeamGroup's new SSD coolers from the Computex 2024 show floor
(Image credit: Tom's Hardware)

Here at Computex 2024, we've seen no shortage of peculiar sights, but the innovations in SSD cooling being showcased by Teamgroup have raised particular interest. They will certainly vary in installation viability depending on the specifications of your case, particularly in Mini ITX cases and HTPC/SFF builds in general. Though considering the width of some modern 2-slot and 3-slot GPUs, some of these should still work in those more confined PC builds.

So, the most immediately striking of the SSD coolers on display definitely has to be T-Force GD120S, which takes a typical NVMe cooling shroud and turns it into a watercooling pump attached to a full 120mm radiator and fan. This is obviously somewhat ridiculous, but our prior NVMe benchmarking with TeamGroup's own T-Force Dark Airflow cooler showed that these enhanced designs are making more sense in an era where uncooled SSDs can actually reach GPU temperatures (80C+).

Most of the other designs look like they should more feasibly fit inside modern SFF PC builds, or at least a moderately thick Micro ATX PC build. Since the height of these coolers from the board seems to roughly fall in line with modern GPUs, any PC case that can fit those GPUs and has an open NVMe slot above them shouldn't have too much issue with these, though it will certainly make cable management a bigger headache in confined builds.

In my opinion, the most viable design is probably the Teamgroup T-Force AF06, since it uses a highly-compact design and even has a mini fan built in. While this still won't fit in something like a laptop, it should work in virtually any actual HTPC/SFF PC build, perhaps even modding projects on other existing enclosures. The others all use fans as well, but are tall enough that they're a guaranteed hassle to cable management. RAM and CPU cooler clearance could also be a concern in some builds.

Another wildly creative design here is the T-Force WF-01, which more or less functions as a full AIO liquid cooler unit with a fan and radiator integrated as one in unholy fusion. It's almost certainly overkill, but it's still pretty cool, and harkens back to hybrid AIO GPU coolers. The T-Force AF04, AF05, and AF03 also look kind of cool, but are pretty standard heatsink-and-fan designs in comparison.

We don't have any benchmarks for these to remark on, so the statements on cooling performance enhancements introduced by these new SSD heatsink and cooler designs will have to be tested to be trusted. However, considering Teamgroup's existing SSD cooling track record... there is certainly promise here. The GPU-shaped RAM cooler might be a little sillier, though.

Christopher Harper
Contributing Writer

Christopher Harper has been a successful freelance tech writer specializing in PC hardware and gaming since 2015, and ghostwrote for various B2B clients in High School before that. Outside of work, Christopher is best known to friends and rivals as an active competitive player in various eSports (particularly fighting games and arena shooters) and a purveyor of music ranging from Jimi Hendrix to Killer Mike to the Sonic Adventure 2 soundtrack.

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  • blackcatdown
    The author of this article clearly isn't very knowledgeable when it comes to SFF builds if he's somehow suggesting that these monstrosities would be suitable for SFF.

    The vast majority of ITX motherboards on the market places the m.2 slots sufficiently close to the socket such that the CPU cooler overhangs the slot and therefore none of the SSD coolers shown here would have a remote chance of fitting.

    The only thing guaranteed to work in SFF systems is either the stock heatspreader included with the motherboard, or a simple low profile finned heatspreader (similar to the offerings from EK and BeQuiet)
    Reply
  • TheyCallMeContra
    blackcatdown said:
    The author of this article clearly isn't very knowledgeable when it comes to SFF builds if he's somehow suggesting that these monstrosities would be suitable for SFF.

    The vast majority of ITX motherboards on the market places the m.2 slots sufficiently close to the socket such that the CPU cooler overhangs the slot and therefore none of the SSD coolers shown here would have a remote chance of fitting.

    The only thing guaranteed to work in SFF systems is either the stock heatspreader included with the motherboard, or a simple low profile finned heatspreader (similar to the offerings from EK and BeQuiet)

    I would of course advise anybody to double check exact dimensions (which we do not have yet) before buying something like this when released, particularly in SFF, but you see. I myself use a Mini ITX motherboard inside a modded NZXT H210 with a ventilated front panel, and I have eyes.

    The taller ones of these wouldn't be suitable, I agree— but looking at my own PC on my desk right now, I'm reasonably certain I have the open height above my already-occupied NVMe slot for at least one of these. My CPU cooler (a low-profile Noctua air-cooler) isn't overhanging MY NVMe drive (and if I started using an AIO that wouldn't be a factor at all)...so maybe you should learn a little more about SFF PCs before talking sideways like this? Just a thought.
    Reply
  • blackcatdown
    TheyCallMeContra said:
    I would of course advise anybody to double check exact dimensions (which we do not have yet) before buying something like this when released, particularly in SFF, but you see. I myself use a Mini ITX motherboard inside a modded NZXT H210 with a ventilated front panel, and I have eyes.

    The taller ones of these wouldn't be suitable, I agree— but looking at my own PC on my desk right now, I'm reasonably certain I have the open height above my already-occupied NVMe slot for at least one of these. My CPU cooler (a low-profile Noctua air-cooler) isn't overhanging MY NVMe drive (and if I started using an AIO that wouldn't be a factor at all)...so maybe you should learn a little more about SFF PCs before talking sideways like this? Just a thought.
    Been building my ITX systems since 2007 when I got my first Shuttle barebone so I'm somewhat familiar with SFF PCs. I've also seen the trend of modern ITX motherboards that builds up ridiculous amount of daughterboards adjacent to the CPU socket, so cooler overhang interference is quite a big issue indeed within the SFF community.

    Speaking of cooler. I take it from your comment that you're using the NH-L9, which is the one cooler out of two in their entire lineup that does not extend outside the socket keep out zone (and is also the least capable cooler on their current lineup). Your case isn't particularly small for a SFF system (it's a 26.5L tower that only takes ITX motherboard, which seems laughably inefficient considering my daily driver is in the Salvo S700, a 26L tower that takes a full sized ATX motherboard, a RTX3080 and two 280mm rads). Which begs the question, what kind of system/use case are you using where you're comfortable with a 65W cooler for the CPU but need so much throughput on your SSD that necessitate one of these SSD coolers? Doesn't seem very intuitive to my simpleton mind, perhaps you could elaborate on your daily tasks for this machine.

    I don't disagree that there are some combination of cases and coolers that will make it possible to use the monstrosities depicted in this article, but any cursory glance at what's popular on the market (the likes of the A4-H20, CM NR200, FormD T1, SSUPD Meshies, FD Ridge & Terra) shows that the vast majority of builds people are actually using would be unable to make use of these excessively tall SSD coolers, especially sandwich cases. And for the SFF cases where coolers with no overhang are popular (NH-L9, Thermalright AXP-47 and the likes), are the cases where you ACTUALLY need those low profile coolers due to height restrictions (for example the Velka 3 or Densium cases), and for these cases you won't be able to use these tall SSD coolers either, they'd crash into the side panels.

    So can you give me some plausible examples of cases and coolers where these SSD heatsink makes sense? (not counting your own example of your PC somehow choosing to use the NH-L9 cooler in an NZXT case the size of an aircraft carrier).

    My disagreement with the author of the article is with the fact that he's suggesting that the SSD heatsink are suitable for SFF builds, no qualification given, which is clearly nonsense.
    Reply
  • TheyCallMeContra
    blackcatdown said:
    My disagreement with the author of the article is with the fact that he's suggesting that the SSD heatsink are suitable for SFF builds, no qualification given, which is clearly nonsense.

    I am the author, and I disagree. I clearly outline that height and cable management are major concerns for these, especially in SFF builds. And considering these aren't even available for purchase yet and these were simply my impressions...

    You aren't paying me enough to bother with the rest of this. Or being particularly polite. So I'm not gonna bother.
    Reply