You know you've made it when you have a gold-plated SSD heatsink
As SSDs get faster and faster, it only makes sense that they get hotter and hotter. A heatsink on an SSD is a good solution to mitigate this, but if you're like me, you like to keep things stylish and flashy. These shiny metal heatsinks by EK will cool your SSDs while also looking cool.
The EK-Quantum Convection heatsink is a passive aluminum block for M.2 NVMe SSDs. According to the product page, it will "prevent thermal throttling in cases with sufficient airflow or otherwise significantly prolong the time before thermal throttling of the SSD occurs," which is precisely what heatsinks are supposed to do. So a gold star for EK there.
The heatsinks are made of "high-grade" aluminum with a nickel finish and are plated with real gold. The colors available are black, silver, nickel, and gold. What's surprising is that EK is not going the liquid cooling route considering its Quantum line of products is all about that. And it's not like we haven't seen companies put a liquid cooler on an SSD to stave off throttling.
This heatsink is compatible with single and double-sided M.2 NVMe SSDs, and it's tested on drives up to 4TB. Unfortunately, EK doesn't indicate how well it cools down the SSD though it should be better than not having a heatsink on your SSD.
Installation seems pretty straightforward, you flip the backplate, and it'll align with the mounting holes to another set of screws on the heatsink. The backplate moves away from the heatsink's main body, leaving room for double-sided SSDs. Essentially nothing someone with a little screwdriver and a positive attitude can't handle.
So, do you need a heatsink for your M.2. NVMe SSD? I'd say so. The larger storage density on these drives leads to overheating, affecting performance. A heatsink will help preserve its longevity and how long it'll maintain top performance during large file transfers. Now, do you need a fancy gold-plated heatsink? Only you can answer that. Do I need a fancy gold-plated heatsink? My wallet says no, but my heart says yes.
The heatsinks are available through the EK website. They retail for $36 and ship in about a week. Until then, I'll be here thinking about how good my SSD will look in gold.