EK aims to prevent M.2 SSD throttling with ribbed heatsinks

You will not find these in a vending machine at a truckstop restroom, but if you need some additional protection for your digital bits, EK is promoting new ribbed heatsinks for your M.2 NVMe solid state drives.

"Ribbed heatsink acts as a very effective passive cooler as well as aesthetic cover. Its simple design ensures a sleek, non-intrusive look that can be easily combined with any aesthetical requirement of the user," EK explains.

Kidding aside, ribbed M.2 heatsinks could prove useful if they work as advertised. The thing about M.2 form factor SSDs is that they can heat up in a hurry, and when they do, thermal throttling kicks in. This means your drive is not operating at peak performance.

EK claims its new heatsinks lower temperatures by 8-11C, or even more with "sufficient airflow." That's where the ripped design comes into play—the grooves in the heatsink provide several lanes of airflow so that heat can be whisked away.

These are compact heatsinks that consist of both front and back sections. EK says they will not interfere with other components and are compatible with all single-sided type 2280 M.2 NVMe SSDs.

EK is not the first to dabble with M.2 SSD heatsinks. MSI includes M.2 shields on some of its motherboards, though testing by the folks at GamersNexus showed that temperatures can actually rise when using them. It seems that MSI's specific design has a tendency to trap warm air inside, thereby having the complete opposite effect.

Interestingly, one of EK's product shots show its heatsinks being used on an MSI motherboard. While we have not tested these ourselves, the design certainly looks superior to MSI's M.2 shield.

EK is offering its new heatsinks on its website in black for $13 (€10) and nickel for $15 (€13).

Paul has been playing PC games and raking his knuckles on computer hardware since the Commodore 64. He does not have any tattoos, but thinks it would be cool to get one that reads LOAD"*",8,1. In his off time, he rides motorcycles and wrestles alligators (only one of those is true).