Axagon CLR-M2: Large surface area (fins) with low height

The Axagon CLR-M2 cooler details

The Czech company Axagon has a lot of SSD coolers with attractive designs. You can see this at a glance – a monolithic, well-articulated heatsink always works. You can’t “go wrong” there. We’ll go through all available variants of Axagon coolers in our tests, but we’ll start with the one this company started with. The CLR-M2 has been enjoying user favor for a long time and in the tests we will find out if rightfully so.

The Axagon CLR-M2 cooler details

Standalone SSD coolers have it tough. Aside from the fact that in the majority usage model (lower than maximum load and when maximum, only for short periods of time) SSDs don’t require any special cooling, even the motherboards themselves come fairly well prepared. However, these are equipped with heatsinks that don’t get the most out of the material used, as they usually don’t achieve the total surface area by perfect surface articulation, but go for quantity (the more aluminum the better).

The advantage of the more efficient third-party heatsinks is precisely that they are relatively lightweight designs that rely on a lot of fins. This is also the case with the CLR-M2. You can see on this cooler that Axagon didn’t cut corners on it, but they also didn’t spend too much on elements that don’t determine thermal performance.

The cooler consists of three basic parts – a heatsink, a backplate and three thermal pads. These are all the same and you only use two when installing (between the heatsink and controller/memory and between the backplate and the back of the SSD), one is a spare.

The heatsink is aluminum, the red color was obtained by anodizing and its weight is 22 grams. Together with the backplate (it is also made of aluminum) it has 25 grams. This compares to the same total weight as the BeQuiet! MC1 from the previous test. However, the Axagon CLR-M2’s surface is more articulated, with larger fins, so it has a higher potential for better cooling results. At 8.3 mm of height, it is still a low-profile heatsink that will not interfere even in the position under the PCI Express expansion card (typically under the graphics card).

The CLR-M2’s thermal pads are relatively thin, only 0.5 mm, with an average firmness. On SSDs with larger individual chip height differences (typically between the controller and memory) the contact can be a bit worse, with weaker pressure. However, this would never have a major impact on cooling performance, even in the worst cases (with the largest height differences).

After removing the foils, we recommend installing the pads first to the SSD and then sitting the SSD (with thermal pads) on the heatsink. Otherwise (with installing the thermal pad on the heatsink and only then as a whole on the SSD) you might not estimate the optimal contact with the chips that are supposed to be cooled.

A strong clamp on the SSD is also provided by the backplate. It screws to the finned heatsink at up to three points on each side. In addition to the usual edge positions, there is also a middle one. Thus, there is decent pressure (with a high heat transfer intensity) even at the point where other heatsinks are a bit looser.

The cooler counts on both single-sided and double-sided SSDs that have memory on the back. The backplate is also designed for this. Although the screws themselves have 2 mm (M5) diameter threads, the mounting holes are up to 5 mm in height. The bottom position is for single-sided SSDs, the top for double-sided ones.

The individual positions (for SSDs of different height) are not separate, and Axagon did not attempt to do what BeQuiet! with the MC1 (namely a sort of centre partition, which did not serve its purpose anyway). For the best possible pressure, it is a good idea to press the heatsink and the backplate appropriately during assembly and to tighten the screws properly (but carefully, the M2 thread in the aluminium can be easily “stripped” by excessive force).

After assembly, it is advisable to make sure that everything is in the right place. With a little carelessness, it can happen that you mount the backplate the wrong way round and the screw header cutout will not be present at the M.2 slot standoff post. Or possibly the SSD contacts may not extend far enough past the heatsink which will push into the plastic part of the M.2 connector on the motherboard.

And one more note on support: only 80 mm long M.2 SSDs are compatible.Longer ones overhang the heatsink and shorter ones wouldn’t be able to be screwed to the motherboard (there would be nothing to screw into, as the securing part of the PCB wouldn’t protrude and would end somewhere in the middle or two thirds of the cooler).

Methodology

The tests take place in a wind tunnel that replaces a standard computer case. Four Noctua NF-S12A PWM@550 rpm fans are used for system cooling in a balanced ratio of two intake to two exhaust fans. The intake air temperature is strictly controlled and is kept within a narrow range of 21–21.3 °C for maximum accuracy.

In line with findings from measurements of the impact of different positions on cooling efficiency, we test separate SSD coolers in the first slot, above the graphics card. From board tests we naturally have a lot of results of coolers (referred to as cooler 1 and cooler 2) from other positions as well, but there it is due to their fixed position.

For testing, we use the Samsung 980 Pro SSD. The load is run for 10 minutes (which is enough time in the wind tunnel for temperatures to stabilize) in CrystalDiskMark – sequential read and write cycles. The achieved power draw then is about 8 W, which is the upper limit of what M.2 SSDs achieve and shouldn’t change even models with PCIe 5.0 interface support.

The Czech company Axagon has a lot of SSD coolers with attractive designs. You can see this at a glance – a monolithic, well-articulated heatsink always works. You can’t “go wrong” there. We’ll go through all available variants of Axagon coolers in our tests, but we’ll start with the one this company started with. The CLR-M2 has been enjoying user favor for a long time and in the tests we will find out if rightfully so.

Results: SSD temperatures

The Czech company Axagon has a lot of SSD coolers with attractive designs. You can see this at a glance – a monolithic, well-articulated heatsink always works. You can’t “go wrong” there. We’ll go through all available variants of Axagon coolers in our tests, but we’ll start with the one this company started with. The CLR-M2 has been enjoying user favor for a long time and in the tests we will find out if rightfully so.

Conclusion

Axagon CLR-M2 chladením prekonáva i podstatne ťažšie chladiče, ktoré bývajú na základných doskách. Prakticky nedosahuje len úrovne najväčších chladičov na doskách Gigabyte alebo Asus (pasívy s heatpipe pre prvý slot M.2), ktoré majú však päťnásobnú hmotnosť. S ohľadom na množstvo použitého materiálu je ich efektivita výrazne slabšia.

We can’t write a single negative word about the design of the CLR-M2’s heatsink. It is as finned as one can be. To maintain mechanical robustness, however, Axagon did not go to extremes, and the 0.75 mm thick fins also have a high absorption capacity.

Compared to competing solutions, it can still be said that the gaps between the fins are exceedingly narrow, which will play into the hands of builds with very high airflow, for example in 1U racks. In these, the Axagon CLR-M2 will perform even better compared to other coolers than in a typical home PC situation, where system cooling is after all more moderate.

The cooling performance of the CLR-M2 is already at a level where, in computers with higher SSD temperatures, it makes sense to consider it as a replacement for the least efficient built-in solutions. For most, however, it is still true that they don’t have to give up motherboard coolers, under which the SSD will also usually not “overheat”.

However, if you don’t have a cooler on your board (which is common practice with cheap or server models) or only the relevant slot doesn’t have a cooler, the Axagon CLR-M2 is one of the most attractive options in its price range. And it’s not just about cooling performance, it’s also about the fact that a proper backplate is included. The latter is also involved in cooling, but it ensures that the SSD does not deform even in boards with different slot and standoff heights, where in short the PCB does not live completely horizontally, and thus does not lose contact with the heatsink. And it does happens, as we’ve discussed in this article.

Some might find the price higher, but given the perfect build quality and the abundant accessories (with spare material, plus not only is there an extra thermalpad, but Axagon also thinks about the possible loss of one screw and also supplies a small screwdriver for them), it is set really reasonably.

English translation and edit by Jozef Dudáš

• Contents
• The Axagon CLR-M2 cooler details
• Results: SSD temperatures
• Conclusion