The “pro” variant of the BeQuiet! MC1 cooler for M.2 SSDs uses a heatpipe to dissipate heat faster and distribute it more evenly into the heatsink body, unlike the non-pro model. However, greater thermal peformance is achieved also because of the larger radiating area of its heatsink. The latter is still relatively low-profile, does not interfere with anything, and most importantly, so far outperforms all SSD coolers of similar size tested so far.
Conclusion
BeQuiet! MC1 Pro is at the moment the most powerful SSD cooler in our database, which has a height not exceeding 10 mm (i.e. one that does not collide with the expansion card encroaching into the space above the cooler) and is also available for sale on its own. SSD memory does get a little less hot with the Axagon CLR-M2 and CLR-M2L10 coolers, but the controller is the coolest with the BeQuiet! MC1 Pro.
The fact that the cooler is not the best in memory cooling as well is probably also a bit to the credit of the heatpipe, which, although it dissipates heat faster, it also transfers a larger part of the energy to the memory than in monolithic designs. More efficient cooling of memories with separate heatsinks that don’t contact the controller was once discussed in these older tests. However, the cooling effectiveness of the controller is always crucial, and the stability and performance of the SSD depends on it in critical situations.
Placement of the more powerful of the pair of BeQuiet! MC1 coolers, the Pro model, is already quite high in the charts and yet in the context of ordinary work, multimedia or gaming computers (where even the most powerful SSDs do not get into long-term high loads) we will not write about the need to replace the supplied solutions on motherboards with this cooler this time either. However, in case you don’t have any cooler in that position, the MC1 Pro is one of the most effective options with such good compatibility.
Among the models with a height under one centimeter, the MC1 Pro is perhaps the most effective cooler available, but we can’t say that for sure yet (we don’t have that many similarly low-profile coolers in comparison yet), but it is certainly close to the limits of what can be achieved with this amount of material. The MC1 Pro is still a lightweight heatsink, and compared to the most powerful SSD cooler tested so far on the Asus ROG Strix Z790-E Gaming WiFi motherboard (which, by the way, is one of the few that also uses a heatpipe), its weight is a quarter of that.
In computers with heavy SSD loads, replacing the original cooler with this model may make sense. There are quite a few cases where the coolers that come with the boards fall far short of the MC1 Pro’s results, even though more material is often used for them and sometimes the surface area is comparable. The difference, however, is in the quality of the contact with the heatsink, which is almost always inferior and sometimes significantly so. The BeQuiet! cooler doesn’t have this type of difficulty thanks to its solid backplate.
The price of around 15 EUR is already quite high and we hesitated in giving the right award, but in the end the MC1 Pro earned the “Top-notch” sticker. The price/performance ratio isn’t whopping amazing, but the cooling performance is top-notch, this at the same time with perfect compatibility and a solid overall design.
English translation and edit by Jozef Dudáš
| BeQuiet! MC1 Pro |
| + Top-notch cooling performance. Significantly reduce SSD temperature |
| + Really effective design. Very high TDP given the lower weight |
| + Thicker, soft thermal pads compensate well for height differences of SSD components |
| + Robust design (thanks to the backplate, the SSD does not bend) |
| + Excellent compatibility, does not clash with expansion cards |
| - Still lower TDP compared to the most powerful motherboard solutions |
| - Weaker price/cooling performance ratio |
| Approximate retail price: 15 EUR |
