Conclusion
One of the most powerful SSD coolers reminds a bit of the era of massively finned heatsinks that used to be on motherboards. Thermalright is well known for producing small coolers with a large number of fins. Such a concept in the form of the HR-10 2280 cooler should score points on SSDs as well. And it does so even in comparison with almost 60 competing solutions.
Thermalright HR-10 2280 cooler details
Over the past few years, most manufacturers’ idea of passive coolers for components with lower cooling requirements has changed. Instead of radiators where one fin after another is stacked on top of a heatpipe, designs created by milling monolithic lumps of aluminum are often preferred. These have a smaller fin area for comparable dimensions and weight, but again are cheaper to manufacture. How the clash of these concepts can look like in practice is well illustrated by the analysis of the Thermalright HR-10 2280 cooler. The “old school” design hasn’t said the last word yet.
After experience with standalone graphics card VRM coolers or motherboard chipset coolers, Thermalright has also taken on others in the field of SSD coolers. The cooler with the model name HR-10 2280 is really impressive to behold. It is a more complex design than the ones you normally encounter. It is on the same base as more powerful CPU coolers. Meaning that there is a heatpipe attached to a copper block that dissipates the heat of the thinner fins.
There are 44 fins (made of aluminium), with a surface area of approximately 660 mm² per fin. The thickness of the fins is 0.3 mm and the spacing is 1 mm. So, for example, compared to the competing cooler Axagon CLR-M2XL significantly smaller, but in terms of total surface area, the Thermalright HR-10 2280 has a clear advantage. However, smaller fin spacing is more restrictive to circulating air and thus higher system cooling pressure is required to extract the maximum TDP.
The surface of the cooler fins is perforated, which can contribute to better results, especially in situations where the cooler is oriented upwards and there is less airflow around it.
In addition to the heatsink, a backplate is also included in the package. This is important mainly for mounting (the SSD is clamped between the finned heatsink and the backplate), but it is also metal, equipped with a thermal pad and thus also contributes to cooling to some extent. The thermalpad backplate is half the thickness (0.5mm) of the millimeter thermalpad on the base of the heatsink.
The surface of the thermalpads is characterized by a fine pattern for the best possible contact (over the largest possible area). The stiffness of the pads is quite low and they tend to tear during disassembly (especially the thinner pad on the backplate), so either proceed with great care or expect that you may need new thermalpads when reassembling.
Only M.2 SSDs with a length of 80 mm are supported. Shorter ones would not overlap the base, making it impossible to install in the slot, and longer ones overhang it, so optimal contact will not be ensured in all places. As for support for thicker double-sided SSDs that also have memory modules on the bottom, we haven’t seen anything in Thermalright’s materials about that and we’ll try to get some official word on it.
However, the screw mounting holes in the backplate do not copy the screw thread exactly, they are rectangular, and there is some flexibility with respect to the different thickness of SSDs. The question is whether it’s big enough to make everything work with even the thickest SSDs.
While high pressure is beneficial in terms of heat transfer efficiency, it should not be overdone in this respect either. As a result of excessive pressure, PCB deformation may occur, which may no longer suit the SSD and it may not work, at least until it has been corrected. We will contact Thermalright further on this matter and if we can get clear information on compatibility, we will modify this text accordingly.
The total weight of the cooler without the SSD is 90 grams, of which 77 grams is the heatsink itself. The design of the Thermalright HR-10 2280 looks luxurious thanks to the nickel plating of the surface as well. We didn’t encounter any manufacturing flaws, the structural execution is really precise even in details.
When mounting the cooler on an SSD, you need to make sure that the backplate does not collide with the cutout in the PCB, which is designed to mount the SSD to the riser, and in turn also with the housing of the M.2 slot. And at the same time, you need to fit everything in such a way that it is in contact with all the chips that need to be cooled. So especially with the controller and memory. The VRM usually doesn’t get significantly hot with SSDs, as it operates with relatively little electrical current.
From the aspect of compatibility with surrounding components, one more parameter/dimension is important – height. Thermalright lists 43.8 mm, which is however the sum of the heatsink with the backplate. Protrusion from the SSD itself is smaller, “only” 41.6 mm. Installing it in a slot under a card is of course out of the question, but otherwise (in a slot that has nothing covering the top) this cooler is still small enough to fit in 1U format cases.
Methodology
The tests take place in a wind tunnel that substitutes for 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 possible accuracy.
In line with findings from measurements of the impact of different positions on cooling efficiency, we test standalone 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 in those cases, it is due to their fixed position.
For testing, we use a Samsung 980 Pro SSD (1 TB). 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 6 W, which is the upper limit of what M.2 SSDs can do, and not even models with PCIe 5.0 interface support are supposed to change this.
One of the most powerful SSD coolers reminds a bit of the era of massively finned heatsinks that used to be on motherboards. Thermalright is well known for producing small coolers with a large number of fins. Such a concept in the form of the HR-10 2280 cooler should score points on SSDs as well. And it does so even in comparison with almost 60 competing solutions.
Result: SSD temperature
One of the most powerful SSD coolers reminds a bit of the era of massively finned heatsinks that used to be on motherboards. Thermalright is well known for producing small coolers with a large number of fins. Such a concept in the form of the HR-10 2280 cooler should score points on SSDs as well. And it does so even in comparison with almost 60 competing solutions.
Conclusion
The Thermalright HR-10 2280 is one of the top performers. Overall, in our tests, it lags behind the Axagon CLR-M2XL slightly (it cools the SSD controller the same in tests using our methodology, but the memory is worse), but there is one important thing to note. Passive cooler tests are very difficult to evaluate objectively. The airflow intensity of the tested environment significantly affects the ranking. We test a certain level of it, but at others the ranking may change.
Because of the large fin surface area, but at the same time with very small gaps, the Thermalright HR-10 2280 is positioned to excel the most (and beat everything else) in systems with higher airflow, as opposed to other coolers. For example, it can be great in server systems (in 1U height), where operating noise is not so important.
The Thermalright HR-10 2280 is also attractive for high-performance workstations where you might already care about being as quiet as possible (and that’s why you’re interested in a passive SSD cooler). But in this discipline, it will already be about on the level of the aforementioned Axagon CLR-M2XL, and the details will decide which choice makes more sense. Namely, to which of the two coolers you will be able to get cheaper. The average retail price is similar for both. But the Thermalright cooler is significantly cheaper in some places (it’s even on sale for 7.99 USD on Amazon.com at the time of writing), and in many cases, better availability in stores can make the difference.
If it isn’t in your favourite one at the moment and you are interested in this cooler, you can actually compete for one. Just e-mail us to info@hwcooling.net, a message with the subject “I could use Thermalright HR-10 2280“, in which body, include details on what SSD and in what system (model of case used, configuration and speeds of system fans) it would be operating. We will send this SSD cooler to the first person who submits their configuration details. New, unused one. If you see a small text box below this with an encrypted identifier of the winner, it means that someone beat you to it and Thermalright HR-10 2280 already has its new owner.
English translation and edit by Jozef Dudáš
| Thermalright HR-10 2280 |
| + Extreme cooling performance |
| + Really efficient design. Considering the weight, very high TDP |
| + Particularly suitable for higher airflow systems |
| + Attractive price/performance ratio |
| + Robust design. Thanks to the backplate, the SSD never flexes |
| - Worse compatibility due to the extra thickness |
| Approximate retail price: 14 EUR |