Page 2 - Physical Look - Hardware; Installation
The SilverStone TP04 M.2 SSD cooling kit has three major components. The first one is the heatsink, which is made out of aluminum. The use of aluminum strikes a great balance between structural integrity and light weight. It also has a gunmetal gray anodized aluminum finish, so you do not need to worry about leaving fingerprints on it. The design of the TP04 heatsink has to consider heat dissipation as well. As you can see from the above photo, there are fins at the top. The second major component is the bottom cover. Instead of using aluminum, the bottom cover is made out of stainless steel. With the help of the third major component, which are the thermal conductive pads, the M.2 SSD is tightly sandwiched by the cooling kit, allowing the heat to be dissipated efficiently. I would like to say this product is fully optimized for cooling performance to keep your latest M.2 NVMe SSD running at maximum speed for extended periods of time. Furthermore, due to the length of the heatsink, bottom cover, and the thermal pads, the TP04 only allows the users to install M.2 SSD 80mm long. Fortunately, this is the format of most mainstream M.2 SSDs you will find in the market today.
To detach the heatsink from the bottom cover, you can use something, for example a screwdriver, to separate them off, or you can just do it with bare hands if your fingers are strong enough. The above photo shows the disassembled cooling kit. Out of box, the heatsink and the bottom cover are pre-installed together. It is worth mentioning that the heatsink is not screwed to the bottom cover. Instead, it is clipped on. This design makes the installation very easy.
There is no thermal pad pre-installed on the kit either. This is because the kit allows us to choose the thermal pads depending on the SSD we use. There are two sets of thermal pads included; one pair is 1.5mm thick, and the other pair is 1mm thick. For single-sided M.2 SSDs, we can use 1.5mm thick pads, while for double-sided M.2 SSDs, the 1mm thick pads should be used. To achieve the designed cooling performance, it is important to remove the plastic film on these pads before sticking them onto the cooling kit.
Before installing the actual SSD, we first need to stick the thermal pads in place. One pad should be on the back side of the heatsink, and the other pad should go to the inner side of the bottom cover. I recommend downloading the installation guide before putting things together just to avoid any mistakes. After the thermal pads are in place, the next thing to do is to slide in the SSD to the bottom cover. For this task, we have to make sure the SSD is not directly put in from above. It must be inserted from the front or back ends of the bottom cover to avoid damages caused by the buckle points. After the SSD is installed, the heatsink can be pressed on top of the bottom cover. We need to make sure the heatsink clicks in the buckle points so it will not move.
The above photo shows how the cooling kit looks like with my Western Digital Black SN750 NVMe SSD 500GB. Overall, the installation procedure is quick and easy. I think mechanically this product is well-designed.
Page Index
1. Introduction, Packaging, Specifications
2. Physical Look - Hardware; Installation
3. Test Results
4. Conclusion
