Page 2 - Physical Look - Hardware; Installation
The SilverStone TP05 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 a low weight. It also has a black anodized aluminum finish, so you do not need to worry about leaving fingerprints on it. The design of the TP05 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. The bottom cover is also made out of aluminum features black brushed finish, which looks consistent with the heatsink. 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 well-optimized for cooling performance to keep your latest M.2 NVMe SSD running at maximum speed for extended periods of time, thanks to the 5.6mm thick aluminum heatsink. Its size makes it PlayStation 5-compatible. Comparing to the more stylish-looking SilverStone TP04, this product is more on the conventional side in terms of overall design. The TP05 is only meant for M.2 SSDs that are 80mm long. Fortunately, this is the size of most mainstream M.2 SSDs you will find in the market today.
Out of box, the TP05's heatsink and baseplate are detached, unlike the TP04 that needed to be separated by hand. The above photo shows the cooling kit out of box. Out of box, the four screws are found in a separate bag. It is worth mentioning that the heatsink needs to be screwed to the bottom cover, which is also different from the TP04's clip-on design. This design makes the installation trickier. In addition, the thermal pads also need to be installed, since there are multiple options for thermal pads. A total of three thermal pads are included; one is 1.75mm thick, and two others are 0.5mm thick. For single-sided M.2 SSDs, we can use the 1.75mm thick pad along with the 0.5mm pad, while for double-sided M.2 SSDs, two 0.5mm 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 components.
Before installing the actual SSD, we first need to put the thermal pads in place. One pad should be on the SSD itself, and the other pad should go to the inner side of the bottom cover. I recommend reading the installation guide before putting things together just to avoid any mistakes. After the thermal pad is attached to the baseplate, the next thing to do is to insert M.2 SSD and align the mounting holes. For this task, we have to make sure the SSD mounting hole is aligned with the hole on the baseplate. After the SSD is installed, another thermal pad should be put on the SSD and then the heatsink can be pressed on top of the baseplate. We need to make sure the heatsink is firmly pressed to the SSD and the screw holes are aligned. The above photo shows how the cooling kit looks like on my Western Digital Black SN750 NVMe SSD. Overall, the installation procedure was quick and easy. This product is well-designed mechanically in my opinion.
Page Index
1. Introduction, Packaging, Specifications
2. Physical Look - Hardware; Installation
3. Test Results
4. Conclusion
