MSI M.2 Shield does not cool M.2 SSDs, it would be doing just the opposite, according to a user who has done an in-depth test of this cooling system.
Last year MSI introduced the MSI M.2 Shield, a cover for SSDs that aims to reduce the temperature of the SSDs and improve performance. Some MSI motherboards have this cover as standard. Supposedly this cooling system should lower the temperature, but a recent tests carried out by the user GamersNexus, has revealed that the MSI M.2 Shield, would actually have the opposite effect to what was expected, increasing the temperature of the SSD unit, just the opposite they should do.
GamerNexus has published a video where it demonstrates this defect, since according to this user there would be some design defects in the M.2 Shield, which uses a metal shield that is too thin as a heat sink, which would do very little for the work for which has been designed, cool an SSD. This deficiency causes an unexpected side effect, which is the increase in temperature under the protection, which is bad for the M.2 SSD and just the opposite that the M.2 Shield should do.
The tests carried out by this user reveal interesting data. The M.2 SSD unit has a thermal reduction between 1-2ºC in the part in contact with the M.2 Shield, both in moments of rest and when there is a load, while with the M.2 Shield it causes a temperature increase in the lower zone of 4ºC, when the SSD exists, it is idle and when it is charging.
Such a solution from MSI poses a problem for M.2 SSDs as they have components on both sides of the PCB, causing heat to be generated on both sides of the SSD. This indicates a problem, since we would be dissipating the heat from a part of the M.2 SSD units and generating a greenhouse effect at the bottom.
These data are simply interesting, although we could not say that they are relevant or ideal, since an average user makes a different use than those units. The tests carried out by this user have been for 60 minutes under the IOMeter software, which implies a workload much higher than that of any system used by the average user, which makes this information relatively interesting.
No user will really have constant work on an SSD for 60 minutes, be it a video game fan or a person who works in photo or video editing. The data is interesting for MSI, since it means that these units do not do their job well, so they must find a solution to improve this task.
