This Product is a Meme - Corsair MP600 PRO Hydro X water-cooled SSD

This video dives into an unusual hardware concept, examining Corsair MP600 PRO Hydro X, a water cooled NVMe SSD that can be integrated into a custom liquid cooling loop. The hosts begin by highlighting alarming temperatures, noting the drive runs hot at around 105 degrees and considering whether water cooling could meaningfully improve performance and longevity. They unpack the unit, inspect the copper block and thermal pads, and discuss the internal components like the Phison E18 controller and the 2 TB of 3D TLC NAND. A key thread throughout is the tradeoff between cooling the NAND flash and keeping the controller within safe thermal limits, prompting experiments that compare air cooling versus water cooling. The team experiments with a baseline setup using only the heatsink and later adds water cooling to measure the impact on thermal throttling and sustained write speeds. They employ the Iometer benchmarking tool to simulate heavy I/O bursts and show how temperature controls throttle behavior, including a dramatic demonstration of throttling when the GPU generates nearby heat. The conclusion weighs practical value against the hype, arguing that for typical consumer use the SSD likely does not require water cooling, especially given the cost difference and the engineering constraints. The video ends with a candid assessment of when water cooling could be advantageous, emphasizing bursty workloads rather than sustained heavy use, and notes that Corsair’s water-cooled variant is only marginally pricier than the air-cooled version. As a closing note, the hosts tease a separate, more DIY approach to cooling storage, while recommending the Essentials Electronics toolkit from iFixit for those who want to repair or mod hardware themselves.

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