Reviewing the INEO PS5 Designed Heatsink for SSD Upgrades
Ever since Sony enabled the storage upgrade feature of the PS5, the sudden need for understanding the architecture of M.2 SSDs has increased dramatically. The super-fast PCIe Gen 4 M.2 NVMe SSDs that are required to increase your PS5 storage differ wildly in shape, size and installation that the old SATA hard drives previously and one big new factor that most PS5 gamers are having to get their heads around is the subject of cooling and heat dissipation. These new M.2 SSDs get hot, as electricity is passed through them (no moving parts) and the faster they get, the generally hotter they become. If that heat creeps into the 50-70 degrees celsius zone, it can lead to the drive dropping in performance (know as throttling or bottlenecking) as the SSD’s brain (known as the SSD controller) does not want the heat to harm to long term usability or endurance of the SSD as a whole. Therefore this heat needs to go somewhere – and HERE is where SSD heatsinks come in. These aluminium, copper and even steel modules are connected to the SSD (generally with an additional thermal heat pad, silicon or paste component too) and the heat is then drawn away from the SSD, into the heatsink, then dissipated into the surrounding air. A neat idea, but then most heatsinks for M.2 NVM SSDs released before Summer 2022 was designed with PCs or Laptops in mind – devices with a lot more active airflow and space considerations in mind. The PS5 on the other hand has a small, confined M.2 slot that holds the SSD in place and this is done to make sure that it does not impact the temperature and running of the rest of the PS5 System. Therefore, heatsinks are starting to arrive on the market that is SPECIFICALLY designed for use in the Playstation 5 console system. Easily the most advanced and effective example of this is the INEO Heat Pipe PS5 SSD Heatsink (also known online as the GrauGear PS5 heatsink in Germany and some other regions). A fantastically over the top and overkill heatsink that is also about 4x more expensive than the bulk of regular M.2 NVMe SSD heatsinks on the market. So today I want to take a close look at this PS5 heating, see how effective it is and ultimately help you decide if it deserves your gaming data!
INEO PS5 Designed SSD Heatsink Review – Quick Conclusion
You 100% will have a cooler and more efficiently climate-based SSD in your PS5 if you choose to install the INEO/Graugear PS5 Heatsink – I cannot stress enough that this is true! The copper pipe design massively decreases the temperature of the SSD when in use, as well as dissipates the generated heat away from the SSD faster than any other PS5 SSD Heatsink I have ever tested. HOWEVER, the real question here is whether you are really going to need THAT MUCH heat dissipation on your PS5. Unless you are going to use your PS5 system for more than 6-7 hours a day (active gaming, not just media watching), the difference in heat dispersion of the INEO/Graugear PS5 Heatsink vs the Sabrent or Elecgear PS5 heatsinks is very small indeed (and this is around 20-25% more expensive than those). Compared with traditional ‘bog standard’ m.2 heatsinks at $10-15 that were originally designed for PC use, the INEO/Graugear Heatsink is EXCEPTIONALLY better at keeping an SSD cool in your PS5. Ultimately, the INEO/Graugear Heatsink is being marketed as a prosumer/premium priced heatsink for an SSD in your PS5 and it provides exactly that level of quality – it just comes down to whether you need that level of performance – no one did the weekly grocery shop in a Lamborgini!
INEO PS5 Designed SSD Heatsink Review – Retail Packaging
The box that the INEO/Graugear PS5 Heatsink arrives in is significantly bigger than any other boxed heatsink I have ever received (and by a factor of about 10x when compared to budget $10 alternatives like the Eluteng or Warship m.2 H/S). Lovely printed design and plenty of pictures of it in high res on all sides, installed in a PS5 system.
Opening up the box reveals the heatsink itself in a custom mould, cardboard holder. It takes up the bulk of the retail box, but there are other bits inside that are worth highlighting.
Underneath the INEO/Graugear PS5 Heatsink itself, we find a first-time setup manual, thermal pads, screwdriver, 2 screw kits and information on the 1-year warranty that it arrives with.
Laying it all out, there is the same sort of thing that most SSD heatsink’s arrive with – just more of each thing and of higher quality in some places.
For example, an M.2 SSD heatsink can often arrive with a screw mount to fix the SSD in place, however, the INEO/Graugear PS5 Heatsink arrives with two sets AND also these are PS5 specific in length for the system’s rather deep screw holes (as well as inclusive washers of course). Even the thermal pads that it arrives with (four in total) are a step above the norm, with 2x at 7mm and 2x 1.2mm thickness, depending on whether you want to install at the top, bottom, or on more heavily populated SSDs in the PS5 M.2 bay.
Looking at the INEO/Graugear PS5 Heatsink top-down, show that it is a rather sturdy and fixed-size piece of kit. It is designed to fit the PS5 M.2 bay (NOT using the m.2 plate cover) and the copper heat pipe (I will cover this more in a bit) runs out of the available bay, along the front of the PS5 fan/vents, and then is curved to the shape of the PS5 chassis internally. Let’s take a much closer look a the build quality and design of the INEO/Graugear PS5 Heatsink.
INEO PS5 Designed SSD Heatsink Review – Design
Flipping this PS5 SSD Heatsink over shows that it is designed to surround and encase your SSD inside an aluminium main panel. The closed INEO/Graugear PS5 Heatsink box is held by 4 screws and there is space for up to a 2 sided SSD and thermal pads on top and bottom.
A close look at the physical design of the Ice Cold branded, vented INEO/Graugear PS5 Heatsink aluminium box shows that it is designed to capture all the cool air that will be immediately passing through it from the PS5 fan and vents. It is angled too and in a similar raised shape to the PS5 internal chassis too. This is clearly not accidental.
The four screws that hold the aluminium panel in place are micro-sized and quite soft – so I can imagine those threads getting ruined very quickly indeed!
Inside the main aluminium case of the INEO/Graugear PS5 Heatsink, we can see that the copper pipe attachment of the main body of this design is soldered into place and runs diagonally across the M.2 SSD that you install inside. This is likely to cover bases on a wide variety of SSDs that could be installed in this heatsink and the PS5.
The thermal pads that are included with the INEO/Graugear PS5 Heatsink fill the entire casing on top and bottom and will be more than enough to cover ANY 2280 length SSD installed inside.
That copper pipeline that runs through the top of the aluminium panel of the INEO/Graugear PS5 Heatsink is incredibly unit and (at least for the PS5 system) has ONLY been featured on one other PS5 heatsink, the Elecgear Playstation Designed SSD heatsink, which we reviewed HERE. Its main use is to act as an additional and high conductive heat rod to draw heat from both the SSD and the aluminium heatsink, acting as a two-step cooling system and further decreasing the temp of the SSD and its controller. Given that the PS5 will be hitting this SSD much, MUCH less than a PC might, it does seem like tremendous overkill, however, for those that game for 6, 8 or 12 hours a day (kids, teens, gaming professionals and those that create games-related content for example), this might actually be something that could fit their heavy, sustained usage patterns.
One additional heat is transferred to the copper heat pipe, it is then fed into the elongated line and this is going to be receiving airflow from the PS5 front vents, thanks to the system’s negative cooling system (pulling air through the front and pushing it out the back. The top of the INEO/Graugear PS5 Heatsink is also not quite as dense as you think, arriving heavily vented itself.
The INEO/Graugear PS5 Heatsink (once an SSD is installed) fits precisely into the PS5 shape internally, levering into the M.2 slot (connecting to the m.2 slot first) and then simply lowering down into the PS5 internal chassis designed grooves.
The heatsink is fixed in place with a screw fixed latch/arm that sits on top of the screw hole that the PS5 uses for securing the m.2 SSD cover plate (which cannot be used in conjunction with the INEO/Graugear PS5 Heatsink). The actual metal clip is a little loose (for ease of initial installation I guess) but is the only thing about the design of the INEO/Graugear PS5 Heatsink that I don’t really like.
The screw that the PS5 already features for the M.2 slot (the cross, square, circle, triangle embossed one) is what you need to install the INEO/Graugear PS5 Heatsink in place.
Once in place, the placement of the copper heat pipe to dissipate heat into the airflow/vent is pretty clear and you can see how this heatsink is going to be able to offload all of that SSD generate heat exceptionally quickly.
Indeed, looking at the chassis of the PS5 on its side, you can see just how much of the direct airflow of the PS5 front vent is going to immediately heat the INEO/Graugear PS5 Heatsink. On the one hand, it will DEFINITELY mean that the SSD will be SUPER COOL, but I am a tiny pinch concerned about that ever so slightly hotter air going into the PS5 internal system. The difference will be very, very small indeed, but it’s worth thinking about in mammoth length sessions.
Additionally, the PS5 M.2 SSD cover plate cannot be applied, as the height of the ICE COLD heatsink cage is taller than the slot (in order to capture the airflow along the way). During the later testing of this heatsink, I do take time to test the ambient airflow on the PS5 when it is in operation, not just the SSD/Controller.
The tip of the copper pipe on the INEO/Graugear PS5 Heatsink features very fine vents throughout and this allows the airflow to pass directly through the fanned out tip. It is angled correctly with the PS5 front vent holes too, so it will certainly not block airflow internally whilst the system is in operation.
A top-down look for the PS5 with the INEO/Graugear PS5 Heatsink and m.2 SSD installed shows just how well designed in shape with the PS5 that this device is. No additional fan wires etc and when it does stand between the PS5 plate vents and the internal fan, it does so in the least obtrusive way it can. Let’s move over to the temperature testing of the INEO/Graugear PS5 Heatsink and also see how it compares with a domestic/PC grade SSD heatsink for $10.
INEO PS5 Designed SSD Heatsink Review – Temperature Testings
Temperature testing for the INEO PS5 Designed SSD heatsink has been broken down into several areas. The main aims here are to work out the following things:
- Does the INEO / GRAUGEAR Heatsink Keep the Temperature low on the SSD in sustained use?
- Does the INEO / GRAUGEAR Heatsink Interfere with the PS5 Internal System Temp negatively?
- Does the INEO / Graugear Heatsink provide a significant improvement over PC designed M.2 SSD heatsinks (eg the Eluteng M.2)
In order to do this, I have installed a temperature sensor on the M.2 SSD itself, UNDER the heatsink AND the thermal pad, directly on the controller chip of the SSD. The SSD used in the testing was the TeamGroup T-Force Cardea A440, a Phison E18, 96L 3D TLC NAND SSD at 1TB – a good mid-range price point SSD that is single-sided and provides 6551MB/s on the PS5 internal benchmark.
When the temp node is on the SSD Controller, I then place the thermal pad down, closed and screw down the heatsink, then attach the 2nd node just underneath the PS5 fan point, in the open air. This second temperature sensor will tell us the surrounding system temp that the internal fan will be used to cool the rest of the system.
The testing consisted of 6 different elements. 4 gameplay sessions of 25mins each, with 2 sessions focusing on the SSD temp and 2 focusing on the system temp (in that order, with 1-2 mins reboot between each, in order to see how the system temp is affected over the combined power-on time).
Then a sustained read and write activity of 350-380MB/s to/from the PS5 internal PS5 SSD and M.2 NVMe SSD (the Cardea A440) and how it impacted the SSD controller only. We are NOT looking at performance/framerate/MB/s etc, ONLY temperatures. Below were the results (video will be published shortly).
Note – BOTH PS5 Side plates were on during the tests
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| Test Type | Starting Temp (C) | Finishing Temp (C) | Change (C) |
| Red Dead Redemption 25min Play (Controller) | 33.8℃ | 35.2℃ | 1.4℃ |
| Red Dead Redemption 25min Play (System Temp) | 27.3℃ | 27.7℃ | 0.4℃ |
| GTA V 25min Play (Controller) | 34.8℃ | 34.4℃ | -0.4℃ |
| GTA V 25min Play (System Temp) | 29.3℃ | 30.6℃ | 0.9℃ |
| Heavy Read (350GB) | 26.1℃ | 39.6℃ | 13.5℃ |
| Heavy Write (350GB) | 34.5℃ | 36.4℃ | 1.9℃ |
As you can see, in almost all tests, the INEO PS5 Designed SSD heatsink results in very, VERY small increases in temperature over time, much, MUCH lower than most of the other heatsinks that I have tested. To put that into perspective, here is how thIS copper pipe styled heatsink compared in those same tests versus the Eluteng M.2 at just $10 (at least $25 less than the INEO / GRAUGEAR H/S):
NOTE – There tests were performed on different days and ambient temp AND general environmental conditions can undermine these results. Watch the video published soon to see these results in much, MUCH greater detail)
| Test Type | Eluteng H/S Change | INEO-GRAUGEAR H/S Change |
| Red Dead Redemption 25min Play (Controller) | 5.9℃ | 1.4℃ |
| Red Dead Redemption 25min Play (System Temp) | 1.5℃ | 0.4℃ |
| GTA V 25min Play (Controller) | 0.5℃ | -0.4℃ |
| GTA V 25min Play (System Temp) | 0.3℃ | 0.9℃ |
| Heavy Read (350GB) | 6.2℃ | 13.5℃ |
| Heavy Write (350GB) | 15.4℃ | 1.9℃ |
So, as you can see, it certainly did a great job. These are still very small differences though and it is worth remembering that an NVMe SSD is designed to run perfectly well at between 30-50 degrees. Anything higher than that (headed towards 70 degrees) can result in throttling. Overall I still think the INEO definitely does exactly what it says it will and does it very well – it is a question of whether you play your PS5 for long enough /regular periods that you need that level of protection/cooling. Let’s conclude the review and give my verdict.
NOTE – The FULL video of the Temperature tests for the INEO PS5 Designed SSD Heatsink, as well as how it compares against the Eluteng M.2 Heatsink, the Sabrent PS5 heatsink and the INEO Heatsink Heatsink is available below in two videos. The full INEO PS5 SSD Copper Pipe Heatsink Review and testing are in the first video, then a full comparison between the INEO Heatsink and the Sabrent and ElecGear PS5 designed Heatsinks is the next one.
When I compared the INEO PS5 Hetasink against the Sabrent, Elecgear and Eluteng Heatsink, the main takeaway was that enterprise PS5 heatsink’s like these DEFINITELY keep the SSD/Controller much cooler, as well as have minimum impact on the system temperature too. But unless you are a particularly hardcore gamer, the 3-4x price point o these prosumer SSD heatsink’s are a little unnecessary.
INEO PS5 Designed SSD Heatsink Review – Conclusion & Verdict
You 100% will have a cooler and more efficiently climate-based SSD in your PS5 if you choose to install the INEO/Graugear PS5 Heatsink – I cannot stress enough that this is true! The copper pipe design massively decreases the temperature of the SSD when in use, as well as dissipates the generated heat away from the SSD faster than any other PS5 SSD Heatsink I have ever tested. HOWEVER, the real question here is whether you are really going to need THAT MUCH heat dissipation on your PS5. Unless you are going to use your PS5 system for more than 6-7 hours a day (active gaming, not just media watching), the difference in heat dispersion of the INEO/Graugear PS5 Heatsink vs the Sabrent or Elecgear PS5 heatsinks is very small indeed (and this is around 20-25% more expensive than those). Compared with traditional ‘bog standard’ m.2 heatsinks at $10-15 that were originally designed for PC use, the INEO/Graugear Heatsink is EXCEPTIONALLY better at keeping an SSD cool in your PS5. Ultimately, the INEO/Graugear Heatsink is being marketed as a prosumer/premium priced heatsink for an SSD in your PS5 and it provides exactly that level of quality – it just comes down to whether you need that level of performance – no one did the weekly grocery shop in a Lamborgini!
| PROS of the INEO / Graugear PS5 SSD Heatsink | PROS of the INEO / Graugear PS5 SSD Heatsink |
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