Eagle PS5 Designed SSD Heatsink Review – Cheap & Cheerful? Both? Neither?

Reviewing the Eagle PS5 Designed Heatsink for SSD Upgrades

Technology moves fast! What was once considered fantastically unique and ‘one-off’ can all too soon become remarkably mainstream. Which is how we find the Eagle PS5 SSD Heatsink and its appearance on the console market. When Sony enabled SSD upgrades on the Playstation 5, the need for a heatsink to use alongside your SSD of choice was recommended by them (and all storage professionals) almost immediately. The newest commercially available generation of SSD storage (M.2 NVMe PCIe 4 x4 SSD), although fantastically fast, can get rather HOT when its optimal 7,000MB/s performance gets reached (and surpassed), so many users went ahead and ordered m.2 heatsinks for as little as $10 to allow the SSD to transfer that performance/durability negating heat out of the drive, into the heatsink and then allow it to be dispersed into the air. HOWEVER, it soon became apparent to many that these $10 M.2 SSD heatsinks that were designed for big, open PC cases were much, MUCH less effective in the more restrictive m.2 SSD slot of the PS5 (which even came with an m.2 cover plate to stop the heat of the heatsink entering the PS5 central cooling system BUT which in turn means that the SSD+Heatsink is encased in a small slot and all that heat has nowhere to go). So, shortly after the PS5 enabled the SSD expansion slot, some brands set to work designing heatsinks that were made AROUND the internal PS5 design, finding a balance between dissipating the heat of the SSD and ensuring the system remains cool. The first was the Sabrent PS5 Heatsink, launched at $25 on Sept 2021 (now available in bundles and at a more reasonable $20). Closely followed by more PS5 designed heatsinks that all evolved in different directions. The INEO, Graugear & Elecgear PS5  Heatsink (all launched in Nov 2021 at $30-35) was a much more aggressive and copper pipe fused heatsink for professional gamers and streamers. The PNY, a much thicker but prosumer designed model that used closed funnelling (arriving on Dec 2021 and at $25) came next and as you can already see, the releases become more frequent and the prices diverge. So, fast forward to NOW and you have a rather  ‘out of nowhere’ heat dissipation solution for the console, the Eagle PS5 Designed SSD heatsink. The Eagle Heatsink represents the first real ‘unbranded style’ heatsink that has arrived on the scene available on the likes of Aliexpress, uBuy, eBay etc that seems to be a cheaper alternative (depending on where you look) to all of those other PS5 heatsinks that have arrived since. But does this means that this rather unknown release is a bit cheap and nasty, or a diamond in the rough? Let’s find out in today’s review of the Eagle PS5 SSD heatsink.

Eagle PS5 SSD Heatsink Review – Quick Conclusion

I genuinely WANTED to like the Eagle PS5 SSD heatsink, I really, REALLY did. The problem here is that it is another very familiar case of ‘you get what you pay for’ when shopping online and this heatsink somewhat dies the death of a thousand cuts – i.e there are so, so many small/niggling factors that undermine the whole thing. If you are looking for the best BUDGET PS5 heatsink to buy in 2022/2023, then I can definitely recommend the Eagle Heatsink for your PS5. But only to those that understand that a low price (as little as $7.99 in some places, e.g Aliexpress) comes with a notable degree of compromise. Does it work? Yes. Does it do a better job than a $10 PC designed m.2 SSD heatsink? Yes. Is it worth under $10? Yes. HOWEVER, the presentation of the heatsink and logic of the accessories at the retail level is horrendous, the pricing available online is completely bonkers, the physical/industrial cutting of the aluminium is pretty sub-par, the weight/quality of the heatsink seems underwhelming for its ultimate use, it clips the edge of the PS5 internal casing in a way that seems ill-thought and the whole product leaves you with a feeling that this heatsink is a bit of a quick cash-grab for budget eTailers! Of all the heatsinks that I have tested, I would put this very much at the bottom of all of them in terms of quality, but I still cannot fault that it does exactly what it says it can do and if you need a low-cost PS5 designed heatsink for your PS5 storage expansion upgrades, you will NOT get a better budget option right now.

EFFECTIVENESS - 4/10

HARDWARE - 5/10

PERFORMANCE - 5/10

PRICE - 4/10

VALUE - 5/10

4.6

PROS

👍🏻If you search around, you can get it surprisingly cheap
👍🏻Works better than a standard PC designed M.2 SSD Heatsink
👍🏻Plenty of thermal pads and two different thicknesses
👍🏻Not complicated to install
👍🏻No restriction to a single SSD vendor (i.e WD Heatsink is only available with a WD SSD etc)

CONS

👎🏻Feels a bit cheap and lighter than other heatsinks designed for PS5
👎🏻The quality of the cut/shape feels a bit rushed
👎🏻Very poor presentation/shipping kit

Eagle PS5 SSD Heatsink Review – Retail Packaging

Ok, so I hate to start any review negatively, but my impressions of the Eagle PS5 SSD heatsink from purchasing it online to when the item first arrived with me were not great. First off, when the heatsink first arrived online, I owed it to my subscribers to get this featured and tested ASAP, so I went ahead and paid £32 for the heatsink on uBuy and an additional £17 shipping (so, that’s £59, or $81 US). Now, I was cool with that. However, within 48 hours of purchasing, I started seeing the same heatsink appearing online under differing names at 7-8 different budget component outlets. Prices ranged from as little as £7.99, to £23 and even as high as £41 and all of them seemed to ship from the same warehouse district of China, with specifications that differed wildly (some weigh specs and size around 20-25% different). So, even before the unit arrived a week later, I was already thinking “Yep – SCAM!”.

However, I was pleased to receive the unit from uBuy within the week promised. Now, I know uBuy is a massively budget eShop based business, but even then a think there is a fine line of difference between ‘cheap’ and ‘value’ that needed to be considered. Do remember that I have spent £32 on the SSD heatsink ($44) and that is more than the Sabrent, PNY and Elecgear . So, when the heatsink arrived in a basic padded envelope, no retail packaging and poorly printed/cut photocopies of instructions, I was less than impressed.

The full contents of the Eagle PS5 heatsink package were pretty underwhelming. Obviously, the key consideration for ANY heatsink is going to be how well it does the job, but I think most buyers who spend this kind of money as an alternative to a $10 M.2 heatsinks are going to have expectations that are going to be somewhat tarnished by this package.

A close up of the key two main parts of the retail package shows you that what you have is kinda the bare minimum for the most part. It is also worth noting that the Eagle PS5 heatsink does not include any additional screws. The PS5 already has this in your console, but ALL the other PS5 designed heatsinks on the market include these and in the case of the Eagle PS5 heatsink they would be especially helpful later on (I will get to that).

The included instructions are fantastically basic, leaving out important steps that the true novice will not be aware of (such as how to remove the PS5 side plates safely without damage or the m.2 Plate) which I admit are not exactly brain-surgery, but still important. There are numerous grammatical and capitalization errors which, although unimportant in the grand scheme of things) still undermine the whole product presentation.

Then you have the main heatsink and accessories kit. In a plastic package, it contains an odd mix of the bare minimum required, yet unnecessary extras. Before we get onto the Eagle PS5 heatsink itself, let’s talk about those ‘extras’.

So, first, there are the thermal pads, with the Eagle PS5 heatsink arriving with 4 thick heat pads and 3 thinner pads. Why would you need x4 and x3? It’s nice to have spares, but you cannot help but feel like these have been thrown in arbitrarily and the excess is almost certainly down to them being stuck together. The inclusion of different thicknesses of the thermal pad is genuinely appreciated, but you are still left feeling that this is a bit ‘just lob them in there!’. Also, there is an inclusive heatsink that is fantastically poor quality and I would NOT recommend using this for your PS5 M.2/Main screw heads! The cross/Phillips head is too small for the main PS5 head screw and will likely tear it up and is too soft for the m.2 screw head and will likely just tear itself up and leave filament in the m.2 screws. So yeah, do not use it.

That said, I am still going to give them kudos/good marks for including the varied thickness of thermal pads. Very few heatsinks include two different thermal pads of thickness.

But that is enough for the packaging. Let’s discuss the build quality of the JEYI Eagle PS5 SSD Heatsink and see if it is worth the price.

Eagle PS5 SSD Heatsink Review – Design

The design and shape of the JEYI Eagle PS5 Designed heatsink are actually quite unique, looking a little like the claw/talon/beak of the bird the heatsink is named after. It is designed to live outside of the PS5 M.2 SSD bay partially and completely replace the existing PS5 M.2 expansion silver plate – though it still requires the use of the default PS5 m.2 screw and PS symbol embossed m.2 slot cover screw. The design is a little comparable to a couple of other SSD heatsinks for PS5 in the market from Sabrent and Elecgear , but is different enough that any legal questions of copying design are largely avoidable.

The most popular PS5 designed heatsink right now is the Sabrent SSD Heatsink, released in autumn 2021. Unlike the larger/wider spread of the JEYI Eagle heatsink, the Sabrent is content to jsut occupy the full M.2 SSD expansion slot of the PS5, featuring the same angular top design to capture the air as it passes through the PS5 front vents. Although it seems smaller in size, it does mean that the Sabrent will have much less of a potential impact on the PS5 ambient temperature. The Eagle is a pinch taller and makes a firmer connection with the SSD, but the Sabrent benefits from being available to buy as an SSD+Heatsink bundle (with larger capacity SSDs effectively including the heatsink at no additional cost). However, the Eagle PS5 heatsink is a lot more comparable to the Elecgear Heatsink in shape and method of dissipation.

Comparing the Eagle with the Elecgear PS5 SSD heatsink makes a little more sense, as both of these expand their design outside of the PS5 M.2 SSD slot and much greater into the ventilation path of the PS5’s internal fan. Though one of the biggest design differences is that the Elecgear is ventilated throughout to allow the collected heat to be directed into the raised fins. This means that the heat will be controlled into these standout points and cooled by the fans a great deal more efficiently. The Elecgear also has an internal, base located copper pipe design that funnels the heat into much more conductive material, adding the 2nd stage to the dissipation of the SSD controller, etc. The Eagle by comparison here really shows it’s rather more affordable design choices here and whereas it seemed to be a great heat dissipating design when compared with the Sabrent, here it looks a lot more pedestrian.

Much like other PS5 SSD heatsinks, the Eagle H/S has a slight base lip to allow the heatsink to hinge into the PS5 M.2 panel for easier installation.

As mentioned earlier, the Eagle PS5 Heatsink does not include any additional screws and requires the use of the triangle, square, cross, circle screw that is normally used to keep the m.2 late cover in place, which is perfectly fine really. However, the screw-hole on the Eagle PS5 SSD H/S is quite poorly cut and a bit scratchy. Again, not really a big deal, but it is another small thing that gives you a vibe that these have been bashed out in a hurry.

The top of the Eagle heatsink has grooves in it to funnel the air flowing through the PS5 internal fan assembly which is exactly what you would expect, as well as angled in alignment with the vents of the PS5 itself. They seem a little low but will certainly still be effective.

Flipping the heatsink over shows that the main SSD connecting portion of the build is a full 22110 length to occupy the full m.2 slot. I won’t complain about the lack of a thermal pad being pre-applied, as some users will want to use particular thicknesses, as well as the heatsink including a whole bunch of them. Also, it is certainly a deeper plate than the likes of the Sabrent, but it does still feel a little light compared with others.

Let’s go through the act of installing the Eagle SSD Heatsink in the PS5.

Eagle PS5 SSD Heatsink Review – Installation

A Full walkthrough guide on the physical installation of an SSD in the PS5 SSD slot can be found here (don;t reinstall the m.2 cover plate if you intend on installing a custom/designed PS5 Heatsink – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qbpyX6GGGIQ

Once you have installed the SSD in the PS5 SSD expansion slot, as well as applied a thermal pad (ignore the wire shown in the picture, that is from my temperature testing of the EAGLE heatsink), you just need to place the Eagle Heatsink in alignment with the slit/hinge near the m.2 connector.

You will know that the Eagle PS5 heatsink is inserted correctly as it should lever down neatly with the screw hole in alignment with the m.2 SSD cover screw hole. One thing I did notice was that the heatsink does click the shape of the PS5 internal chassis frame a tiny bit when lowered. Not a massive issue, but never seen any other PS5 designed heatsinks have this small physical shape tap.

Before you screw the Eagle PS5 heatsink down on top of the SSD, make sure the base of the heatsink (when the eagle JEYI logo is) is in straight alignment with the slot. Else the heatsink will not be fully/evenly installed and then have limited connectivity with the SSD chips under the thermal pad.

Then you can just go ahead and use the M.2 Expansion slot cover screw in the available hole of the Eagle PS5 SSD heatsink. No need to go in too heavy-handed, just screw till you feel moderate resistance. The heatsink is thicker than the typical M.2 Aluminimum cover plate, so it will not go into the screw-hole as far – overdoing it might tear the threads of the screw hole unnecessarily.

And that is about it. That single screw will hold the plate in place (thanks to that lever lip design on the other side) and as you can see from the finished image of the PS5 below, the grooves on top of the Eagle heatsink are completely parallel with the angled vent slots on the console.

If you look at the front of the PS5, you are able to see how close and raised the grooves of the Eagle SSD heatsink are visible. The Eagle heatsink certainly doesn’t block the vent but is definitely one of the more chunky heatsink’s that I have installed till now. As soon as your PS5 side plates are reapplied, then the heatsink will be near enough invisible, but I am still the tiniest bit concerned with how much of the ventilation it appears to be in front of.

So, that is how the heatsink looks when installed and how easy it is. But how about how well it works? Let’s run some temperature testing to see how well it does it’s job in heavy read, heavy write and gameplay instances.

Eagle PS5 SSD Heatsink Review – Temperature Testings

Temperature testing for the Eagle PS5 SSD heatsink has been broken down into several areas. The main aims here are to work out the following things:

1. Does the Eagle Heatsink Keep the Temperature low on the SSD in sustained use?
2. Does the Eagle Heatsink Interfere with the PS5 Internal System Temp negatively?
3. Is the Eagle 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 PNY XLR8 CS3140, 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 using 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 360MB/s to/from the PS5 internal PS5 SSD and M.2 NVMe SSD (the PNY XLR8 CS3140) 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 

Test Type	Starting Temp (C)	Finishing Temp (C)	Change (C)
Heavy Write (350GB)	27.9℃	43.5℃	15.6℃
Demon Souls 25min Play (Controller)	26.3℃	40.1℃	13.8℃
Demon Souls 25min Play (System Temp)	27.0℃	28.2℃	1.2℃
Matrix Unreal 5 25min Play (Controller)	36.9℃	42.2℃	5.3℃
Matrix Unreal 5 25min Play (System Temp)	27.6℃	27.7℃	0.1℃
Heavy Read (350GB)	34.0℃	38.1℃	4.1℃

So, taking a closer look at the results above, we can work out a few things. First off, there is no denying that the Eagle PS5 Designed SSD heatsink works. Had an SSD been installed inside a PS5 without a heatsink, these temperatures would have easily doubled and (in the case of the heavy write activity) likely exceeded the 70℃ maximum of an SSD before it throttles it’s own performance in efforts to maintain the lifespan of the drive. However, these are still not great temps for this SSD to have after 4x relatively short gameplay sessions (and the data migration instances). To put these stats into a little perspective, below is the exact same tests being conducted with a basic $10 m.2 heat sink that is designed for more general PC use:

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)

So, YES the Eagle heatsink certainly resulted in a lower overall increase, but the numbers in some cases were a lot closer than I would have expected (especially when you compare these results against that of the Sabrent PS5 Heatsink, the INEO, Graugear & Elecgear PS5  Heatsink (all of which were drastically better). These tests still firmly showed that this heatsink was able to dissipate more heat away from the SSD than a generic alternative, but also still show that the difference is negociable at this pricepoint when there are $20 alternatives doing it better.

NOTE – The FULL video of the Temperature tests for the Eagle PS5 SSD Heatsink, as well as how it compares against the Eluteng M.2 Heatsink, the Sabrent PS5 heatsink and the INEO Heatsink Heatsink will be live soon and in a2-Part Series.

Eagle PS5 SSD Heatsink Review – Conclusion & Verdict

I genuinely WANTED to like the Eagle PS5 SSD heatsink, I really, REALLY did. The problem here is that it is another very familiar case of ‘you get what you pay for’ when shopping online and this heatsink somewhat dies the death of a thousand cuts – i.e there are so, so many small/niggling factors that undermine the whole thing. If you are looking for the best BUDGET PS5 heatsink to buy in 2022/2023, then I can definitely recommend the Eagle Heatsink for your PS5. But only to those that understand that a low price (as little as $7.99 in some places, e.g Aliexpress) comes with a notable degree of compromise. Does it work? Yes. Does it do a better job than a $10 PC designed m.2 SSD heatsink? Yes. Is it worth under $10? Yes. HOWEVER, the presentation of the heatsink and logic of the accessories at the retail level is horrendous, the pricing available online is completely bonkers, the physical/industrial cutting of the aluminium is pretty sub-par, the weight/quality of the heatsink seems underwhelming for its ultimate use, it clips the edge of the PS5 internal casing in a way that seems ill-thought and the whole product leaves you with a feeling that this heatsink is a bit of a quick cash-grab for budget eTailers! Of all the heatsinks that I have tested, I would put this very much at the bottom of all of them in terms of quality, but I still cannot fault that it does exactly what it says it can do and if you need a low-cost PS5 designed heatsink for your PS5 storage expansion upgrades, you will NOT get a better budget option right now.

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Summary

Reviewer

Robbie

Review Date

2022-01-24

Reviewed Item

Eagle PS5 Designed SSD Heatsink Review

Author Rating

3