MSI Spatium M580 Liquid Frozr: A Unique SSD with Built-in Liquid Cooler

The MSI Spatium M580 Liquid Frozr is an incredibly intriguing SSD that caught our attention at CES 2024. Unlike traditional M.2-2280 SSDs, this drive features a self-contained liquid cooler, complete with a fan, radiator, pump-block, and coolant channels. While this design may seem both cute and a little sad, it is necessary due to the use of fast controllers that generate significant heat.

MSI is not to blame for this design choice, as they are utilizing the fastest controllers available on the market, which are built on older 12 nm foundry nodes. The PCI-Express 5.0 x4 bandwidth of the Spatium M580 is comparable to PCI-Express 3.0 x16, and the transfer of such high volumes of data is bound to generate heat for an SSD controller.

The Spatium M580 utilizes the Phison E26 Max14um controller, which is the fastest available, along with Micron's B58R 232-layer 3D NAND flash chips that deliver impressive speeds of 2400 MT/s per flash channel.

Thanks to the combination of the Phison Max14um controller and the B58R flash chips, the Spatium M580 achieves sequential transfer speeds beyond 14 GB/s, taking into account the interface and protocol overhead. This is a significant achievement, considering that most PCIe Gen 5 x4 drives will reach their limit at this speed. The theoretical maximum bandwidth of Gen 5 x4 is 16 GB/s. Additionally, the drive is available in capacities of up to 4 TB.

In terms of the cooler's design, the bare drive makes contact with a copper cold-plate, which houses the block and reservoir, along with a small pump. Coolant is then circulated through a compact aluminum heat-exchanger, which is likely the smallest radiator we have ever seen. To support the radiator, a small 20 mm lateral-flow fan is included, which blows air through the radiator to dissipate heat effectively.

We are eagerly anticipating the opportunity to review the MSI Spatium M580 Liquid Frozr and explore its unique features further.