[wtallis]

> You have to run it at load, let it get hot, then cool it down without removing the load

Sustained load testing can reveal multiple phase changes in performance unrelated to temperature, which can complicate results from a single run (eg. what if you run out of spare blocks before the drive has cooled below the hysteresis threshold to disable throttling). So multiple independent runs starting from the drive in the same state and varying only the cooling method is the most controlled and reliable methodology.