Hot M.2 SSD issues.

[kfly54]

My 1TB M.2 SSD is running 52 C at idle and 63 on normal transfer loads (Moving a large file, ect.) I have a Crucial M.2 CT1000P1SSD8 in the Strix B350 motherboard in a Nzxt H500i. I have a heatsink on it but I cant think of any other ideas to keep it cool.

[TheBean]

a fan over the heatsink? is the m.2 under the gpu, above or below? if its over or below, your case fans should give enough airflow to cool it. 

 

also, make sure that the thermal pad is only on the controller. nand likes to be hot. it performs better when warmer compared to cold. 

[kfly54]

It is above the gpu and the pad straches the length of the ssd, I will change that if necessary

.

[dfsdfgfkjsefoiqzemnd]

Those temps are pretty much in line with what my Samsung NVMe drives run at. (both 52°C at idle and 62 under load).

 

NVMe drives like to idle at around 50°C.  If they get too hot under load, the controller will throttle down which will affect read and write speeds. 

Heat does affect the lifespan of the device, but most people will be replacing their SSDs with larger ones long before they wear out.

 

As for the heatsink, I tested mine with and without the EKWB heatsinks and found no difference in terms of sustained idle and load temps. 

The heatsinks do slow down the temperature change, which theoretically would help with longer file transfers.  But I never actually measured just how much of a difference it makes. 

[kfly54]

The max the ssd will hit with file tranfer was 68 C (I just retested it and didn't relies it got that hot.) and the transfer speed slowed down to about 98mb/s.

[kfly54]

Nevermind, a stupid error on my part for the transfer speeds but the ssd still seemed too hot for my liking.

600 mb/s still seems a bit slow or am I wrong?

[Energycore]

As with any silicon, keep temps under 85C and you'll be fine.

 

You should only really worry about your SSD's temperatures if it starts throttling, as said above. You can run CrystalDiskMark to benchmark the SSD's write / read speeds, then compare it to a review (it's normal to get slightly lower results than a review since SSDs lose some performance as they are filled and written to; so only look for big reductions like 40%).

 

Cheers!

[dfsdfgfkjsefoiqzemnd]

Yeah, that's a bit hot, but not worryingly.  It's slow though.  You have an NVMe drive rated for 2000MB/s read and 1700 write.  600MB/s is SATA level. 

 

hmm ... does it ever go above 600?  You may want to check the BIOS, to make sure the M.2 slot is configured for an NVMe drive and not a SATA one.  It wouldn't be the first time that an NVMe drive under-performs because of a bad BIOS setting.

 

I have no experience with that case and how it handles thermals and airflow, but even Gamers Nexus calls it "acceptable" so it must be okay. Take off the side panel and blow air onto the drive (using a desk fan or holding an extra PC fan that you plug into a spare header on the motherboard).  See if that reduces the temps.

[dizmo]

You're fine. That's well within its operating limits.

 

You can try putting a fan on it, but honestly I wouldn't bother.

[kfly54]

13 minutes ago, Captain Chaos said:

Yeah, that's a bit hot, but not worryingly.  It's slow though.  You have an NVMe drive rated for 2000MB/s read and 1700 write.  600MB/s is SATA level. 

 

hmm ... does it ever go above 600?  You may want to check the BIOS, to make sure the M.2 slot is configured for an NVMe drive and not a SATA one.  It wouldn't be the first time that an NVMe drive under-performs because of a bad BIOS setting.

 

I have no experience with that case and how it handles thermals and airflow, but even Gamers Nexus calls it "acceptable" so it must be okay. Take off the side panel and blow air onto the drive (using a desk fan or holding an extra PC fan that you plug into a spare header on the motherboard).  See if that reduces the temps.

The bios says that my ssd is a "windows boot manager". Could that be affecting the speed?

[dfsdfgfkjsefoiqzemnd]

28 minutes ago, kfly54 said:

The bios says that my ssd is a "windows boot manager". Could that be affecting the speed?

nah, that only means it boots from there.  Gimme a bit to check your motherboard's manual.  I'll edit this post when I find where the setting is.

 

EDIT : looked up the Prime B350 BIOS (most brands have very similar BIOSes across the range) and I don't see an option for switching the M.2 slot between SATA and PCIe/NVMe. 

So all I can suggest is to blow extra air onto the drive and seeing if that helps to drop the tempaerature and increase the speed.

[kfly54]

14 minutes ago, Captain Chaos said:

nah, that only means it boots from there.  Gimme a bit to check your motherboard's manual.  I'll edit this post when I find where the setting is.

 

EDIT : looked up the Prime B350 BIOS (most brands have very similar BIOSes across the range) and I don't see an option for switching the M.2 slot between SATA and PCIe/NVMe. 

So all I can suggest is to blow extra air onto the drive and seeing if that helps to drop the tempaerature and increase the speed.

So weird, I guess I will have to try that later.