Effective cooling

[AtomicGaming]

Last year, I built my own gaming/media production PC. Just recently, I discovered that my m.2 SSD was running around 51 - 52 Degrees Celsius. The location of the m.2 is under the graphics card, and the heat is going to the graphics card. What are some things to consider to determine that I do have enough airflow coming in? I want to lower the temperature on the m.2 as much as possible.

[Samfisher]

Move it to a different M.2 slot?  Or you can get one of those small 8cm fans to get more airflow to it.  That's what I do with my HDD cage which is right in front of my radiator.  I don't have this issue for my M.2 which is under my GPU tbh.

[AtomicGaming]

11 minutes ago, Samfisher said:

Move it to a different M.2 slot?  Or you can get one of those small 8cm fans to get more airflow to it.  That's what I do with my HDD cage which is right in front of my radiator.  I don't have this issue for my M.2 which is under my GPU tbh.

There's only one m.2 slot. My graphics card only has one fan. I've used up all fan available positions for my computer case. Should I consider heatsinks, or is it as good as it can get in terms of cooling?

Edited January 8, 2020 by AtomicGaming
Clarifying an question, and answering a question

[Samfisher]

11 minutes ago, AtomicGaming said:

There's only one m.2 slot. My graphics card only has one fan. I've used up all fan available positions for my computer case. Should I consider heatsinks, or is it as good as it can get in terms of cooling?

Heatsinks would probably interfere with the clearance with your GPU.  Does your M.2 slot come with a built in heatsink or is it just bare SSD?

[DoctorNick]

9 minutes ago, AtomicGaming said:

There's only one m.2 slot. My graphics card only has one fan. I've used up all fan available positions for my computer case. Should I consider heatsinks, or is it as good as it can get in terms of cooling?

If it's under the GPU it's not an issue, also the heat from the SSD won't affect the GPU temp much. You can get memory heatsinks with thermal tape or NVME heatsink.

https://www.amazon.com/GLOTRENDS-NVMe-Heatsink-M-2-2280/dp/B076YZMQR5/ref=pd_lpo_sbs_147_t_0?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=TGME94E6JEDMW2DQ54Q2

[AtomicGaming]

1 minute ago, Samfisher said:

Heatsinks would probably interfere with the clearance with your GPU.  Does your M.2 slot come with a built in heatsink or is it just bare SSD?

Bare SSD

[GoldenLag]

31 minutes ago, AtomicGaming said:

I want to lower the temperature on the m.2 as much as possible.

get some small VRM and memmory heatsinks, stick it on the SSD. 

 

pretty much any sort of airflow will stop a regular SSD from  overheating. 

[Samfisher]

1 minute ago, AtomicGaming said:

Bare SSD

TBH low 50's shouldn't be a problem for the SSD.  You could try with some heatsinks but that would still require some sort of airflow to move the heat away from them.

[AtomicGaming]

4 minutes ago, Samfisher said:

TBH low 50's shouldn't be a problem for the SSD.  You could try with some heatsinks but that would still require some sort of airflow to move the heat away from them.

What is the best route to go considering the clearance of the GPU?

[GoldenLag]

15 minutes ago, Samfisher said:

You could try with some heatsinks but that would still require some sort of airflow to move the heat away from them.

not really, thermal mass is usually enough to keep the SSD from ever reaching a point of getting close to thermal throttling during any reasonable workload

9 minutes ago, AtomicGaming said:

What is the best route to go considering the clearance of the GPU?

any airflow will do, just get a small fan if you actually do workloads requiring really long sessions of writing and reading. 

[AtomicGaming]

6 minutes ago, GoldenLag said:

not really, thermal mass is usually enough to keep the SSD from ever reaching a point of getting close to thermal throttling during any reasonable workload

any airflow will do, just get a small fan if you actually do workloads requiring really long sessions of writing and reading. 

Alright. Coolio!

 

Thanks for all of your input GoldenLag, Samfisher, and doctor Nick. Y'all are an tremendous help with the information that you all have given me. 

[Kc7vwc]

Those temps aren't really an issue. But if you want peace of mind, it doesn't take much airflow to cool it. 

This last weekend I put a 120mm AiO cooler on my system - Ryzen 7 2700, Gigabyte B450 ITX, and Phanteks Enthoo Evolv chassis. I've got a Samsung 970 Evo NVME M.2 under the heatsink that Gigabyte supplies with the motherboard, which is located next to the CPU socket, but is blocked from front airflow by the RAM. Once I put the pump on the CPU, just loading into World of Tanks was enough to push the temps of the SSD over 85°c and it stayed around 70°c when at idle. 

So I switched back to the stock Wraith Spire cooler - instant drop. Max temp under load was 64°c. 

So the stock cooler is more than enough. 

In your case, the SSD is under the GPU. And while it's blowing hot air, it's still air that's moving - same as I was getting from my CPU. 

 

Incidentally, my last system had your arrangement, with a Samsung 960 sitting under a Radeon R9 390. That card was a furnace, but the SSD never got above 60°c that I can recall. 

 

So tl:dr - your system is good, and ANY airflow across the SSD will help it, even if it's warmed.