Samsung 970 EVO 500GB vs Crucial P5 500GB? Do I really need a heatsink?

[tomas10024]

Hello, I'm looking for a nvme SSD as my primary drive and want to upgrade from a HHD. I have chosen 2 m.2 SSDs (Samsung 970 EVO 500GB and Crucial P5 500GB) and I can't decide which one is better. I will be using my pc for programming, gaming and watching movies. I will keep my OS and programs like visual studio, discord, steam, origin, teams, Unity, maybe a small game...

970 costs 77€ and P5 67€ , but I have read that they might need a heatsink and some say that low temperatures are bad, but also high temps are bad too so I am not sure what to do.

The heatsink which I would be is using is the one from EKWB.

 

Also I forgot to mention that the only place where I can put my SSD is between my GPU, rx 570 and CPU cooler (It is blowing from bottom to top if that helps)

Motherboard: gigabyte AX370M-DS3H

[flashiling]

i don't use a heatsink on mine and i've had no issues, as long as your m.2 isn't placed right under the exhaust of a gpu with 0 airflow in the case then you shouldn't have a problem

[GoodEnough]

if the m.2 is directly under a beefy gpu can get a little too toasty, thats when you would really need an m.2, that and maybe a case with poor airflow

[AnirbanG007]

12 minutes ago, tomas10024 said:

Hello, I'm looking for a nvme SSD as my primary drive and want to upgrade from a HHD. I have chosen 2 m.2 SSDs (Samsung 970 EVO 500GB and Crucial P5 500GB) and I can't decide which one is better. I will be using my pc for programming, gaming and watching movies. I will keep my OS and programs like visual studio, discord, steam, origin, teams, Unity, maybe a small game...

970 costs 77€ and P5 67€ , but I have read that they might need a heatsink and some say that low temperatures are bad, but also high temps are bad too so I am not sure what to do.

The heatsink which I would be is using is the one from EKWB.

Did you look up the WD SN550 1 TB nvme drive? It might be worth your time.

Now the Samsung 970 Evo plus will obviously be faster in sequential workloads, but from a value proposition, I think the SN550 holds its own.

[ErykYT3]

You don't have a heatsink for m.2 drives on your motherboard, I thought most did.

You could probably configure the cooling in your pc in a way that works well for you. 

I have the 970 and haven't had a problem.

[Stahlmann]

These SSDs do not need a heatsink. In fact pretty much no consumer SSD needs one. The motherboard heatsinks are a gimmick and nothing more.

[-rascal-]

The Gigabyte GA-AX370M-DS3H has the primary NVMe M.2 slot sitting in between the CPU and GPU PCI-E X16 slot.

The NVMe M.2 slot does not sit under the GPU, so that is good.

If your case has decent airflow, a heatsink is probably not needed.

 

The 970 EVO / 970 EVO PLUS, as mentioned by @AnirbanG007 has high sequential read / write performance, but you pay a premium price for it.

He recommended the WD Blue SN550.

If you wanted very similar performance to the 970 EVO PLUS, the WD BLACK SN750 1TB is a good option.

Look at reviews for the WD Black SN750 vs 970 EVO / 970 EVO PLUS.

 

I was actually in your shoes, making the decision of which NVMe M.2 SSD to get.

Narrowed it to the WD Black SN750 and the Samsung 970 EVO (PLUS).

Ended up getting a WD Black SN750 1TB myself while it was on sale.

 

https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/wd-black-sn750-ssd,5957-3.html

https://www.anandtech.com/show/13760/the-western-digital-wd-black-sn750-ssd-review

https://www.pcworld.com/article/3336866/wd-black-sn750-nvme-ssd-review.html