crucial Trying to keep my MX500 cool

[Aderalia]

Hey,

 

I've been having temperature issues with my two 1TB Crucial MX500s ever since i have got them. It was less of a problem during the last couple of months since i wasn't home a lot and therefore could not use my PC much, but now im getting increasingly worried (relatively speaking).

Both drives reach ~60°C (140°F) during operation despite being cooled by my front intake fan.

In favor of these drives i might have to add that my workload is pretty much worst case. I'm creating huge datasets with lots of mixed Random IO and plenty of sequential writes. Those drives are far from ideal for my use case but at the time of purchase the only once with a RAM cache and at least somewhat usable TBW that where not totally overpriced (1TB 860 Pro was close to 300€ at the time).

 

I watched some tear-downs and it looks like Crucial hasn't put any thermal transfer material between the controller and the casing, which seems odd given that this drive has an all metal case...

This seems to be proven by the case temperatures, which, even after hours are still just barely above ambient.

I do still have some thermal pads between 1 and 3 mm thickness laying around and was wondering if anybody may has made a similar mod already or knows how big of a pad i would need. I'm trying to avoid opening the drives because of warranty until i have a solid plan of what I'm doing

[Skiiwee29]

That is a bit hot IMO. My 2tb MX500 is in the mid 30s according to hwinfo. 

 

[Aderalia]

From what i could gather around that web the max temperature observed by any reviewer was ~48°C, which was revered to as "high but still acceptable".

But than on the other side, nobody does proper thermal testing on SATA SSDs anyway, so i figured i just use mine for a longer time without time to cool of.
 

[Stahlmann]

Tbh SATA SSDs are far from problematic when it comes to heat. Even with them running at 60°C i don't see a problem. You'd have to check the exactl controller that is used and look up it's operating temperature, but it's likely 80°C+ in the spec. Your higher temperatures could be because you have a different batch with different internal devices because that's what SSD manufacturers like to do these days.

[Spotty]

20 minutes ago, Aderalia said:

In favor of these drives i might have to add that my workload is pretty much worst case. I'm creating huge datasets with lots of mixed Random IO and plenty of sequential writes.

Considering the work load I don't think 60°C is unexpected and I do not think it will cause you any issue to run them at that temperature. But by all means try adding thermal pads between the controller and enclosure to see if it helps.

[mariushm]

NAND memory chips like higher temperatures ... 60c is perfectly fine. The controller is usually the warmest component, and that's the temperature reported, the nand memory will often be cooler. 

The controller doesn't mind as long as the temperature is under around 80c ..when you go over 85c it may throttle itself or "hiccup" trying to reduce the produced heat. 

 

If you're that paranoid about temperature you could get a copper or aluminum thin sheet the size of the sata enclosure, cover it with tape or something everywhere except the controller chip area and use a bit of thermal paste to make contact between the controller and the foil to transfer heat from the controller to the sheet.

[Aderalia]

1 hour ago, mariushm said:

NAND memory chips like higher temperatures ...

That statement is only partially true, but that's something for it's own Topic

I'm not so much worried about the NAND Chips, since i assume the temp sensor is part of the controller rather then somewhere else on the board.

 

I'm just conflicted since 60°C is about 20 (!) more than any other SATA SSD i own, given that my case does a good job of keeping them cool, even given the brutal workload. My old Intel drives never went above 50, they were a bit slower and had a slightly lower power rating tho.

 

I think I'll just go for it and open one up, hoping i can fit a thermal pad between the controller and the case without to much force.