Something I have noticed with some cheaper 2.5" SSD's

[chocolatekarma]

So I have built a couple budget rigs for friends, and used a small 250GB NVMe for the system drive and then a cheap 1TB 2.5" SSD as a game drive.  Both have locked temp readings.  One is a Silicon Power A58 which always reads as 40c and the other is a Patriot P210 which always reads 35c.  They work perfectly otherwise, so I never felt the need to return them, but it's very odd.

 

I also have a cheap Kingston A400 in my spare gaming rig, and it gives proper temps.

 

Thoughts?  Anyone else?

[Electronics Wizardy]

Just curious why you get a small nvme ssd and a larger sata drive. Why not get a single larger ssd?

 

 

[YoungBlade]

The only 2.5" SSDs I've come across that accurately report temperature are high end ones, like my Samsung 860 Evo. All of the other ones either don't report a temperature at all, or report one that's clearly wrong. All of the M.2 drives I've ever worked with always report temperature, even if the sensor isn't always the best - the one in my work laptop, for example, seems to have a very slow polling rate, only reporting every 20 seconds or so.

 

I wouldn't really worry about it unless you're hitting the thing hard in a hot-box case 24/7. SATA SSDs just can't work fast enough to overheat like NVMe drives potentially can.

[chocolatekarma]

Just now, Electronics Wizardy said:

Just curious why you get a small nvme ssd and a larger sata drive. Why not get a single larger ssd?

 

 

Because games don't really benefit from NVMe speeds vs SATA SSD's, and this solution is cheaper overall.  Plus I also like keeping the OS separate from everything else.

[porina]

The Sandisk Ultra II 960GB and Crucial MX500 1TB 2.5" SSDs in my current system both are changing temperature, although I guess they're not cheap at the time I got them.

[chocolatekarma]

Just now, porina said:

The Sandisk Ultra II 960GB and Crucial MX500 1TB 2.5" SSDs in my current system both are changing temperature, although I guess they're not cheap at the time I got them.

The MX500's are actually very good quality SSD's.  Well above the quality of the ones I'm talking about.

[porina]

10 minutes ago, chocolatekarma said:

The MX500's are actually very good quality SSD's.  Well above the quality of the ones I'm talking about.

Yeah, it is a mid range SSD with DRAM. I also have the related DRAM-less BX500 in another system, but that's probably still going to have temp readings without going to check.

 

I did look at very low end SSDs in the past, but if they reported temperatures or not I didn't note. 

 

[chocolatekarma]

51 minutes ago, YoungBlade said:

The only 2.5" SSDs I've come across that accurately report temperature are high end ones, like my Samsung 860 Evo. All of the other ones either don't report a temperature at all, or report one that's clearly wrong. All of the M.2 drives I've ever worked with always report temperature, even if the sensor isn't always the best - the one in my work laptop, for example, seems to have a very slow polling rate, only reporting every 20 seconds or so.

 

I wouldn't really worry about it unless you're hitting the thing hard in a hot-box case 24/7. SATA SSDs just can't work fast enough to overheat like NVMe drives potentially can.

My WD Blue, Crucial MX500 and Samsung Evo all give proper temps.

[YoungBlade]

9 minutes ago, chocolatekarma said:

My WD Blue, Crucial MX500 and Samsung Evo all give proper temps.

I would expect those to have temperature sensors (although I wouldn't have been shocked if the WD Blue didn't) as they're all quality drives. The majority of SSDs I've got are from TeamGroup, and only the oldest one I have, a GX1 240GB, actually reports its temperature. All of the newer ones either don't report anything, or the sensor is clearly wrong - like the CX2 in my desktop that always reports 0C.

[chocolatekarma]

2 minutes ago, YoungBlade said:

I would expect those to have temperature sensors (although I wouldn't have been shocked if the WD Blue didn't) as they're all quality drives. The majority of SSDs I've got are from TeamGroup, and only the oldest one I have, a GX1 240GB, actually reports its temperature. All of the newer ones either don't report anything, or the sensor is clearly wrong - like the CX2 in my desktop that always reports 0C.

The Blue 2.5" are actually higher quality than their NVMe counterparts.  The 2.5" have DRAM and the NVMe don't.  The Blue 2.5" are actually in the B tier with the Evo.

[YoungBlade]

4 minutes ago, chocolatekarma said:

The Blue 2.5" are actually higher quality than their NVMe counterparts.  The 2.5" have DRAM and the NVMe don't.  The Blue 2.5" are actually in the B tier with the Evo.

I did not know that. I assumed that the WD Blue SSDs lacked DRAM across the board.

 

None of the drives that I have that fail to report temperatures have DRAM. Although the GX1 is, supposedly, a DRAM-less SSD, yet it does, so that's not the only factor, evidently.

[chocolatekarma]

6 minutes ago, YoungBlade said:

I did not know that. I assumed that the WD Blue SSDs lacked DRAM across the board.

 

It must be because there is no WD Black 2.5".