NVME heatsink

[TatamiMatt]

I'm wondering if its better to get an NVME with a heatsink, they're about the same price and I'm able to fit the mobos built in heatshield over top of the NVMEs own heatsinks, i.e 

 

Mobo heatsink - on top

Built in NVME heatshield - between mobo heatshield and NVME

NVME drive

 

In that stack and in that order

 

What I'm querying is, does this provides any benefit for heat dissipation or is it better to get one without a built in heatsink and fix the mobos heatsink directly to the face to the NVME?

[filpo]

2 minutes ago, TatamiMatt said:

does this provides any benefit for heat dissipation or is it better to get one without a built in heatsink and fix the mobos heatsink directly to the face to the NVME?

the second one. But do you have a gen 5 ssd? Because if you do then you would need a chonky heatsink for your nvme. But if you have a gen 4 ssd then just use the mobo heatsink

[TatamiMatt]

5 minutes ago, filpo said:

the second one. But do you have a gen 5 ssd? Because if you do then you would need a chonky heatsink for your nvme. But if you have a gen 4 ssd then just use the mobo heatsink

Just a gen 4 SSD, WD SN850, 

 

and to clarify, better to use just the mobo heatsink than to combine both heatsinks

 

The mobo ones are MSIs Frozr heatshields on the Z490 boards and ive heard theyre not the greatest so my thinking was that they could be used as a thermal mass for the built in heatsink to transfer heat into

[filpo]

Just now, TatamiMatt said:

better to use just the mobo heatsink than to combine both heatsinks

Yes

 

Just now, TatamiMatt said:

The mobo ones are MSIs Frozr heatshields on the Z490 boards

If you can fit the extra heatsink in between the mobo heatsink the included heatsink with the nvme probably isn't that good so I'd just stick with the msi board's heatsink

[TatamiMatt]

3 minutes ago, filpo said:

Yes

 

If you can fit the extra heatsink in between the mobo heatsink the included heatsink with the nvme probably isn't that good so I'd just stick with the msi board's heatsink

Yeah, was wondering as ive seen that MSIs heatshields have actually shown to increase temps, does this change your opinion?

 

thinking they could be combined for one heatsink to transfer into the others much larger thermal mass without smothering

[filpo]

1 minute ago, TatamiMatt said:

does this change your opinion?

Maybe. DO you have a link to this ssd with the included heatsink?

[TatamiMatt]

1 minute ago, filpo said:

Maybe. DO you have a link to this ssd with the included heatsink?

I do indeed, not sure if its the SN850 or the SN850X but the only difference is a small increase in R/W speed nothing else

NVME in question

 

and the Mobo is this one

Mobo link

 

and i believe if you search up the heatsinks on those motherboards there are a good handful of sources saying they're relatively useless at dissipating heat

[filpo]

12 minutes ago, TatamiMatt said:

I do indeed, not sure if its the SN850 or the SN850X but the only difference is a small increase in R/W speed nothing else

NVME in question

don't pay 100 pounds for this tho. Instead get a p5 plus 2tb with a heatsink Crucial P5 Plus 2TB Gen4 NVMe M.2 SSD Internal Gaming SSD with Heatsink, Compatible with Playstation 5 (PS5) - up to 6600MB/s - CT2000P5PSSD5 : Amazon.co.uk: Computers & Accessories

12 minutes ago, TatamiMatt said:

and i believe if you search up the heatsinks on those motherboards there are a good handful of sources saying they're relatively useless at dissipating heat

the heatsink on the sn850 will be enough for it

[TatamiMatt]

3 minutes ago, filpo said:

don't pay 100 pounds for this tho. Instead get a p5 plus 2tb with a heatsink Crucial P5 Plus 2TB Gen4 NVMe M.2 SSD Internal Gaming SSD with Heatsink, Compatible with Playstation 5 (PS5) - up to 6600MB/s - CT2000P5PSSD5 : Amazon.co.uk: Computers & Accessories

the heatsink on the sn850 will be enough for it

I have one already, got it on offer for a decent bit less, I was looking at other NVMEs, namely the Crucial series for a second NVME, but was just wondering, in the case of the one i have already, what the optimal scenario would be

[filpo]

20 minutes ago, TatamiMatt said:

what the optimal scenario would be

oh for the heatsink, keep the sn850 heatsink on and don't use the msi mobo heatsink

[Poinkachu]

2 hours ago, TatamiMatt said:

I have one already, got it on offer for a decent bit less, I was looking at other NVMEs, namely the Crucial series for a second NVME, but was just wondering, in the case of the one i have already, what the optimal scenario would be

If you stack MOBO heatsink on top of the included heatsink without something like thermal pad, chances are you are going to make the thermal worse.

If you add a thermal pad, chances are you won't be able to mount the motherboard heatsink well.

 

Although if it's SN850, I doubt you'll be able to mount your motherboard NVME heatsink even without thermal pad.

 

The only time where I think it might be possible to stack it is if the included heatsink is only a thin metal, like the one included with like example : S70 Blade, or SX8200 Pro.

 

If NVME thermal is your big issue, prolly better off just buying a fan and place it near the nvme somehow. Or a third-party heatsink with decent active cooling.

 

Some motherboard's heatsink is good enough, some are heat trapper. I've no idea which one's yours though.

[TatamiMatt]

5 minutes ago, Poinkachu said:

If you stack MOBO heatsink on top of the included heatsink without something like thermal pad, chances are you are going to make the thermal worse.

If you add a thermal pad, chances are you won't be able to mount the motherboard heatsink well.

 

Although if it's SN850, I doubt you'll be able to mount your motherboard NVME heatsink even without thermal pad.

 

 

No i was able to mount it, albeit with a little issue but the standoffs/spacers are well sized. The Frozr heatsinks do come with like, sticky thermal pads built into them so theyre quite low profile in that regard. In short theres an M.2 NVME with a heatsink, then a thermal pad, then the metal of the mobo heatsink all stacked currently. I can provide pictures once im able to.

[Poinkachu]

5 minutes ago, TatamiMatt said:

No i was able to mount it, albeit with a little issue but the standoffs/spacers are well sized. The Frozr heatsinks do come with like, sticky thermal pads built into them so theyre quite low profile in that regard. In short theres an M.2 NVME with a heatsink, then a thermal pad, then the metal of the mobo heatsink all stacked currently. I can provide pictures once im able to.

Well, there is a simple way to know.

Just test thermal with and without.

 

The way my logic sees it, from looking at SN850 heatsink shape, unless you really put some pressure only the raised points of the SN850 heatsink gonna be in decent contact with the thermal pads.

 

While the lowered area might become a heat trapper due to being mostly covered by thermal pads & mobo heatsink.

[TatamiMatt]

3 minutes ago, Poinkachu said:

Well, there is a simple way to know.

Just test thermal with and without.

 

The way my logic sees it, from looking at SN850 heatsink shape, unless you really put some pressure only the raised points of the SN850 heatsink gonna be in decent contact with the therma pads.

 

While the lowered area might become a heat trapper due to being mostly covered by thermal pads & mobo heatsink.

Yeah, i queried here as for some reason my computer is unable to pick up any thermal readings from this m.2 so im unable to test, albeit i havent reallyyyy looked into why yet, but ig this is the time to do it

[Poinkachu]

27 minutes ago, TatamiMatt said:

Yeah, i queried here as for some reason my computer is unable to pick up any thermal readings from this m.2 so im unable to test, albeit i havent reallyyyy looked into why yet, but ig this is the time to do it

What do you use to monitor the thermal ?

[TatamiMatt]

8 minutes ago, Poinkachu said:

What do you use to monitor the thermal ?

Open Hardware Monitor

[Poinkachu]

19 minutes ago, TatamiMatt said:

Open Hardware Monitor

Try HD Sentinel or Hwinfo64

[TatamiMatt]

1 minute ago, Poinkachu said:

Try HD Sentinel or Hwinfo64

Will do, thanks, will report back with findings for anyone interested!

[TatamiMatt]

@filpo @Poinkachu I was able to monitor temps using WDs SSD dashboard. But before that, images of both heatsinks in place

 

Mobo heatsink below with attached thermal pad

 

And finally exposed NVME with heatsink taken off

 

Now for the data

 

Its somewhat lacking data points for a reason ill touch on after.

 

But i ran a memory test on the NVME a few times to up usage on it but also to have a quantative measurement system

With heatsink on it reached 41 degrees in around 2-3 tests and took a little while to cool down befoe i could test without heatsink

Without the heatsink, running the same test, it took 4-5 tests to hit a stable 41 and cooled down quickly after, and quicker than compared to the extra heatsink

 

Now, I tried to run more tests with the heatsink reattached but i threaded the screw wrong and stripped the insides so couldnt take it off, had to take out the GPU to get the screw out with pliers, and as you can imagine just didnt go through the bother of reattaching.

 

So TLDR, took the heatsink off, it looks better imo, frees up more space, cools down quicker and takes longer to heat up

[Poinkachu]

9 minutes ago, TatamiMatt said:

@filpo @Poinkachu I was able to monitor temps using WDs SSD dashboard. But before that, images of both heatsinks in place

 

Mobo heatsink below with attached thermal pad

 

And finally exposed NVME with heatsink taken off

 

Now for the data

 

Its somewhat lacking data points for a reason ill touch on after.

 

But i ran a memory test on the NVME a few times to up usage on it but also to have a quantative measurement system

With heatsink on it reached 41 degrees in around 2-3 tests and took a little while to cool down befoe i could test without heatsink

Without the heatsink, running the same test, it took 4-5 tests to hit a stable 41 and cooled down quickly after, and quicker than compared to the extra heatsink

 

Now, I tried to run more tests with the heatsink reattached but i threaded the screw wrong and stripped the insides so couldnt take it off, had to take out the GPU to get the screw out with pliers, and as you can imagine just didnt go through the bother of reattaching.

 

So TLDR, took the heatsink off, it looks better imo, frees up more space, cools down quicker and takes longer to heat up

Uh... is your NVME slanted ?

Like, the end point (left side on the pic) is closer to the motherboard than the right side ??

 

Usually the left side isn't screwed onto the motherboard using M.2 spacer as the top side.

 

Quote

So TLDR, took the heatsink off, it looks better imo, frees up more space, cools down quicker and takes longer to heat up

Told ya.

[filpo]

12 minutes ago, TatamiMatt said:

So TLDR, took the heatsink off, it looks better imo, frees up more space, cools down quicker and takes longer to heat up

Good, seems all good to me. Happy we could help

[TatamiMatt]

13 minutes ago, Poinkachu said:

Uh... is your NVME slanted ?

Like, the end point (left side on the pic) is closer to the motherboard than the right side ??

 

Usually the left side isn't screwed onto the motherboard using M.2 spacer as the top side.

 

Told ya.

@Poinkachu It is but its not torqued down to any real strength, but i dont have any spacers or anything that are correctly sized, if you look the spacer the mobo comes with isnt wide at the top so im not sure what to do, so i just screwed it in what seemed like the bare minimum

[Poinkachu]

12 minutes ago, TatamiMatt said:

@Poinkachu It is but its not torqued down to any real strength, but i dont have any spacers or anything that are correctly sized, if you look the spacer the mobo comes with isnt wide at the top so im not sure what to do, so i just screwed it in what seemed like the bare minimum

Yeah well, there should be an M.2 screw for the top side that came with the motherboard.

At least that's how it usually is AFAIK (My MSI motherboard came with 2 since there's 2 M.2 slots)

 

I never used ASUS motherboard (I forgot yours also MSI)  I'm pretty sure the one you are using right now is the spacer, the top screw is very small with a wide head.

[TatamiMatt]

2 minutes ago, Poinkachu said:

Yeah well, there should be an M.2 screw for the top side that came with the motherboard.

At least that's how it usually is AFAIK (My motherboard came with 2)

 

I never used ASUS motherboard, but I'm pretty sure the one you are using right now is the spacer, the top screw is very small with a wide head.

I mean, yes, this screw exists, but its semi-permanently attached to the mobo heatshield, there should be another in my good ol bag o' bolts, so ill test this but the spacers seem too high, and too thin. But i can only try!

[Poinkachu]

28 minutes ago, TatamiMatt said:

I mean, yes, this screw exists, but its semi-permanently attached to the mobo heatshield, there should be another in my good ol bag o' bolts, so ill test this but the spacers seem too high, and too thin. But i can only try!

Umm,

On the motherboard's M.2 heatsink, one side has a semi-permanent attached screw, the right left side. The left right side usually empty (i mean hole, no semi-permanent screw)

 

As for the spacer, if MSI uses the same spacer design for all the motherboard. Then from what I can see on mine, it is smaller on the top side of the spacer, so that the M.2 notch can rest on the spacer a bit. Which then you screws in the M.2 screw to keep the NVME in place.

 

Pretty much like this :

Edited September 15, 2023 by Poinkachu