Cool gen 4 m.2 nvme drive

[Turbof1]

Hey guys,

 

I am looking for a decent gen 4 2tb drive that remains cool.

 

I need this for a nzxt b650e mobo. That motherboard has 1 gen 5 slot with headsink, and 2 gen 4 slots without heatsink. I want to put it in a gen 4 slots and later on use the gen 5 slot for a gen 5 drive down the road.

 

The issue with the gen 4 slots on this motherboard is that not only those slots lack a heatsink, they are also covered by a (on the underside) plastic shroud which will void it from fresh airflow and thermally insulate the drive further. Hence why I fear thermal throttling. I dont want to remove the shroud because that will ruim the aesthetic of the board.

 

Any suggestions?

[SpookyCitrus]

M.2 Nvme drives usually don't have a problem staying cool on their own, they don't need a heatsink(the ones that come with them are more of a gimmick anyway). I don't see you having any problems installing them in the way the motherboard is setup. Just get a good quality drive and you should be fine.

[PDifolco]

Unless the NVme is under the GPU it'll stay cool with any $10 heatsink

Also depends on its performance, the faster ones tend to become hot (Samsung 990) , the cheaper ones (P5 or such) don't get very hot

[kokosnh]

From the reviews I read, the Phison E18 based SSD are one of the coolest, if we are talking about the top performer ones in PCIe SSD.

 

compare to them, the crucial p5 plus is hot. 

[Turbof1]

39 minutes ago, PDifolco said:

Unless the NVme is under the GPU it'll stay cool with any $10 heatsink

Also depends on its performance, the faster ones tend to become hot (Samsung 990) , the cheaper ones (P5 or such) don't get very hot

That is the thing: the nvme slot is right underneath the pcie slot for the gpu. And a heatsink for the nvme drive is not possible to fit, again because I want to keep the shroud in place.

[PDifolco]

20 minutes ago, Turbof1 said:

That is the thing: the nvme slot is right underneath the pcie slot for the gpu. And a heatsink for the nvme drive is not possible to fit, again because I want to keep the shroud in place.

Can't you use the second Gen4 slot ?

If not then do not get a super fast Gen4 SSD, they will heat up there (I have a SN850 and it reached 70C+ under the GPU, I've moved it to a PCie adapter )

[Turbof1]

4 minutes ago, PDifolco said:

Can't you use the second Gen4 slot ?

If not then do not get a super fast Gen4 SSD, they will heat up there (I have a SN850 and it reached 70C+ under the GPU, I've moved it to a PCie adapter )

I can, but if I am correct, the bottom one is limited to pcie x2. In that case it would bottleneck read/write speeds.

[PDifolco]

2 minutes ago, Turbof1 said:

I can, but if I am correct, the bottom one is limited to pcie x2. In that case it would bottleneck read/write speeds.

ok, no choice then

Really NZXT B650 boards lanes distribution is sh#t, you don't have neither good PCie lanes nor M2...

 

[Turbof1]

3 minutes ago, PDifolco said:

ok, no choice then

Really NZXT B650 boards lanes distribution is sh#t, you don't have neither good PCie lanes nor M2...

 

It indeed has some questionable choices. The shrouds being plastic on the underside facing the gen 4 nvme's is another. If they made it full metal they could have acted atleast as heatsinks.