Thermal Pads between 950 Pro and Back of Case?

[brwainer]

Howdy,

 

I'm planning on getting a 950 Pro 512GB in about two months and I was just wondering if I would see any thermal benefit by added thermal pads between the chips on the drive and the side/back panel of the case. For reference, my motherboard is the Asus Z97I-PLUS which has the M.2 socket on the back, and my case is the Silverstone RVZ01 which has the motherboard right up against the bottom/side panel. I'm imagining placing the thermal pads on the M.2 socket such that they make contact with the case panel.

 

Here's some numbers I looked up for reference: (sources might be wildly inaccurate but al numbers seem reasonable to me):

average motherboard standoff height: 6mm

height of the M.2 socket: 2.25mm

calculated height of the top of a 950 Pro drive from the motherboard: about 2.2mm

 

I've looked up options for thick thermal pads, and this is what I've come up with (I wasn't searching just Amazon, but they all happened to be on Amazon anyway)

2.0mm - http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00GWFN10S

3.0mm - http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00WBHFBV8

5.0mm - http://www.amazon.com/dp/B01A9SCLNG

5.0mm - http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00GYVRRJ6

If anyone can tell me whether yu can effectively stack thermal pads, like a 3mm and a 1.5mm I'd be interested in knowing - but I'm assuming the heat transfer is limited by the non-contiguous nature of that arrangement.

 

I'm not interested in doing this due to any thermal throttling, I just want to see if I can keep the chips any cooler by using the case as a passive heatsink. There really isn't any airflow underneath the motherboard, nor any way to add some show of drilling holes in the case which I'm not interested in doing.

[Andrew Storlie]

Seems like it would... case would act as a heat sink and keep the ssd from thermal throttling

[MageTank]

Howdy,

 

I'm planning on getting a 950 Pro 512GB in about two months and I was just wondering if I would see any thermal benefit by added thermal pads between the chips on the drive and the side/back panel of the case. For reference, my motherboard is the Asus Z97I-PLUS which has the M.2 socket on the back, and my case is the Silverstone RVZ01 which has the motherboard right up against the bottom/side panel. I'm imagining placing the thermal pads on the M.2 socket such that they make contact with the case panel.

 

Here's some numbers I looked up for reference: (sources might be wildly inaccurate but al numbers seem reasonable to me):

average motherboard standoff height: 6mm

height of the M.2 socket: 2.25mm

calculated height of the top of a 950 Pro drive from the motherboard: about 2.2mm

 

I've looked up options for thick thermal pads, and this is what I've come up with (I wasn't searching just Amazon, but they all happened to be on Amazon anyway)

2.0mm - http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00GWFN10S

3.0mm - http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00WBHFBV8

5.0mm - http://www.amazon.com/dp/B01A9SCLNG

5.0mm - http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00GYVRRJ6

If anyone can tell me whether yu can effectively stack thermal pads, like a 3mm and a 1.5mm I'd be interested in knowing - but I'm assuming the heat transfer is limited by the non-contiguous nature of that arrangement.

 

I'm not interested in doing this due to any thermal throttling, I just want to see if I can keep the chips any cooler by using the case as a passive heatsink. There really isn't any airflow underneath the motherboard, nor any way to add some show of drilling holes in the case which I'm not interested in doing.

I know quite a few people that have done this, and it has worked well for them. I also have a friend that is about to try out this on his 950 pro: http://www.amazon.com/Vktech%C2%AE-Heatsink-Copper-Thermal-15mmx15mm/dp/B00E5SMY0W

 

If it works out well for him, i could let you know.

[brwainer]

I know quite a few people that have done this, and it has worked well for them. I also have a friend that is about to try out this on his 950 pro: http://www.amazon.com/Vktech%C2%AE-Heatsink-Copper-Thermal-15mmx15mm/dp/B00E5SMY0W

 

If it works out well for him, i could let you know.

Those look great too, I'd love to know how that goes!

[brwainer]

On 1/15/2016 at 11:24 PM, MageTank said:

 

I know quite a few people that have done this, and it has worked well for them. I also have a friend that is about to try out this on his 950 pro: http://www.amazon.com/Vktech%C2%AE-Heatsink-Copper-Thermal-15mmx15mm/dp/B00E5SMY0W

 

If it works out well for him, i could let you know.

Has your friend tried this yet? Getting close to when I'm going to order my parts and I'd like to know how it goes out with copper thermal pads