M.2 Cooling Solutions, effective or not?

[bho4]

Hi All, 

 

I'd like to know if anyone has benchmarked the cooling solutions stated in the link below. Are they effective in lowering the temperature or delaying the thermal throttling of these M.2 SSDs?

WHAT'S THE BEST M.2 COOLING SOLUTION? ROG HAS 4 NEW SOLUTIONS

 

p.s. In my opinion, this could be a good topic as one of their Youtube videos

[Droidbot]

From the review of the MSI boards, the heatsinks don't do a lot. The fan holder may do something, and the liquid cooling system definitely will. The DIMM board may, but only if you have the RAM cooler pictured. 

[done12many2]

8 minutes ago, bho4 said:

Hi All, 

 

I'd like to know if anyone has benchmarked the cooling solutions stated in the link below. Are they effective in lowering the temperature or delaying the thermal throttling of these M.2 SSDs?

WHAT'S THE BEST M.2 COOLING SOLUTION? ROG HAS 4 NEW SOLUTIONS

 

p.s. In my opinion, this could be a good topic as one of their Youtube videos

 

Do you know for sure that you are throttling?  If not, simply moving a little air over them from a case fan is enough.

[Oshino Shinobu]

Not sure on others, but MSI's heat shields appear to increase temperatures. MSI didn't seem to give much thought into whether they wanted to make it a heat shield or a heat sink, so it ends up trapping heat from the SSD and not dissipating heat on the side it is in contact with. It was probably designed mostly for looks and then advertised as decreasing temps for marketing. 

 

http://www.gamersnexus.net/guides/2781-msi-m2-heat-shield-increases-temperatures

[Bleedingyamato]

11 minutes ago, Oshino Shinobu said:

Not sure on others, but MSI's heat shields appear to increase temperatures. MSI didn't seem to give much thought into whether they wanted to make it a heat shield or a heat sink, so it ends up trapping heat from the SSD and not dissipating heat on the side it is in contact with. It was probably designed mostly for looks and then advertised as decreasing temps for marketing. 

 

http://www.gamersnexus.net/guides/2781-msi-m2-heat-shield-increases-temperatures

Ok.  So MSI's idea doesn't work.    But do any of these options ASUS has seem like they'll do any better?  ?

 

One thing I'm not clear on: for the water cooling option is it a self contained thing that comes with the motherboard or is it just saying it's set up to allow for connecting the heatsink for the M.2 slot to a water cooling loop?

[dexT]

The best is the Aquacomputer KryoM.2 waterblock. It also comes in a air cooled version with a heatsink fin array.

 

Not all NVMe M.2 drives run hot though. Even from the same brand. For example the Samsung 950 series drive are an inferno under load while the 960 series run much cooler.

[bho4]

2 hours ago, dexT said:

The best is the Aquacomputer KryoM.2 waterblock. It also comes in a air cooled version with a heatsink fin array.

 

Not all NVMe M.2 drives run hot though. Even from the same brand. For example the Samsung 950 series drive are an inferno under load while the 960 series run much cooler.

https://www.pugetsystems.com/labs/articles/Samsung-960-Pro-vs-950-Pro-Performance-Thermal-Throttling-868/

 

this article compares the throttling of 960 vs. 950. Yeah, 960 is much better but it still throttles.

[bho4]

6 hours ago, done12many2 said:

 

Do you know for sure that you are throttling?  If not, simply moving a little air over them from a case fan is enough.

No, right now I'm shopping for a motherboard and i'm just seeking for some second opinions on cooling solutions. Thanks for the tip. 

[dexT]

6 hours ago, bho4 said:

https://www.pugetsystems.com/labs/articles/Samsung-960-Pro-vs-950-Pro-Performance-Thermal-Throttling-868/

 

this article compares the throttling of 960 vs. 950. Yeah, 960 is much better but it still throttles.

Yep as I said.