M.2 SSD temperature

[thenzfarmer]

Hi,

I've been building a new system and I've been getting crazy throttling.

I tried reinstalling windows, reinstalling video and other drivers, playing with the BIOS etc.

I was starting to be out of ideas - and then, scrolling through my HW64 logs, I saw some red!

85 degrees celcius on my M.2 SSD which is mounted at the front of the Mobo (there is another slot at the rear).

I was wondering if you could help me:

1. Can SSD throttling cause fps drops?

2.Has anyone with a similar board experienced the same issue and found a solution?

 

Thanks

Mike

[Tiwaz]

put a thermal strip on the ssd to have contact with the cover, if thats not enough you can get small copper or aluminium heatsinks with thermal adhesive and put that on the SSD

[DrJones]

The problem with these M.2's is that they're known to cause a lot of heat, which is why I think it's stupid motherboard manufacturers are trying to cram them in places due to their small size. From the looks of the picture, I don't know if you'll have room to do this. But what I did was take some little MOSFET heatsinks and stuck them on the controller chip with 3M thermal tape. (The controller chip is the one that gets really hot, it's normally the one closest to the part that plugs in). If you  have the room, you can stick some more heatsinks on the memory chips themselves (the 2-4 identical ones following the controller chip).

I saw a huge decrease in temperature after doing this with my 950 Pro.

[Colin Donoghue]

Ek sells heatsinks for m.2 

[thenzfarmer]

Just now, DrJones said:

The problem with these M.2's is that they're known to cause a lot of heat, which is why I think it's stupid motherboard manufacturers are trying to cram them in places due to their small size. From the looks of the picture, I don't know if you'll have room to do this. But what I did was take some little MOSFET heatsinks and stuck them on the controller chip with 3M thermal tape. (The controller chip is the one that gets really hot, it's normally the one closest to the part that plugs in). If you  have the room, you can stick some more heatsinks on the memory chips themselves (the 2-4 identical ones following the controller chip).

I saw a huge decrease in temperature after doing this with my 950 Pro.

Awesome idea! Ok, I will get my hands on some of these heatsinks and get to work as soon as I come back from holiday. I imagine it's the same setup as what this guy did? 

[thenzfarmer]

Just now, Colin Donoghue said:

Ek sells heatsinks for m.2 

Thanks, will look into them as well!

[DrJones]

Just now, thenzfarmer said:

Awesome idea! Ok, I will get my hands on some of these heatsinks and get to work as soon as I come back from holiday. I imagine it's the same setup as what this guy did? 

That's a Rampage V Extreme, yep that's the EXACT same setup as me lol. Except I couldn't put heatsinks on the memory chips cause they were too tall and got in the way of my GPU in slot 1. 

[DrJones]

2 minutes ago, Colin Donoghue said:

Ek sells heatsinks for m.2 

Holy crap they must've made those after I put my build together! That's awesome!

[thenzfarmer]

Just now, DrJones said:

That's a Rampage V Extreme, yep that's the EXACT same setup as me lol. Except I couldn't put heatsinks on the memory chips cause they were too tall and got in the way of my GPU in slot 1. 

Haha every build has its hurdles it seems!

I reckon I might go with the m.2 SSD heatsink option and rotate the rear fan around so it pulls cool air into the case and onto the SSD heatsink... I think the hot air from the front heatsink is not helping.

[DrJones]

Just now, thenzfarmer said:

Haha every build has its hurdles it seems!

I reckon I might go with the m.2 SSD heatsink option and rotate the rear fan around so it pulls cool air into the case and onto the SSD heatsink... I think the hot air from the front heatsink is not helping.

Yeah I'm liking that EK heatsink so much I may have to get one 

 

Looking at your case, I can't tell if it has top fan mounts, but yeah you can try putting the rear as intake with the top as exhaust pulling hot rising air out

[-rascal-]

The Z270i uses the same heatsink for the PCH chipset and M.2 SSD -- both the Z270 chipset and M.2 slot sit right on-top of each other.

I doubt it would help much, but have you tried using the M.2 slot that is on the BACK of the motherboard?

 

Other then that, you probably need a better alternate heatsink / cooling solution.

[thenzfarmer]

1 hour ago, -rascal- said:

The Z270i uses the same heatsink for the PCH chipset and M.2 SSD -- both the Z270 chipset and M.2 slot sit right on-top of each other.

I doubt it would help much, but have you tried using the M.2 slot that is on the BACK of the motherboard?

 

Other then that, you probably need a better alternate heatsink / cooling solution.

That will be my last ditch effort before investing in a heatsink.

I couldn't believe how hot the default cooler got. It does nothing to dissipate heat. If anything it behaves like a hot iron. I tried running the system without it and temperatures still reach in excess of 80 degrees though.

I think my fps drops are not SSD related though so I need to dig for an answer elsewhere in the system... *sigh*

[thenzfarmer]

Hey, just a little update!

I've been running the system with no cooler/cover on the SSD and its temps remain below 75 degrees, which is well within its tolerance limits.

All I did was turn the rear fan around so it blows cool air into the system, directly onto the SSD, instead of out.

I need to get a magnetic dust filter to attach to the rear of the system but that's done it for now :0

Thanks for all the advice, still tempted to get an EK cooler at some point soon - just not yet.

Mike

[thenzfarmer]

Final update - turning the fan around fixed the issue.

The RAM sticks blocked airflow from the front fans and the rad for the M.2 basically sat in a hot pocket of air from both the M.2 itself and the GPU underneath it.

Magnetic fan filter in the mail and all the issues will be resolved!

 

Thank you for all your help and suggestions

xo