NVMe slot has a pre applied thermal pad (ROG Strix Z370-F)

[BRLeoBR]

Hello all,

 

I'm just building my new PC right now (motherboard Asus ROG Strix Z370-F) and when installing the NVMe in the slot M.2_1 I realised that there's a thermal pad in the 3D-Printed-Shield (supposed to be for the M2 slot). Picture below.

 

Is this thing safe at all? I saw it is touching some eletrical components just in this gap between the label of the WD Black and the connector (see in the second picture, the red circle). Then I removed the shield again and cut off 1 mm of the thermal pad to avoid this touch. But I am still feeling unease. Can this thing stick on my NVMe in the long term? Can it expand and "leak" to the motherboard?

 

Thank you in advance!

 

 

[Mark924]

No the thermal pads that Asus use are not electrically conductive which means you should have no problems, I had a similar issue in an Intel NUC and the NVME SSD continued working.

[Jurrunio]

I'd just throw away the entire decorative plate if there's an SSD in the slot. That thing blocks heat dissipation and thermal pads could leak fluid when it gets old,

[BRLeoBR]

Hey Mark,

 

Thanks for the quick support.

 

When I removed the shield again, the thermal pad just slipped off it. Then I reapplied it to the shield. Do you how precise should the position of it be? I'm now afraid that it's a little bit offset...

 

2 hours ago, Jurrunio said:

I'd just throw away the entire decorative plate if there's an SSD in the slot. That thing blocks heat dissipation and thermal pads could leak fluid when it gets old,

Thanks for the support Jurrunio. Does every thermal pad leaks fluid over the time?

[Jurrunio]

1 minute ago, BRLeoBR said:

Thanks for the support Jurrunio. Does every thermal pad leaks fluid over the time?

hmmm hard to say. Many get dumped before having a chance to leak in front of someone who actually cares about it.

[Enderman]

2 minutes ago, Jurrunio said:

I'd just throw away the entire decorative plate if there's an SSD in the slot. That thing blocks heat dissipation and thermal pads could leak fluid when it gets old,

The purpose of that thermal pad is to transfer heat to the metal cover to aid heat dissipation like a heatsink, because NVME drives get hot.

The shrouds only block heat dissipation when the drive is not thermally attached to the shroud or when the shroud is not made of metal.

Most thermal pads do not leech out oils over time, that is primarily an issue with EVGA thermal pads in the past, but even then the oils are not electrically conductive.

There is no risk to having the thermal pad contact the NVME drive.

[Jurrunio]

Just now, Enderman said:

The purpose of that thermal pad is to transfer heat to the metal cover to aid heat dissipation like a heatsink, because NVME drives get hot.

The shrouds only block heat dissipation when the drive is not thermally attached to the shroud or when the shroud is not made of metal.

Most thermal pads do not leech out oils over time, that is primarily an issue with EVGA thermal pads in the past, but even then the oils are not electrically conductive.

There is no risk to having the thermal pad contact the NVME drive.

I'm not sure if that metal piece is a heatsink or a heat trap? Also you'd want to get heat out of the controller, not the flash memory module, but no mobo designers care about that.

 

MSI AM3 mobos also leaked oil from their thermal pads (primarily underneath the Vcore heatsink) rather lot.

[RyzenDoctor]

Honestly I think thermal pads and heat sinks on m.2 drives are a gimmick. The controller gets hot and may need cooling but with usual operation you should be ok without. The memory modules need to be hot to function better and should not receive active cooling