# M2 Cooling during GPU+CPU long loads



## MaurizioC (Oct 4, 2020)

My M2 (samsung 970 evo plus) is sitting between my CPU (Ryzen 3700x) and my GPU (Msi 1650 Super Gaming X).

When I am doing folding@home the m2 temperatures rises up to 47°-50° in idle because of the heat coming from the GPU.

After 50° Samsung Magician says the M2 temperature is HIGH after 55 it says it is TOO HIGH.

With my previous GPU (2060 super) the heat pushed the m2 up to about 60°.

How can I address this issue? my current temperatures are the results of some tuning: I replaced my air cpu cooler with an artic AIO Liqui Freezer II with the pump integrated fan on the m2 slot and tuned the speed of the rear exhaust fan. This help lowering the temperature down from 52-54 to 47-50

My case is a bequiet 500 dx with the radiator 280 mounted intake on front and 2 exhaust fan (1 rear+1 on top).


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## Goghor (Oct 4, 2020)

Give it a heatsink.


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## MaurizioC (Oct 4, 2020)

I forgot to mention but I am using the heatsink provided with the motherboard (an asus x470 pro)


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## tabascosauz (Oct 4, 2020)

Remount the drive, make sure the thermal pad is making proper contact. The 970 EVO Plus's controller has its own large heatspreader; unless it's an incredibly hot running drive, it shouldn't have thermal problems.

Though honestly, 50ish SSD while a high end GPU is under full load isn't bad at all. That heat has to travel somewhere. My SN750 and SN550 both regular hit 50 when I'm playing Ins Sandstorm. Under heavy SSD load, it hits about the same temperatures.

You will find that some drives run hot with the GPU and some don't. I'm guessing it's down to the firmware/controller behaviour, whether the controller has an IHS, where the temperature sensor is located, the location of the M.2 slot, the softness and thickness of the thermal pad you're using, and whether the height of the controller is flush with the NAND packages - none of which are things you can control. If the drive is like both my WD drives (SN550 and SN750) where the controller is unheatsinked and has a lower z-height than the flash packages, it may never make proper contact with the thermal pad. If it is flush and has a generous heatspreader like my ADATA SX8200, it probably will run cooler.


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## P4-630 (Oct 4, 2020)

MaurizioC said:


> Magician says the M2 temperature is HIGH after 55 it says it is TOO HIGH.



Uninstall Magician? 

I have 3 Samsung SSD's one of them a 970 evo, I don't have magician installed and it also runs at around 55C (Crystal disk info) during gaming.


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## MaurizioC (Oct 4, 2020)

tabascosauz said:


> Remount the drive, make sure the thermal pad is making proper contact. The 970 EVO Plus's controller has its own large heatspreader; unless it's an incredibly hot running drive, it shouldn't have thermal problems.
> 
> Though honestly, 50ish SSD while a high end GPU is under full load isn't bad at all. That heat has to travel somewhere. My SN750 and SN550 both regular hit 50 when I'm playing Ins Sandstorm. Under heavy SSD load, it hits about the same temperatures.
> 
> You will find that some drives run hot with the GPU and some don't. I'm guessing it's down to the firmware/controller behaviour, whether the controller has an IHS, where the temperature sensor is located, the location of the M.2 slot, the softness and thickness of the thermal pad you're using, and whether the height of the controller is flush with the NAND packages - none of which are things you can control. If the drive is like both my WD drives (SN550 and SN750) where the controller is unheatsinked and has a lower z-height than the flash packages, it may never make proper contact with the thermal pad. If it is flush and has a generous heatspreader like my ADATA SX8200, it probably will run cooler.


I think that the thermal pad and the drive do make proper contact as I sow the temperatures of the drive dropping after mounting the heatsink  but I will check it.

A 1650 super with only 100watt of TDP is not an high end GPU ... I wonder if a 3080 would cook my m2... I do not plan to install it but if like I am having an upper limit

Essentialy the heatsink it's just a chunk of metal with no fins like in the photo







Maybe are there better m2 heatsinks?


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## MaurizioC (Oct 4, 2020)

P4-630 said:


> Uninstall Magician?
> 
> I have 3 Samsung SSD's one of them a 970 evo, I don't have magician installed and it also runs at around 55C (Crystal disk info) during gaming.



I too wondered if Magician alert is too soon... but in the end it is the Vendor utility...


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## tabascosauz (Oct 4, 2020)

If the shape of the controller heatspreader is imprinted in the thermal pad, there's not much you can do. The heatsink isn't the problem; the characteristics of the drive, GPU and location of the slot are. The flat slab style of heatsink is common to most boards, but even then my SX8200 runs in the 30s at all times with that sort of heatsink. And it's buried directly below the GPU (which I'm starting to think is actually better for thermals than having the M.2 above the PCIe x16). My SN750 sits in the 4.0 slot above the x16, and runs hotter. Both it and my SN550 also ran hot in my M1 build with the B550I Aorus AX, where it's above the x16 despite having a finned heatsink.

Get rid of Magician and check HWinfo or Crystal if you ever want to see the temp. This isn't 2010. We don't need manufacturer toolboxes and utilities to make our SSDs function properly.

The SN750 in particular comes either as a bare drive or with a specifically designed EK heatsink. Even that heatsink only lowers temps by a few degrees, and still allows the drive to run up in the high 40s during just SSD load. Drives that run hot will run hot.


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## P4-630 (Oct 4, 2020)

The Samsung 970 EVO Plus (250GB, 1TB) NVMe SSD Review: 92-Layer 3D NAND
					






					www.anandtech.com


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## MaurizioC (Oct 4, 2020)

tabascosauz said:


> If the shape of the controller heatspreader is imprinted in the thermal pad, there's not much you can do. The heatsink isn't the problem; the characteristics of the drive, GPU and location of the slot are. The flat slab style of heatsink is common to most boards, but even then my SX8200 runs in the 30s at all times with that sort of heatsink. And it's buried directly below the GPU (which I'm starting to think is actually better for thermals than having the M.2 above the PCIe x16). My SN750 sits in the 4.0 slot above the x16, and runs hotter. Both it and my SN550 also ran hot in my M1 build with the B550I Aorus AX, where it's above the x16 despite having a finned heatsink.
> 
> Get rid of Magician and check HWinfo or Crystal if you ever want to see the temp. This isn't 2010. We don't need manufacturer toolboxes and utilities to make our SSDs function properly.
> 
> The SN750 in particular comes either as a bare drive or with a specifically designed EK heatsink. Even that heatsink only lowers temps by a few degrees, and still allows the drive to run up in the high 40s during just SSD load. Drives that run hot will run hot.



About the m2 slot positiong, I can feel the hot rising from the back of the card so maybe it can ben better for the m2 to be behind it and receive the airflow from gpu's fan. Maybe it depens on how hot this air is, but I cannot test it because my other m2 slot only has 2 lines.

I am using HWinfo to minitor the temperatures and the values is the same reported on Magician only that I see 2 temperatures "Drive Temperature" and "Drive Temperature 2". Usually the second, which I assume is the controller, is higher but now they are both at 47°.

If I will find one in my desk I will try to add an 8x8 fan to exausht hot air from unused pciexpr slot vents directly below the gpu



P4-630 said:


> View attachment 170763
> 
> 
> 
> ...



what's nvme version?


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## MaurizioC (Oct 6, 2020)

I buyed an 8x8 fan from bequiet and I just placed it below the GPU exausthing hot air through unused pcie slot case vents.

The air coming out of the case is hot and the m2 temperature dropped to 46 from 50. Also the chipset temperature dropped to 45 from 49.

This I think it would be very useful for X570 owner as the chipset fan would lower rpm. I spent 8€.

curiously GPU temperature did not change


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## Zach_01 (Oct 6, 2020)

MaurizioC said:


> I buyed an 8x8 fan from bequiet and I just placed it below the GPU exausthing hot air through unused pcie slot case vents.
> 
> The air coming out of the case is hot and the m2 temperature dropped to 46 from 50. Also the chipset temperature dropped to 45 from 49.
> 
> ...


Thats a way to do it.
I was going to suggest to place a fan on the GPU backplate to feed air to that m.2 to an angle towards exuast fan beside rear IO but since that way you also benefit chipset... so
I also have NVMe SSD between GPU and CPU socket but since I dont have a case I placed 3 case fans on parts that need airflow (2x120x25mm + 1x120x38mm)
1 is on board's VRM feed air also to NVMe SSD and CPU socket (I have an AIO), 2nd is on the other side of CPU socket upon RAM sticks(1.45V). And a 3rd feed air to GPU fans and also X570 chipset heatsink. This way I keep the chipset fan on silent mode(always off) because even on 30+ ambient chipset temp never pass 50C. Mostly stays at mid 40ies and winter time even below 40C. All 3 fans are around 650~950rpm depending ambient temp(23~31C) and workloads.

The NVMe (cell)temp is between 30~45C (winter~summer and idle~workload).

Also, it would be good to fill your profile with details about your system, like most users here do. It helps a lot to keep in mind the PC specs from the user in need when going through large number of posts.


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## John Naylor (Oct 6, 2020)

1.  One simple way to test if you have adequate case ventilation is to take off the side panel and use a desk fan to blow into the case ... if temps improve, you need more case ventialtion

2.  If I understood correctly, you have a two intake fans pushing thru intake filters and a radiator which reduceds air flow .... and 2 unimpeded exhaust fans .... if these are all the same fans at same rpm, you have significantly more flowing going out then coming in.... the negative case pressure will suck in the difference from the "path of leasts resistence" which on most  cases is the vented rear grille and vented slot covers..... located right about where the PSU and GPU exhaust hot air.   Add an extra front fan to try and increase intake air flow sufficient to push air out that rear grille / slot covers

3.  Consider one of these slot coolers








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4.  Use a water block .... performance can be impacted negatively if you keep SSDs too cool but I dont see that happening with your cooling


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