Friday, May 12th 2023

Crucial T700 Gen 5 SSD Throttles Down to HDD Performance Levels Without a Cooler

Crucial T700, the company's flagship M.2 NVMe Gen 5 SSD, runs hot—like every other drive based on the Phison E26-series controller (such as the Corsair MP700). ComputerBase.de discovered what the drive does without some sort of cooling. The E26 controller has a Tjmax value of around 86°C, and what happens when it's reached depends on the drive in question. The Corsair MP700 can turn itself off to protect the controller—something that will definitely cause your machine to hang with a BSOD.

The Crucial T700, on the other hand, aggressively throttles down the controller in an attempt to lower temperatures. While the drive won't stop (and your machine won't hang), its performance drops to hard drive levels, with CrystalDiskMark (CDM) measurements pointing to around 101 MB/s (of course, with much lower access times than a HDD). Both Crucial and Corsair offer the drive with large heatsinks, and recommend users to use them. This should severely limit the adoption of Gen 5 NVMe SSDs among notebooks, where the notebook chassis has room for only bare drives. However, some OEMs specializing in larger high-end gaming notebooks and desktop-replacement workstations, can find ways to connect the drives to the notebook's main cooling system using flattened heatpipes. You can catch ComputerBase's review of the MP700 in the source link below.
Sources: ComputerBase.de (Twitter), ComputerBase.de
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70 Comments on Crucial T700 Gen 5 SSD Throttles Down to HDD Performance Levels Without a Cooler

#26
R-T-B
bugThen you're probably aren't up to speed on how SSDs work. Node shrinks are actually detrimental to NAND cells (less charge per cell, more chance to err).
How much improvement have we witnessed since PCIe 4 drives were introduced? Zero. For SSDs, going faster = going hotter. The same thing to do, imho, would be to put a cap on sequential transfer speeds and concentrate on improving random access instead.
The controller is the heat source not the NAND, so yeah node shrinks will help.
ReadlightAnother American crime culture game with high system requirements. High system costs.
I think you're confused here man. This isn't a game at all...
Posted on Reply
#27
Aleksandar_038
OK, Gen5 drives are problematic... but, M2 format is also part of the problem.

I know that M2 is slim and fit for laptop. But, proper 2.5" would for sure be easier to cool down properly? Or I am mistaken?
Posted on Reply
#28
robert3892
There are plenty of good M.2 heatsinks with or without fans on websites like Amazon or Aliexpress.
Posted on Reply
#29
TheinsanegamerN
bugThen you're probably aren't up to speed on how SSDs work. Node shrinks are actually detrimental to NAND cells (less charge per cell, more chance to err).
How much improvement have we witnessed since PCIe 4 drives were introduced? Zero. For SSDs, going faster = going hotter. The same thing to do, imho, would be to put a cap on sequential transfer speeds and concentrate on improving random access instead.
TBF, the biggest source of heat on these drives is not the NAND, it's the controller, and as speeds jack up every gen so does heat. Node improvements will help fix that particular issue.
Aleksandar_038OK, Gen5 drives are problematic... but, M2 format is also part of the problem.

I know that M2 is slim and fit for laptop. But, proper 2.5" would for sure be easier to cool down properly? Or I am mistaken?
2.5" would help, so long as the metal casing was used as a heatsink. But that would require some kind of NVMe cable.
Posted on Reply
#30
Tomgang
I have only good thing to say on crucial ssd's. I have only had sata ssd from them. But I was an early adoptor.

We back to there crucial c300 64 gb ssd. That was my very first ssd and the first from. Since then I have had several from them and from Samsung as well. I have not had a single failed ssd ever.

But yes nvme ssd gets hot and the Samsung 980 pro i have is no different amd that's only a Gen 4 ssd. With out a cooler, thermal throttle is garantied.

The heat is caused by the high speed nvme ssd's are capable of. It put more stress on controller and nand chips than like a sata ssd. Thar will give more heat.
Posted on Reply
#31
csendesmark
It must be like driving with handbrakes ON.
Aleksandar_038OK, Gen5 drives are problematic... but, M2 format is also part of the problem.

I know that M2 is slim and fit for laptop. But, proper 2.5" would for sure be easier to cool down properly? Or I am mistaken?
I have no comments on PCIe Gen5 for now but on m.2:
I've just installed my GIGABYTE GC-4XM2G4 AORUS Gen4 AIC Adaptor
It is basically a "simple" PCB for 4 SSD with a 1kg copper heatsink with a fairly silent 5cm fan (which has high/low/off modes)
I like it so far, even if I only can use 2 slots of the 4 because my mainboard can only give 8×/2×4 lanes for the first two 16× long PCIe slots (GIGABYTE X570S AERO G)
On the effectiveness: my Samsung 980 PRO 2TB used to operate around ~50°C idle in PCIe v4 mode, and got into the 60+°C (and throttle territories) when I started using it.
It had a big heatsink from the mainboard, but the RX 5700XT and now the RX 7900XT's cooler just covered most of it, so it got hot fast....
With this adapter card, it is in a comfy ~35°C range and after a full atto or Cristal-disk benchmark it hit only 44°C
robert3892There are plenty of good M.2 heatsinks with or without fans on websites like Amazon or Aliexpress.
I am aware that my GIGABYTE GC-4XM2G4 AORUS Gen4 AIC Adaptor is "only gen4"
But I am sure someone will start producing a similar card for PCIev5.0 motherboards, and these option will be more effective in cooling your SSDs

I just wish/hope AMD will start adding more lanes for mainstream processors 32~48 or even more PCIe lanes than the current 24 pre Zen4 and 28 with Zen4
Sadly me and the most of us cannot afford a Threadripper system...
Would be nice to have at least 2 full PCIe 16× card slots where I don't need to turn off other parts on the mobo
Posted on Reply
#32
AsRock
TPU addict
Wow, no one did not think that drives are not going to get hotter the faster they are ran, OMG who knew.
Posted on Reply
#33
unwind-protect
Aleksandar_038OK, Gen5 drives are problematic... but, M2 format is also part of the problem.

I know that M2 is slim and fit for laptop. But, proper 2.5" would for sure be easier to cool down properly? Or I am mistaken?
Yeah. My idea of a proper SSD setup is 4x 2.5" U.2 drives with power loss protection in a 5.25" frame with fans:
www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07B9HK4QG/ref=ox_sc_saved_title_5?smid=A1GQQIQD0YQTUY&psc=1

But we can't have nice things.
Posted on Reply
#34
tommo1982
bugIt could be if you're YouTube and need to read lots of videos fast. Full disclosure, I'm not YouTube :D

But yes, the bottleneck with SSDs isn't their sequential performance, it's the random reads. PCIe (any revision) will do little to help with that.
They switched to IOPS for random reads/writes in reviews, which means little to regular user. Sequential throughput looks nice with all the big numbers, then you reach random operations and there's nothing to be excited about. Except professionals, gamers or enthusiasts everyone else will do fine with a dramless SSD. Not the cheapes one, at the level of performance of WD Blue.
I wish they'd make MLC drives, which I could use as system drive and TLC would be for storage.
Posted on Reply
#35
Jism
lemoncarbonateWhy is everything getting ridiculously hotter?

Next gen CPU and GPU are getting hotter, now SSD.
I thought next gen should also mean better power efficiency.
SSD's running at it's full intentional performance consumes power. This varies from 5 to 10w. That little 5 to 10w is enough to fry the chip / make it overheat / throttle it. Thats why heatsinks are needed. Most of the time boards do have integrated heatsinks, so it shoud'nt be an issue really.

A nromal HDD consumes power too and releases it in the form of heat. Drives could go up to 60 degrees in summers. Thats where it started to get dangerous when HDD's where too hot to touch. Was never any different.
Posted on Reply
#36
caroline!
Make things ridiculously small and they run hotter, surprised pikachu face.

I don't get why they decided to abandon SATA instead of improving it, and went for M.2 instead of pushing PCIe or even U.2 to their mobos. Instead of making use of the case they want everything on a single board.
All this gaming trend in computers is dumb asf, and since every major manufacturer is devoted to releasing these products there are no alternatives for a similar price.
Posted on Reply
#37
Minus Infinity
TheDeeGeeAny Gen5 NVME will throttle without a heatsink.
Really and that somehow means they are good products and worthwhile? They are utterly irrelevant, becyuase they bring no tangible improvement to real world usage at all. Even PCI-E 4 hardly brings anything to the table over PCI-E 3 ssd's. So you think higher prices, higher heat, the need for a heat sink, muhc higher power draw and and improvement in random IO's is worth the extra coin. Well you are welcome to them.
Posted on Reply
#38
Jism
Minus InfinityReally and that somehow means they are good products and worthwhile? They are utterly irrelevant, becyuase they bring no tangible improvement to real world usage at all. Even PCI-E 4 hardly brings anything to the table over PCI-E 3 ssd's. So you think higher prices, higher heat, the need for a heat sink, muhc higher power draw and and improvement in random IO's is worth the extra coin. Well you are welcome to them.
The PCI-E 5 gen is'nt really for consumers. It's mostly needed in the enterprise market.
Posted on Reply
#39
eidairaman1
The Exiled Airman
And this is why the SATA SSD is still better
JismThe PCI-E 5 gen is'nt really for consumers. It's mostly needed in the enterprise market.
Yup network controllers as well
Posted on Reply
#40
Jism
eidairaman1And this is why the SATA SSD is still better
Better in what way exactly?

NVME is directly linked to the PCI-E lane or bus. It offers far more bandwidth then S-ata could ever do. S-ata is still supported but no longer continued as in development.

Obviously your going to use a NVME SSD now and in the future and not back to S-ata which is limited to only 500MB a second in regards of read or write speeds.
Posted on Reply
#41
TheDeeGee
Minus InfinityReally and that somehow means they are good products and worthwhile? They are utterly irrelevant, becyuase they bring no tangible improvement to real world usage at all. Even PCI-E 4 hardly brings anything to the table over PCI-E 3 ssd's. So you think higher prices, higher heat, the need for a heat sink, muhc higher power draw and and improvement in random IO's is worth the extra coin. Well you are welcome to them.
Where did i say they were worth it? That's right, nowhere.
Posted on Reply
#42
Gameslove
86 C for pci-e 5 ssd, no thanks, best choice a pci-e gen 3.0 stay here.
Posted on Reply
#43
Ferrum Master
They should have never released Phison E26 in M.2 design.

As I've found out in the Corsair review, I still think it violates the the design rules by being too hot, while consuming very high current pin, thus making it a hazard. There are no documents, that prove that the M.2 slot is already improved when used fanless and can withstand more than 0.5A of current per pin @~50C.
Posted on Reply
#45
Jism
in 2023 it's completely in to start delidding the controller of your SSD and direct-die cool it.
Posted on Reply
#46
r9
lemoncarbonateWhy is everything getting ridiculously hotter?

Next gen CPU and GPU are getting hotter, now SSD.
I thought next gen should also mean better power efficiency.
Competition.
Everything already coming overclocked out of the box.
Posted on Reply
#47
csendesmark
Gameslove86 C for pci-e 5 ssd, no thanks, best choice a pci-e gen 3.0 stay here.
Most of the PCIe gen 4 devices are just fine with no active or even passive coolers.
The secret sauce is that You just need to locate them away from the GPU cooler.
Posted on Reply
#48
A&P211
In my current laptop, I have a pair of corsair mp600 8TB SSDs that run at Gen 4 speeds, I do video editing as side money for some online people. On each SSD, I installed a small thin cooper heatsink, the cooper heatsink will only slow down the throttle effect. These 2 SSDs wiill go into the low 70s temp.
I've had SSD throttling effects for years, even with Gen 3 SSDs with a pair of 970 plus 2tb. Those 2 wouldn't get so hot, maybe mid-high 60s.

The day that I find a laptop that can link the laptop heatsink to the SSD, is the day that I'll buy that model.
Posted on Reply
#49
csendesmark
A&P211In my current laptop, I have a pair of corsair mp600 8TB SSDs that run at Gen 4 speeds, I do video editing as side money for some online people. On each SSD, I installed a small thin cooper heatsink, the cooper heatsink will only slow down the throttle effect. These 2 SSDs wiill go into the low 70s temp.
I've had SSD throttling effects for years, even with Gen 3 SSDs with a pair of 970 plus 2tb. Those 2 wouldn't get so hot, maybe mid-high 60s.

The day that I find a laptop that can link the laptop heatsink to the SSD, is the day that I'll buy that model.
Laptops are a different kind of animal, since there you never get those cool cases with airflow, but you also never get the same performance on the computing side either, so you are fine with the slower storage.
Posted on Reply
#50
A&P211
csendesmarkLaptops are a different kind of animal, since there you never get those cool cases with airflow, but you also never get the same performance on the computing side either, so you are fine with the slower storage.
I'm only having issues now because of 4K videos, they are much bigger than 720/1080. I started doing 4K videos last year. I never had throttling problems with a sata 2.5in drive in my last laptop.
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