Heat Sink for NVMe Disk

[suraswami]

Hi,

Installed 512GB NVMe SSD into my Dell laptop. Laptop casing is plastic and no went in the NVMe area. Normally it idles around 27C but when I do disk test or copy very large files, sometimes it shoots to about 70C. Will adding a heat sink help?

This drive is used for OS, so not really worried but curious if it might help.

 

[TheMadDutchDude]

It will help until the heatsink is saturated, though it will also help to dissipate the heat. 70c is honestly not much to worry about. My SM951 used to idle at 70c in a well vented case... but they were notorious for overheating.

 

[TheoneandonlyMrK]

Can you over cool an nvme? My games drive is heatsinked and sits at 12C all the time ,seams slower lately and I am just wondering.

 

[tabascosauz]

Hi,

Installed 512GB NVMe SSD into my Dell laptop. Laptop casing is plastic and no went in the NVMe area. Normally it idles around 27C but when I do disk test or copy very large files, sometimes it shoots to about 70C. Will adding a heat sink help?

This drive is used for OS, so not really worried but curious if it might help.

Your main concern is the controller, which doesn't like being hot. Consequently, with an aftermarket heatsink like a PCH combo sink on a board, or a standalone one like EK's (https://www.ekwb.com/shop/ek-m-2-nvme-heatsink-black), you're providing the controller with a lot more surface area. Especially as the EK one is somwhat "finned".

However, it's getting zero airflow in a laptop. Doesn't hurt to try, though, as long as Z-height allows (which can be a challenge in ultrabooks), since that extra surface area has got to count for something. What model is this drive?

 

[suraswami]

Here are some pics.

This is the heat sink I bought.

Amazon.com: M.2 Heatsink Copper, m2 pcie NVMe Laptop Heatsink Copper，with Silicone Thermal Pad, for M.2 2280 SSD Laptop: Computers & Accessories

Buy M.2 Heatsink Copper, m2 pcie NVMe Laptop Heatsink Copper，with Silicone Thermal Pad, for M.2 2280 SSD Laptop: Heatsinks - Amazon.com ✓ FREE DELIVERY possible on eligible purchases

www.amazon.com

 

[theFOoL]

I'm sorry but what would be the point if only a few degrees @65C Etc? I mean it's a Laptop...

 

[MazeFrame]

Flashchips like it warm, the controller does not. So a simple piece of copper or aluminium soaking up the heat bursts and spreading it will be enough.

 

[Static~Charge]

Question: After the heatsink pulls the heat away from the M.2 drive, how are you going to get that heat out of the laptop?

Most laptops have mediocre cooling at best, and airflow around the drives is slim to none.

 

[Athlonite]

Can you over cool an nvme? My games drive is heatsinked and sits at 12C all the time ,seams slower lately and I am just wondering.

Yes you can NAND likes to run hot (50~80c) too cold and it can cause errors in writing to the NAND Cells the controller on the otherhand can do with as much cooling as it can get

@ the OP

 

[DeathtoGnomes]

Would NOT be the first time a laptop has been (ghetto) modded to increase cooling.

EDIT: not be

 

[Mussels]

thermal pad alone might do the job, as others have said you dont want to get the temps super low, but spreading the heat around can help a lot (my intel 6000P would thermal throttle on writes, drop to 10MB/s. added a heatsink now it flatlines 500MB/s)

Also unlike CPU's these drives dont really produce heat all the time only when writing, so a small heatsink/thermal pad etc is enough to cover the bursts of heat and slowly transfer it out

 

[suraswami]

Thanks all. So the heat sink that I bought from Amazon should help? Check my previous post. It is small, thin sheet of copper with some adhesive pad.

I like the performance of this Ryzen 2500U paired with this NVMe SSD. Bought the laptop used. Has 15' 1080P touch screen. Upgraded the RAM to 16GB. Total cost of Laptop + 512GB NVMe SSD and 16GB RAM was $350, pretty good I guess.

I wish the screen was IPS panel and may be it was 14".

 

[Ramo1203]

My Dell Latitude 7490 came with a SATA M.2 SSD without any heatsink. But I know Dell puts a thin copper heatsink on the NVME version. Something like this would be nice to have:

 

[MazeFrame]

Question: After the heatsink pulls the heat away from the M.2 drive, how are you going to get that heat out of the laptop?

Most laptops have mediocre cooling at best, and airflow around the drives is slim to none.

It is just like heatsinks on most mainboard VRMs, it is all about soaking heat long enough for load to end, then slowly bleed it into the surrounding plastic.

And yes, the art of properly cooled PCs was lost at some point.

 

[Static~Charge]

It is just like heatsinks on most mainboard VRMs, it is all about soaking heat long enough for load to end, then slowly bleed it into the surrounding plastic.

And yes, the art of properly cooled PCs was lost at some point.

On a mainboard's VRMs, there is open space and usually a breeze from the cooling fan(s) -- at least, you should provide a breeze to blow away the hot air.

Even some vents for passive cooling around a laptop's drives would be a step forward. Convection alone would draw cooler outside air over the drive.

 

[oobymach]

Considering ram heatsinks are just thin metal plates, a thin plate will probably help keep temps down. The heatsink you bought should suffice but the thermal pad is rubbish, toss it and get some 3m thermal tape, super thin and made to stick heatsinks to chips.

 

[Valantar]

Can you over cool an nvme? My games drive is heatsinked and sits at 12C all the time ,seams slower lately and I am just wondering.

Are you using this outside, or is your PC in the fridge? 12C is significantly below ambient in anything resembling room temperature. I would wager your drive is reporting the temps in some way that your software is misinterpreting.

 

[TheoneandonlyMrK]

Are you using this outside, or is your PC in the fridge? 12C is significantly below ambient in anything resembling room temperature. I would wager your drive is reporting the temps in some way that your software is misinterpreting.

Probably is but at the same time it's a little used games drive with a finned heatsink on a pciex adapter in the bottom slot with a 120 fan on it all the time ,ill be honest it's not warm here atm either, i noted major slowdown, freed up drive space but it's still slow so i dunno.

 

[Mussels]

Unless your room temp is below 12C, it is not gunna be running at 12C.

 

[Valantar]

Probably is but at the same time it's a little used games drive with a finned heatsink on a pciex adapter in the bottom slot with a 120 fan on it all the time ,ill be honest it's not warm here atm either, i noted major slowdown, freed up drive space but it's still slow so i dunno.

Yeah, as @Mussels said above, unless your room temp is 12C (in which case you'd need to be wearing a thick coat and gloves if you're sitting still for a noticeable amount of time) the SSD is not going to be 12C - unless you're cooling it with some sort of sub-ambient cooling like a TEC/Peltier, chiller, LN2, dry ice or similar. So no, it's not 12C. Period. No matter where in your case it sits and how little it is used.