Motherboard armor/heatsinks for m.2

[A Computer Guy]

Idle temp on the 980 pro as reported by diskinfo is only 43C not too bad for an nvme? (is summer also).

That's fine. With the 980 pro make sure you have the latest firmware for a short time there was a bad firmware floating around.

 

[ir_cow]

A bunch of motherboards do this. MSI is very guilty. The heatsink screw is the m.2 one as well.

 

[csendesmark]

With these motherboard m.2 heatsinks, you have to check if they actually helping you cool the SSD-s, and if you not talking about the CPU's m.2.
It is also important if you check the airflow around the heatsink, because even the heatsink is "good" you will need air to carry that heat.

 

[Assimilator]

It is also important if you check the airflow around the heatsink, because even the heatsink is "good" you will need air to carry that heat.

Untrue - any M.2 SSD you buy today can be put into a laptop and work just fine - with zero airflow over said SSD. The only time you may see throttling is if you are regularly performing massive data transfers to/from that SSD, and that's not a usual use-case. Given the above, it follows that any sort of measure to increase an M.2 SSD's heat dissipation is completely unnecessary in most cases.

tl;dr STOP TRYING TO COOL DOWN YOUR SSDS. THEY DON'T NEED TO BE COOLED.

tl;dr;dr If you put a waterblock on an SSD I hate you with a burning passion more powerful than the Sun because you are an idiot and literally decreasing its lifespan.

 

[Regeneration]

Untrue - any M.2 SSD you buy today can be put into a laptop and work just fine - with zero airflow over said SSD. The only time you may see throttling is if you are regularly performing massive data transfers to/from that SSD, and that's not a usual use-case. Given the above, it follows that any sort of measure to increase an M.2 SSD's heat dissipation is completely unnecessary in most cases.

tl;dr STOP TRYING TO COOL DOWN YOUR SSDS. THEY DON'T NEED TO BE COOLED.

tl;dr;dr If you put a waterblock on an SSD I hate you with a burning passion more powerful than the Sun because you are an idiot and literally decreasing its lifespan.

Some M.2 slots are located in hot places like just under the graphics card, or next to the CPU socket and VRMs. There is no airflow in those locations. Today every game is like 100GB and just when you want to play it, there is another 20GB update needed. The environment's temperature is already 40c in idle, and or 60-80c if you were gaming.

Those M.2 heatsinks are just 5 bucks and keep the M.2 within safe temperatures after prolonged gaming. Sure it's not required, but optional, so you won't have to worry about it.

 

[wNotyarD]

Some M.2 slots are located in hot places like just under the graphics card, or next to the CPU socket and VRMs. There is no airflow in those locations. Today every game is like 100GB and just when you want to play it, there is another 20GB update needed. The environment's temperature is already 40c in idle, and or 60-80c if you were gaming.

Those M.2 heatsinks are just 5 bucks and keep the M.2 within safe temperatures after prolonged gaming. Sure it's not required, but optional, so you won't have to worry about it.

Not even 5 bucks, as many motherboards (op's included) already have them.

 

[chrcoluk]

luckily I think my SSD is getting some airflow, the fan that comes with the noctua cooler I am using is too big in terms of height, I deliberately have it a bit lower than centre to push air through underside of cooler not just through it.

With my 970 EVO (which has a really hot controller) I used to use a side intake fan blowing right in its direction, but my 980 pro runs way cooler.

 

[AsRock]

Motherboards do use the same screw to hold both the heatsink and the drive underneath, common with 2280 heatsinks. For the 22110 heatsinks, unless you do have a 22110 drive you'd need two screws.

I personally do use the heatsink of my X470 board, but I fall on the second case: a 2280 drive under a 22110 heatsink, so I used the screw which came with the drive to hold it. I do recognize the heatsinks on my board are a tad more elaborate than OP's, though, but I do not see reason for him not to use them.

Then in that case the heatsink can be part( loose ) screwed in from the other side, plug the drive and carefully lower the heatsink over the drive. You could all so put the motherboard flat which would make it even easier.

Thats not possible on this board, the NVME cant be fully installed first as it cant be screwed down in place, since the heatsink uses the same standoff, and the heatsink cant be mounted on the drive with it not installed as the end of the heatsink would have the board blocking its way.


Thats what I thought but its not possible, if the drive is installed then there is nothing for the heatsink screw to screw into. They share the same standoff. (only the other end of the heatsink could be screwed in).

Highlighted the 2 screw areas, one as you can see I used to install the drive.

The only thing I can think off is install the drive, then screw in the top screw loosely so the heatsink is lined up and can still turn out way to then remove the screw holding in the SSD, then at that point peel off cover over pads, and rotate heatsink back over SSD whilst holding it down, then finally screw and tighten both screws for heatsink. Seems long winded all because there isnt a seperate standoff for bottom of heatsink.

Yup, but the manufacture saved a lot of screws ha.

 

[Assimilator]

Some M.2 slots are located in hot places like just under the graphics card, or next to the CPU socket and VRMs. There is no airflow in those locations.

Flat-out wrong. There is always airflow in a non-vacuum due to the fact that less dense air rises while more dense air sinks; heat is what drives this constant change in density, and the constant movement of air is what dissipates heat.

 

[csendesmark]

Untrue - any M.2 SSD you buy today can be put into a laptop and work just fine - with zero airflow over said SSD. The only time you may see throttling is if you are regularly performing massive data transfers to/from that SSD, and that's not a usual use-case. Given the above, it follows that any sort of measure to increase an M.2 SSD's heat dissipation is completely unnecessary in most cases.

tl;dr STOP TRYING TO COOL DOWN YOUR SSDS. THEY DON'T NEED TO BE COOLED.

tl;dr;dr If you put a waterblock on an SSD I hate you with a burning passion more powerful than the Sun because you are an idiot and literally decreasing its lifespan.

>untrue
Thank you,
Some SSD-s are getting hotter than others, some even requires a heatsink to sustain prolonged operation.
Your laptop might have it's processor and graphics chip located away from the m.2 slot. I believe you, that must be the average.
Also we are speaking about desktop rigs which unlike laptops, don't limit themselves with low consumption parts (in most of the cases).
What I was saying it's:
Some mainboards chip cooling is "connected" with the m.2's heat sink, so it will also could draw heat from the chipset.
Also the first m.2 slot is usually next to the CPU, when cooled by a water-cooled or a regular air cooler "get passive" while the CPU load is low, with no airflow there. Even if the SSD-s not being used could get hot from radiating heat from the CPU heat sink.
On the subsequent m.2 slot's heat sinks might also connected to the chipset's heat sink, while these are usually end up literally under the 200~300W Graphics card.

My old 980 pro "under" a simple AMD Radeon 5700 XT, easily got up to ~70°C, I did not like that a bit, even if Samsung says it operating temperature is max 80°C.
So before I got my Radeon 7900 XT I bought an m.2 card with a massive 1kg copper heatsink with a fan, so it is rarely gets over 43°C since then.

Flat-out wrong. There is always airflow in a non-vacuum due to the fact that less dense air rises while more dense air sinks; heat is what drives this constant change in density, and the constant movement of air is what dissipates heat.

Nobody denied that, what we saying that heat transfer is negligible.

 

[P4-630]

Idle temp on the 980 pro as reported by diskinfo is only 43C not too bad for an nvme? (is summer also).

Not bad though.

Around 43C I see that while I'm running a game from it.

 

[A Computer Guy]

luckily I think my SSD is getting some airflow, the fan that comes with the noctua cooler I am using is too big in terms of height, I deliberately have it a bit lower than centre to push air through underside of cooler not just through it.

With my 970 EVO (which has a really hot controller) I used to use a side intake fan blowing right in its direction, but my 980 pro runs way cooler.

If you have good case airflow I wouldn't worry about it too much unless you find your drive is peaking at the top of the manufacturers temp rating for your drive causing it to throttle back.

 

[chrcoluk]

If you have good case airflow I wouldn't worry about it too much unless you find your drive is peaking at the top of the manufacturers temp rating for your drive causing it to throttle back.

Yeah armor is in motherboard box since yesterday, its basically a "I might do it" if I am sorting something else out in the case. I feel my situation with wifi bracket and antennae cables is a mess, so when I get round to sorting that out I will reconsider it then, at least now I know what I need to be doing to install it.

 

[chrcoluk]

This thread might give the community something back.

I brought and tested a SN850X in the machine which has a built in heatsink, the temps (and ambient temps) I have noted. This SSD is now in my PS5.
I now have another SN850X with no heatsink, I plan to test it without no heatsink at all and then for the daily use config attach the board heatsink, will report data from all 3 configurations in this thread. As I really havent found this sort of data anywhere on the internet, most people just install a certian way and report how well that works, with a few comparing no heatsink to after market heatsink, this will be all 3 potential configs, on the same board with the same drive SKU in the same case (and ambient temps in the data).

I also have made some sense now of the ASRock manual, so the intermediate step where it says to secure the module with a screw before the final step of securing the module and the armour with a screw, does make sense if the m.2 module is shorter, as in that case you can still secure the ssd seperatly on its own and then secure the armour on top as they using different screws, there is two extra standoffs in the motherboard box to allow this.

The 2nd 4x4 m.2 slot is in a much more friendly area for access so dont mind installing it twice to get comparison temperature data.

Wont be doing this though until I install the 970 EVO, so doing both at same time, and I wont do that until I can be bothered to shut down other machine to extract the 970 EVO, so might be a couple of weeks or so.

 

[chrcoluk]

Ok guys got some data.

The good news is the 2nd heatsink doesnt share the mounting standoff. Also the screws stay attached to it when removed. Because of this the heatsink on was relatively easy, as it lines up with chipset heatsink so not guessing placement, and screws already in the holes. The plastic of course was removed.

So here is my data, temperatures were higher when I tested the built in heatsink. Tests done with case panels on. 5 loops of CDM using 1GIG file.

SN850X with built in heatsink.

Ambient temperature 23.4C
Idle temperature settled at 41C
CDM temperature peaked at 48C

SN850X no heatsink.

Ambient Temperature 22.1C
Idle temperature settled at 49C
CDM temperature peaked at 63C

SN850X with ASRocks heat slab sorry heatsink.

Ambient temperature 21.8C
Idle temperature settled at 47C
CDM temperature peaked at 59C

So it is better than no heatsink, but not by much, I will post a pic of the heatsink that I kept removed so you guys can see thickness. The 2nd heatsink is somewhat better in my opinion though at its over twice as long so more surface area. The built in heatsink on the SN850X in my opinion is at least 4x as thick as ASRock's slab, but I dont think it would have fit as my soundcard is installed directly over the m.2 slot. I tested it without soundcard installed.

 

[eidairaman1]

Ok guys got some data.

The good news is the 2nd heatsink doesnt share the mounting standoff. Also the screws stay attached to it when removed. Because of this the heatsink on was relatively easy, as it lines up with chipset heatsink so not guessing placement, and screws already in the holes. The plastic of course was removed.

So here is my data, temperatures were higher when I tested the built in heatsink. Tests done with case panels on. 5 loops of CDM using 1GIG file.

SN850X with built in heatsink.

Ambient temperature 23.4C
Idle temperature settled at 41C
CDM temperature peaked at 48C

SN850X no heatsink.

Ambient Temperature 22.1C
Idle temperature settled at 49C
CDM temperature peaked at 63C

SN850X with ASRocks heat slab sorry heatsink.

Ambient temperature 21.8C
Idle temperature settled at 47C
CDM temperature peaked at 59C

So it is better than no heatsink, but not by much, I will post a pic of the heatsink that I kept removed so you guys can see thickness. The 2nd heatsink is somewhat better in my opinion though at its over twice as long so more surface area. The built in heatsink on the SN850X in my opinion is at least 4x as thick as ASRock's slab, but I dont think it would have fit as my soundcard is installed directly over the m.2 slot.

And this is why I would run SATA SSDs or a PCIE card with heatsink and fan

 

[A Computer Guy]

Ok guys got some data.

The good news is the 2nd heatsink doesnt share the mounting standoff. Also the screws stay attached to it when removed. Because of this the heatsink on was relatively easy, as it lines up with chipset heatsink so not guessing placement, and screws already in the holes. The plastic of course was removed.

So here is my data, temperatures were higher when I tested the built in heatsink. Tests done with case panels on. 5 loops of CDM using 1GIG file.

SN850X with built in heatsink.

Ambient temperature 23.4C
Idle temperature settled at 41C
CDM temperature peaked at 48C

SN850X no heatsink.

Ambient Temperature 22.1C
Idle temperature settled at 49C
CDM temperature peaked at 63C

SN850X with ASRocks heat slab sorry heatsink.

Ambient temperature 21.8C
Idle temperature settled at 47C
CDM temperature peaked at 59C

So it is better than no heatsink, but not by much, I will post a pic of the heatsink that I kept removed so you guys can see thickness. The 2nd heatsink is somewhat better in my opinion though at its over twice as long so more surface area. The built in heatsink on the SN850X in my opinion is at least 4x as thick as ASRock's slab, but I dont think it would have fit as my soundcard is installed directly over the m.2 slot.

So basically it looks like your running well within operating temperature no matter what you do.

 

[eidairaman1]

So basically it looks like your running well within operating temperature no matter what you do.

The idle and cdm peak are the concern here.

 

[A Computer Guy]

The idle temperatures are the concern here

But still well within operating temperature.

 

[chrcoluk]

So basically it looks like your running well within operating temperature no matter what you do.

Yeah I wont be bothering with putting board heatsink on the 980 pro and will keep the SN850X as it is.

The drives will run cooler tomorrow though as I need to improve case airflow for my 13700k, so the side intake fan on my case I am reconnecting tomorrow.