NVME water blocks?

[FoulOnWhite]

Just wondering if there are any viable/anyone using NVME water blocks? Just thought i might add them into my loop.

 

[LabRat 891]

Gen5 drives seem to benefit, and there's been waterblocks around since at least Gen3 drives.

ModMyMods.com

M.2 SSD water blocks are designed to cool down your M.2 SSD that may otherwise overheat and hinder performance.

modmymods.com

Hydro X Series XM2 M.2 SSD Water Block (2280)

Extend the lower temperatures of your custom cooling loop to a high-speed M.2 SSD with the CORSAIR Hydro X Series XM2 M.2 SSD Water Block, reducing thermal throttling for sustained fast data speeds.

www.corsair.com

 

[ir_cow]

If you have a Gen5 drive and actually plan on doing 100GB transfers, yeah it will keep the temps down. Even benefits the Gen4, but doesn't make a whole lot of sense over a heatsink and massive flow restrictions too.

 

[AsRock]

Jayztwocents has done a one on it.

Pointless and makes upgrading or changing any thing in the system even more a hassle, and do remember nand likes it hotter and it's just the controller that needs cooling.

 

[FoulOnWhite]

Motherboard stock sinks are all they need.

 

[LabRat 891]

Jayztwocents has done a one on it.

Pointless and makes upgrading or changing any thing in the system even more a hassle, and do remember nand likes it hotter and it's just the controller that needs cooling.

Motherboard stock sinks are all they need.

Please, go read some Gen5 SSD reviews. They throttle very quickly under load. Not to mention, repetitive large swings in temperature will encourage solder joint failure.

Everyone mentioning that it's pointless, *were* correct:
Gen4 and Gen3 M.2 NVMe drives rarely needed more than a 'heat spreader'.
With Gen5, there's a reason some manufacturers are including heatsinks like this:

 

[ir_cow]

Gen5 absolutely needs a heatsink. I saw what happens without one at CES. Instant thermal throttling if you try to write 20+ GB. Only the lastest Gen4 that can do 3500+ sustained write need a heatsink. Most of the time they will run out of DRAM cache before throttling for writes. If you are copying data , a heatsink makes a difference. Though once again only if what your are writing to can keep up.

 

[Ruru]

Gen5 drives seem to benefit, and there's been waterblocks around since at least Gen3 drives.

ModMyMods.com

M.2 SSD water blocks are designed to cool down your M.2 SSD that may otherwise overheat and hinder performance.

modmymods.com

Hydro X Series XM2 M.2 SSD Water Block (2280)

Extend the lower temperatures of your custom cooling loop to a high-speed M.2 SSD with the CORSAIR Hydro X Series XM2 M.2 SSD Water Block, reducing thermal throttling for sustained fast data speeds.

www.corsair.com

That Corsair block looks cool (literally) but 40USD? Yikes..

 

[LabRat 891]

That Corsair block looks cool (literally) but 40USD? Yikes..

(For North Americans, at least) There's always fleabay.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/404215187290?epid=13051040655

Also, lots of 'cheapy' import options. Not sure I'd trust the listed and pictured materials though.

 

[chrcoluk]

Jayztwocents has done a one on it.

Pointless and makes upgrading or changing any thing in the system even more a hassle, and do remember nand likes it hotter and it's just the controller that needs cooling.

He did point out at end how board heatsinks vary, which was good, even on that high end board he had the slots higher on the board had less mass.

My thoughts are as follows.

From my own experience m.2 drives run hotter in a enclosed case vs on a box/workbench scenario. Maybe I just suck at airflow with my cases but it is my experience, all my SATA drives never had an issue both spindle and NAND but m.2 drives deffo usually gain 10C or there about in the case vs out. (m.2 slot near GPU)

Watching the video as well, and of course my own experience, swapping m.2 drives outside a case is so much easier vs in an assembled case, especially when the case is standing and not flat. Thats where usability of m.2 screws goes down the toilet. Also his screwdriver way better than mine, any slight movement and screw is loose and as such cant line up to screw in, a jolt the screw will fall off.

Some board sinks as confirmed by ir_cow after I made a thread on it will share the same standoff for 2280 install as the heatsink itself, making installation considerably harder and the ability to do what jay did in this video removing it with system running would instead have the drive flip up loose.

Then is the quality of the sinks from vendor to vendor and high/low end boards, I might revisit my 980 pro which currently is using no sink at all out of curiosity, in my own testing my board sink helped a little on my sn850x but not sure if enough to justify the extra effort on installation, but that sink is more than twice the mass of the one that would be on my 980 pro. The sn850x sku that has a built in heatsink beat the board sink down and into small bits such was its dominance.

Also what temp was jay looking at? these 980/990 samsung drives have 2 sensors and apps that only report one sensor seem to report the cooler nand temp. Ironically w1zzard very recently posted a 990 review showing this.

Also at the start of this video when jay was showing the heatsink, the plastic was still attached, wonder if that got removed when he tested.

 

[Ruru]

(For North Americans, at least) There's always fleabay.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/404215187290?epid=13051040655

Also, lots of 'cheapy' import options. Not sure I'd trust the listed and pictured materials though.

The shipping costs more (21.50USD) than the block itself

 

[ir_cow]

Some board sinks as confirmed by ir_cow after I made a thread on it will share the same standoff for 2280 install as the heatsink itself, making installation considerably harder and the ability to do what jay did in this video removing it with system running would instead have the drive flip up loose.

MSI likes to do this. It's annoying, but since you general don't install them while it's in the case vertical, I can't really fault them much. It's only a hassle once. Or like me 3-4 times because I keep upgrading to a larger size lol.

 

[chrcoluk]

MSI likes to do this. It's annoying, but since you general don't install them while it's in the case vertical, I can't really fault them much. It's only a hassle once. Or like me 3-4 times because I keep upgrading to a larger size lol.

Yeah, I seem to be different to many people that I mess with drives after system is assembled.

 

[FoulOnWhite]

I have 2 SN850x 2/4TB and they both seem happy under the MB sinks. I guess Gen 5 might benefit from a water block though, as Jay said though it would complicate the loop. Not sure i am a fan (no pun intended) of some of them coolers though.

I installed my SN drives with my case vertical, as Asus uses the nice little clip things to hold the drives before you fit the sink over the top.

 

[TheLostSwede]

My KC3000 throttled like crazy with the heatsinks that came with the X570 Aorus Master, so I had to get something beefier for it.
Shouldn't be an issue with more recent boards though, at least not higher-end boards, as the SSD heatsinks are a big step up from just a generation or two ago.
Many of the boards with PCIe 5.0 slots also have at least one bigger heatsink for Gen 5 SSDs.

 

[Lei]

I'd try this instead:
Connect your nvme heatsink to an existing waterblock with some flat copper wire

 

[Vya Domus]

The day I'll have to watercool my storage is probably the day I'll quit PC gaming.

My KC3000 throttled like crazy with the heatsinks that came with the X570 Aorus Master, so I had to get something beefier for it.
Shouldn't be an issue with more recent boards though, at least not higher-end boards, as the SSD heatsinks are a big step up from just a generation or two ago.
Many of the boards with PCIe 5.0 slots also have at least one bigger heatsink for Gen 5 SSDs.

I also have a KC3000 and I never saw it break 70C with the dinky motherboard heatsink even when my system was air cooled and the heatsink was getting blasted with heat from the video card. I bet it was just not making good contact.

 

[LabRat 891]

I'd try this instead:
Connect your nvme heatsink to an existing waterblock with some flat copper wire

Decent idea. There's also thermally-adhesive allotropic carbon+copperfoil 'heatspreader' that works well. I have the Southbridge on my VIA C7 ITX board 'thermally bonded' via a strip of such material over to the main heatsink. It, surprisingly works.

The day I'll have to watercool my storage is probably the day I'll quit PC gaming.


I also have a KC3000 and I never saw it break 70C with the dinky motherboard heatsink even when my system was air cooled and the heatsink was getting blasted with heat from the video card. I bet it was just not making good contact.

Bit behind.
July 30, 2007

NEC, Hitachi Announce Water-cooled HDD | TechCrunch

NEC and Hitachi’s joint efforts are beginning to materialize some worthwhile products, IMO. What you see above is the first water cooling system for your

techcrunch.com

Hard Drive Coolers

Water Blocks - HDD

Water Blocks - HDD - Water Blocks - Water Cooling

www.performance-pcs.com

 

[chrcoluk]

I have 2 SN850x 2/4TB and they both seem happy under the MB sinks. I guess Gen 5 might benefit from a water block though, as Jay said though it would complicate the loop. Not sure i am a fan (no pun intended) of some of them coolers though.

I installed my SN drives with my case vertical, as Asus uses the nice little clip things to hold the drives before you fit the sink over the top.

Yeah I seen those, is odd thats not been standardised yet.

 

[AsRock]

He did point out at end how board heatsinks vary, which was good, even on that high end board he had the slots higher on the board had less mass.

My thoughts are as follows.

From my own experience m.2 drives run hotter in a enclosed case vs on a box/workbench scenario. Maybe I just suck at airflow with my cases but it is my experience, all my SATA drives never had an issue both spindle and NAND but m.2 drives deffo usually gain 10C or there about in the case vs out. (m.2 slot near GPU)

Watching the video as well, and of course my own experience, swapping m.2 drives outside a case is so much easier vs in an assembled case, especially when the case is standing and not flat. Thats where usability of m.2 screws goes down the toilet. Also his screwdriver way better than mine, any slight movement and screw is loose and as such cant line up to screw in, a jolt the screw will fall off.

Some board sinks as confirmed by ir_cow after I made a thread on it will share the same standoff for 2280 install as the heatsink itself, making installation considerably harder and the ability to do what jay did in this video removing it with system running would instead have the drive flip up loose.

Then is the quality of the sinks from vendor to vendor and high/low end boards, I might revisit my 980 pro which currently is using no sink at all out of curiosity, in my own testing my board sink helped a little on my sn850x but not sure if enough to justify the extra effort on installation, but that sink is more than twice the mass of the one that would be on my 980 pro. The sn850x sku that has a built in heatsink beat the board sink down and into small bits such was its dominance.

Also what temp was jay looking at? these 980/990 samsung drives have 2 sensors and apps that only report one sensor seem to report the cooler nand temp. Ironically w1zzard very recently posted a 990 review showing this.

Also at the start of this video when jay was showing the heatsink, the plastic was still attached, wonder if that got removed when he tested.

Well newer boards are made easier as they typically have changed from screws to latches, how ever that nvme slot above the vcard that's a pain the ass and is easier to use a none motherboard heatsink ( in my case ), as you know that D15 takes some space over that area although i was able to fit a Sabrent ( with pipe version ) right under it which was a lot easier than using the motherboard heatsink.

980 and 990 each have 3 sensors. And believe the 1st and 2nd sensors are the controller. But i am just going by load and how they follow each other. All so in that review W1zzard points out the 2nd being the controller.

Try using HWinfo64

 

[FoulOnWhite]

Well newer boards are made easier as they typically have changed from screws to latches, how ever that nvme slot above the vcard that's a pain the ass and is easier to use a none motherboard heatsink ( in my case ), as you know that D15 takes some space over that area although i was able to fit a Sabrent ( with pipe version ) right under it which was a lot easier than using the motherboard heatsink.

980 and 990 each have 3 sensors. And believe the 1st and 2nd sensors are the controller. But i am just going by load and how they follow each other. All so in that review W1zzard points out the 2nd being the controller.

Try using HWinfo64

All my NVME slots are pretty clear as my GPU is single slot, and my CPU socket is clear all around it. Unless i see the temps go crazy, i am just gonna leave the stock sinks on the 2 SN850s

 

[chrcoluk]

Well newer boards are made easier as they typically have changed from screws to latches, how ever that nvme slot above the vcard that's a pain the ass and is easier to use a none motherboard heatsink ( in my case ), as you know that D15 takes some space over that area although i was able to fit a Sabrent ( with pipe version ) right under it which was a lot easier than using the motherboard heatsink.

980 and 990 each have 3 sensors. And believe the 1st and 2nd sensors are the controller. But i am just going by load and how they follow each other. All so in that review W1zzard points out the 2nd being the controller.

Try using HWinfo64

My newer board is screw. ASRock for reference. They seem to be slow to propagate this change across all SKU's and across all vendors.

Dont see a latch on this random Z790 ASRock board i checked.

ASRock Z790 Pro RS

Supports 14th, 13th & 12th Gen Intel Core™ Processors; 14+1+1 Phase Power Design, Dr.MOS for VCore+GT; 4 x DDR5 DIMMs, Supports Dual Channel, up to 7200+ (OC); 1 PCIe 5.0 x16, 1 PCIe 4.0 x16, 2 PCIe 3.0 x1, 1 M.2 Key-E for WiFi; Graphics Output Options: 1 HDMI, 1 DisplayPort, eDP; 7.1 CH HD...

www.asrock.com

I do agree in that slot a SSD with built in sink is likely preferable. Kind of tempted to replace that drive with one that has its own sink and at 2TB capacity during this current era of plunge NVME pricing, but I (currently) dont need the space so am split on it. When I am split on something I usually end up not bothering.

On aida64, 2 sensors are detected, the 2nd being the controller. On hwinfo 3 are detected, with the 3rd probably being the controller, the first 2 sensors I have never seen at different values, not even by 1C. However my main reason for thinking there is two which I forgot to mention is that samsung's own magician software only detects two sensors. (hwinfo is the odd one out and as such I think has detected it wrong)

 

[Calenhad]

I got one of those hydro-x waterblocks in my box of watercooling spare parts. Because when I bought a 2TB pcie 4.0 ssd, the hydro-x version was significantly cheaper than the regular version of the same drive.
I might give it a go again if the 5.0 ssds still run as hot as today, whenever I upgrade to a pcie 5.0 pc.

 

[AsRock]

My newer board is screw. ASRock for reference. They seem to be slow to propagate this change across all SKU's and across all vendors.

Dont see a latch on this random Z790 ASRock board i checked.

ASRock Z790 Pro RS

Supports 14th, 13th & 12th Gen Intel Core™ Processors; 14+1+1 Phase Power Design, Dr.MOS for VCore+GT; 4 x DDR5 DIMMs, Supports Dual Channel, up to 7200+ (OC); 1 PCIe 5.0 x16, 1 PCIe 4.0 x16, 2 PCIe 3.0 x1, 1 M.2 Key-E for WiFi; Graphics Output Options: 1 HDMI, 1 DisplayPort, eDP; 7.1 CH HD...

www.asrock.com

I do agree in that slot a SSD with built in sink is likely preferable. Kind of tempted to replace that drive with one that has its own sink and at 2TB capacity during this current era of plunge NVME pricing, but I (currently) dont need the space so am split on it. When I am split on something I usually end up not bothering.

On aida64, 2 sensors are detected, the 2nd being the controller. On hwinfo 3 are detected, with the 3rd probably being the controller, the first 2 sensors I have never seen at different values, not even by 1C. However my main reason for thinking there is two which I forgot to mention is that samsung's own magician software only detects two sensors. (hwinfo is the odd one out and as such I think has detected it wrong)

Well be careful as i do not remember the warranty on warranty stickers in the UK, samsung have them on there drives that come with a heatsink.