SSD cooling advice

[kster]

Ok so my SSD hits uncomfortable 68c when under load so I'm wondering what drives I can replace it with to he alleviate this it's my os drive I'm yet to buy two new ones I have a gen4 and gen5 slot to work with also can I connect the SSD in the red outline to the heat pipe like the manufacturer has in the blue outline maybe with a copper heatsink on the SSD also

 

[A Computer Guy]

Is the bottom cover of the laptop metal or plastic? If metal you could try some thermal pads and let the base be a heatsink.

Does the bottom cover have vent holes over the SSD area? If not you could drill some holes and the cooing fans may draw some air across the SSD's.

 

[kster]

Plastic unfortunately my friend is saying that it shouldn't heat up like that and it could be wise to check the SSD in another pc

 

[Onasi]

68 degrees is far from worrying considering that it’s in a cramped laptop. But if you are insistent, then you can look through TPU reviews, see what’s a good deal where you are among the recommended drives and go from there. Lexar NM790 and Kingston KC3000 are some of the often mentioned picks. Pretty much all modern-ish TLC Gen 4 drives will be fine, unless it’s really bottom of the barrel from no name brands. Gen 5 is pointless for consumer workloads currently, unless you do A LOT of transfers. Even then, considering how hot they get I would say that in your case it would be counterproductive.

 

[FreedomEclipse]

Plastic unfortunately my friend is saying that it shouldn't heat up like that and it could be wise to check the SSD in another pc

Plastic is fine. The bottom of my laptop is plastic and I use it as a heatsink for my SN770.

Is it going to cool as good as a conventional metal heatsink? No. Not even close but it will still help soak up some heat and even better if you run with a laptop cooler under the laptop when in use. My WD SN770 idles around 35'c although it can go as low as 28-31'c if i turn the fans on laptop cooler right up.

 

[GerKNG]

these temps are completely fine. And a higher end drive will be much hotter in this laptop.

 

[LabRat 891]

I just put a 2TB 990Pro into a Dell Latitude 5411 with its dinky "Thermal Support Bracket". However, I took the time to do a little research on safe temperatures. (It runs a similar mid-high 60s under load)
-68c under full load is 'fine'.
AFAIK, >70c is typ. where you should start to worry.

If you do want to run it cooler, you could pick up another laptop manufacturer's M.2 2280 cooler (and snip off its proprietary mounts, if interfering. Rubber band, etc. for retention.)

Example, Dell's stock M.2 2280 $6 "Thermal Support Bracket":

Dell OEM Latitude 5400 / 5500 Thermal Support Bracket for M.2 SSD -AMC03- 85J62 | eBay

Dell OEM Latitude 5400 / 5500 Thermal Support Bracket for M.2 SSD - 85J62 085J62 ET2FB000310. 85J62 085J62 ET2FB000310. LOC : K53(AMC03. Dell OEM Latitude 5400 / 5500. Thermal Support Bracket. DELL P/N ).

www.ebay.com

Note: you'll need thermal pad / putty, unless you find a different-similar option that comes w/ fresh pad. Like, this $7.69 option:

Heatsink For Dell Latitude 5400 3540 3541 5500 5401 SSD Cover Bracket X3DN4 | eBay

Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for Heatsink For Dell Latitude 5400 3540 3541 5500 5401 SSD Cover Bracket X3DN4 at the best online prices at eBay! Free shipping for many products!

www.ebay.com

OtoH,
spreading the thermal load out over more mass of the drive, is another cheap and 0-profile option.
In my experience, 'copper graphene' foil heat spreading material, does actually work. It's acts like a flat heatpipe/vaporchamber, quickly conducting heat away. note: I've only used the 'bulk' electrically conductive stuff.

M.2 SSD Heat Sink Dual-Layer Graphene Copper Foil Design Cooler Radiator Laptop | eBay

Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for M.2 SSD Heat Sink Dual-Layer Graphene Copper Foil Design Cooler Radiator Laptop at the best online prices at eBay! Free shipping for many products!

www.ebay.com

Amazon.com

It won't actively 'dissipate' heat, but it will spread it over the mass/area of the drive.
Since, you're already w/in safe temps, you don't really need too 'heavy duty' of a solution.

 

[kster]

Ok now I'm even more confused I was using rainformer and my SSD has 3 sensors one matching my temps in windows settings and one showing crazy high temps so I ran crystal disk info and did a benchmark and temps were acceptable but that sensor on rain meter is showing the temps going up to 80c why 3 sensors I'm so confused

Also thanks for the replies

68 degrees is far from worrying considering that it’s in a cramped laptop. But if you are insistent, then you can look through TPU reviews, see what’s a good deal where you are among the recommended drives and go from there. Lexar NM790 and Kingston KC3000 are some of the often mentioned picks. Pretty much all modern-ish TLC Gen 4 drives will be fine, unless it’s really bottom of the barrel from no name brands. Gen 5 is pointless for consumer workloads currently, unless you do A LOT of transfers. Even then, considering how hot they get I would say that in your case it would be counterproductive.

I hear gen 5 runs cooler and the Evo is a decent choice

 

[FreedomEclipse]

Multiple sensors because the controller and memory chips have one. Im not sure about the 3rd sensor though,

 

[LabRat 891]

Multiple sensors because the controller and memory chips have one. Im not sure about the 3rd sensor though,

Doing a lil leap of logic in assuming similarity between sn550 and sn770, but...

What are the 3 temperatures (composite and sensors) reported by a WD_BLACK SN770 NVMe?

I have a WD_BLACK SN770 SSD NVMe that may be running too hot under load. So to monitor it, I installed Western Digital Dashboard and it reports 3 temperatures: Libre Hardware Monitor reports 3

superuser.com

tl;dr:
-Temperature (0) is most important to pay attention to
-the breakdown is likely

Temp - Composite
Temp 1 - Controller
Temp 2 - NAND or board SMT (?)

 

[kster]

Samsung SSD 3 temperature sensors

Hi, In the HWInfo software, the sensor infos display a very high "temperature3" for the Samsung SSD 980 Pro . The other temperature values are about 20° lower. (cf. the screenshot below) The temperature3 value as well as the other values grow constantly over the time and reach a limit up to...

www.hwinfo.com

Samsung SSD 3 temperature sensors

Hi, In the HWInfo software, the sensor infos display a very high "temperature3" for the Samsung SSD 980 Pro . The other temperature values are about 20° lower. (cf. the screenshot below) The temperature3 value as well as the other values grow constantly over the time and reach a limit up to...

www.hwinfo.com

Found a discussion on this

Think I'm going to cake the SSD in thermal pads try to spread out the heat as much as possible prob have to do it when I install a second one also but it's a gen 5 going in that slot so maybe it won't be as bad usage depending

 

[Onasi]

I hear gen 5 runs cooler and the Evo is a decent choice

1. The 990 Evo, if that’s what you are referring to, is not really any faster than a good Gen4 drive.
2. That’s absolutely not the case. None of the Gen5 SSDs are particularly cool. The main issue is just that those controllers do get hot and there isn’t really much that can be done outside of strapping bigger coolers on top.

 

[kster]

So I guess if the controller is the problem then I need to figure out witch chip to try thermal pad heatsink etc idk I'm not overly experienced with pc and want to make sure I give this laptop as much life as possible cause I use it a lot

Maybe I could spread the heat from that chip to the heat pipe somehow or is that a bad idea

1. The 990 Evo, if that’s what you are referring to, is not really any faster than a good Gen4 drive.
2. That’s absolutely not the case. None of the Gen5 SSDs are particularly cool. The main issue is just that those controllers do get hot and there isn’t really much that can be done outside of strapping bigger coolers on top.

Ahh I read that you can put a gen 5 in a gen 4 slot essentially under clocking its potential to make it run cooler maybe the op was wrong but that's why you as questions in multiple forums I guess I might actually try it and compare benchmarks

 

[FreedomEclipse]

So I guess if the controller is the problem then I need to figure out witch chip to try thermal pad heatsink etc idk I'm not overly experienced with pc and want to make sure I give this laptop as much life as possible cause I use it a lot

That would be the chip closest to the connector

I use ARCTIC TP-3 thermal pads. Im not sure about clearances in your laptop so going in with a 1.5mm pad instead of a smaller one would be the best bet as they work best when crushed down a little anyway.

You can leave the sticker with the WD logo and stuff on. It shouldnt make a huge difference, pad will work regardless. You could remove it if you wish but that could void warranty... It shouldnt but manufacturers will do anything to void your warranty these days so its best not to touch it.

General consensus says the memory chip itself prefers running a little warm anyway so there isnt a need to put any thermal pads on those. Its just the controller that gets hot if youre doing a lot of heavy reads and writes.

 

[kster]

That would be the chip closest to the connector

View attachment 349672

I use ARCTIC TP-3 thermal pads. Im not sure about clearances in your laptop so going in with a 1.5mm pad instead of a smaller one would be the best bet as they work best when crushed down a little anyway.

You can leave the sticker with the WD logo and stuff on. It shouldnt make a huge difference, pad will work regardless. You could remove it if you wish but that could void warranty... It shouldnt but manufacturers will do anything to void your warranty these days so its best not to touch it.

General consensus says the memory chip itself prefers running a little warm anyway so there isnt a need to put any thermal pads on those. Its just the controller that gets hot if youre doing a lot of heavy reads and writes.

Thanks for that would it be better to pad this chip separately to try keep the heat away from other chips ? Was considering the possibility of connecting it to a heat pipe or altering my case anyway

 

[freeagent]

I have 3x SN770 1TB drives, and one of them runs like 10c hotter than the others. I think I bought them all at the same time.. was a good deal.

It didn't seem to hurt performance, at least I didn't notice anything, as they are usually just game drives.

I am running just one right now, and it is the same temp as my SN850 and 850X. I was thinking it could be just a wonky sensor, as the other sensors were reading the same.

 

[Athlonite]

my friend is saying that it shouldn't heat up like that and it could be wise to check the SSD in another pc

You do know that SSD's require the nand to be hot to write to if it's to cool you run the risk of it writing stuff wrong as for it's temp when in use 68c is not that hot if it was that temp when idle I'd be a little worried or if it was getting above 75c but it's well within spec at that temp

 

[FreedomEclipse]

Thanks for that would it be better to pad this chip separately to try keep the heat away from other chips ? Was considering the possibility of connecting it to a heat pipe or altering my case anyway

1. Im interested in how you would connect this heat pipe.

2. I used a craft knife to cut the thermal pad to size then stuck it on. I didnt bother adding one on the memory chip itself. You can if you want although it isnt required as they like to run a little hot anyway. Cooling the controller is a lot more important than the actual memory chip itself.

3. I thought we were talking about an SSD in a laptop.

 

[Calenhad]

In what ambient temperature are you seeing those temps? Unless you are sitting in a room at below 22C I would really not worry about these temps.

Your ssd is perfectly capable of taking care of itself, by throttling performance if it is to hot. Unless you experience serious slowdowns during normal use, your ssd is within its designed operating temperatures. Which according to WD is 0-70C, so you are up there. But like I just said, unless performance grinds to a halt, your ssd is operating at acceptable temperatures.

Put a thermal pad between the backplate and the controller if there is no pad from the manufacturer. Do not overthink this because you want a piece of hardware to operate at an unreasonable temperature, a modern laptop is a very hot place during use.

 

[ARF]

Ok so my SSD hits uncomfortable 68c when under load so I'm wondering what drives I can replace it with to he alleviate this it's my os drive I'm yet to buy two new ones I have a gen4 and gen5 slot to work with also can I connect the SSD in the red outline to the heat pipe like the manufacturer has in the blue outline maybe with a copper heatsink on the SSD also

Err, this WD SN560 drive has no metal cover on it?

Then, you can swap it for a drive with better qualities - Lexar NM790 https://www.lexar.com/product/lexar-nm790-m-2-2280-pcie-gen-4x4-nvme-ssd/
Or XPG Gammix S11 Pro https://www.xpg.com/en/xpg/596

I hear gen 5 runs cooler and the Evo is a decent choice

That's absolutely the opposite of what happens in the reality. The PCIe 5.0 drives are extremely hot and require bulk heatsinks with fans.

They are really terrible.