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Samsung SM951 m.2 disk cooling

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alex777

Registered
Joined
Aug 28, 2016
I would like to mount these small heatsinks :

Mudder 8 Pieces Black Aluminium Heatsink Cooling Radiator Kit for Raspberry Pi 3 , 2 Pi , Pi Model B +
https://www.amazon.it/gp/product/B01GE7Q060/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

on a this disk:

ssd samsung m.2 : Samsung SM951 , M.2 PCIe SSD 256 GB .
https://www.amazon.com/Samsung-MZVP...472378459&sr=8-5&keywords=Samsung+SM951+256GB


My motherboard is mini-ITX and the m.2 slot is located below the motherboard (the space is very limited) . The PCI Express slot is already occupied by the video card.

I have only one doubt: Up to the M.2 disk there are stickers (as photo) on the chips as usual for almost all m.2 discs .

I wonder if I necessarily remove these stickers to mount the heatsink .

Removal of these adhesives could compromise the resale or the warranty of these discs that are a bit expensive .

I need to remove these stickers to mount the heatsink ?

thank you !
 
Why would you like to mount heatsinks on a SSD?

Edit: if you want to do so, you need to remove the stickers.
 
Thank you for your response :)

What happen if I don't remove the stickers ?

If I try to remove the stickers there is the possibility to damage (strip) the stickers and I will lose the warranty.
 
If you don't remove the stickers, there will be a very weak heat transfer between chips and heatsink (stickers=paper=wood=heat insulator).

Again, why do you want to add heatsinks on the SSD?!?
 
this is not e normal ssd this is a m.2 (very small chip) and in small case like mine can cause thermal throttle.

 
You'd rather increase your case airflow than adding heatsinks.

If your temp inside the case is too high, the heatsink won't help.

Have you tried or are you only relying on youtube videos?

Edit: it seems it starts over heating after 3 minutes (+/-200GB). Do you handle such big files continuously?
If not, you won't have any issue it seems.
If yes, better airflow, and maybe a small (82mm or smaller) fan blowing on the drive should be enough.
 
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I have not tried yet.

I would simply add it as a precaution because my case is mini ITX and is small and I would not take any risk (heatsink only costs 6 Euros).

I like only decreasy the temperature of my m.2 disk that this is only an advantage.

The problem is only the removal of the sticker that if will strip I can lose the warranty.

At this point I'am a bit uncertan if add or not the heatsink. Some users affirm to get good result in term of performance with the heatsink.
 
You'll lose your warranty.

I would not do anything until having tried and seen it throttling. Why fixing something which is not broken with only benefit being losing warranty on a $400 piece of hardware that can fail?

And it is not only removing the stickers: you have to glue the heatsimks to the chips, with either a gluing TIM or a mix TIM/Epoxy. Which will leave traces on the chips either way.
 
That drive is designed to deal with the temperatures it can reach. You aren't going to hurt the drive by leaving it stock, so I wouldn't use the heatsinks. After the warranty period expired, I'd think about adding them if I saw degraded performance do to thermals, but definitely not within it.
 
Not sure Tir is aware of what this is or the problem at times..................Please take a read: https://www.pugetsystems.com/labs/articles/Samsung-950-Pro-M-2-Throttling-Analysis-776/
http://www.legitreviews.com/samsung-sm951-512gb-m-2-pcie-ssd-review_161689/3

Its an M.2 slot SSD. These run NOTORIOUSLY hot and have throttling issues under extended write situations. I am not sure if the sticker voids the warranty (ask samsung), but what I did was simply put a thermal pad (which doesn't leave residue, etc...) between the heatsink and sticker. That cooled things down and prevented throttling I would eventually see. While not an optimal heat transfer, it seems it doesn't take much to help.

My m.2 drive also lays flat so its easy for me to use a thermal pad. With the drive being vertical you will need to do as Tir mentioned above.
 
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all comments are very useful !!!

thank you !!

Add or not add the heatsink on m.2 drive ?
 
Your choice... are you seeing performance throttle with your uses of the drive? If the answer is yes, then you would want to add it. If the answer is no, then I wouldn't worry about it.
 
Your link doesn't work/isn't translating for me... sorry.

You would want a thermal interface material, yes. None of the metal/conductive pastes).
 
As I said, you need to add a paste that is NON conductive between the heatsink and the item you are cooling. But the paste will not hold the heatsink on if the 951 is vertical. There are thermal GLUES, but this will likely void your warranty. So if you use paste, you will need to figure out how to hold that thing on.
 
Not sure Tir is aware of what this is or the problem at times..................Please take a read: https://www.pugetsystems.com/labs/articles/Samsung-950-Pro-M-2-Throttling-Analysis-776/
http://www.legitreviews.com/samsung-sm951-512gb-m-2-pcie-ssd-review_161689/3

Its an M.2 slot SSD. These run NOTORIOUSLY hot and have throttling issues under extended write situations. I am not sure if the sticker voids the warranty (ask samsung), but what I did was simply put a thermal pad (which doesn't leave residue, etc...) between the heatsink and sticker. That cooled things down and prevented throttling I would eventually see. While not an optimal heat transfer, it seems it doesn't take much to help.

My m.2 drive also lays flat so its easy for me to use a thermal pad. With the drive being vertical you will need to do as Tir mentioned above.

Yep, read a bunch of articles this morning.
 
Thank you EarthDog is clear.

I will add the heatsink only if is necessary.

Many many thanks !!
 
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