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To heatsink that is the question.

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Evilsizer

Evilsizer

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Joined
Jun 6, 2002
i was looking around at newer ones, looked at some benchmarks. I first started off looking at 1tb, the P41 and the Cardea A440 pro. saw the new samsung M.2 drive for $169 would get me 1tb, but i settled on the SK hynix Plat P41 2TB m.2 drive, $169. now i am wondering if i should heatsink the drive?

Looking at these heatsinks:

My top choices atm ID-cooling, Warp, IcePC grid pattern. looking more at the dark/blacked out ones, granted i will never look at the motherboard haha. since on my motherboard the ssd/m.2 will be above the GPU i was leaning to heatpipe based coolers, though i dont think the warp would be bad at all.

*edit*
well i see there is a issue with umm showing the website preview, when i post links. :c
 
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One think I found out about links at Amazon is they usually have extraneous information. For example, if you search for an item at Amazon if will have a lot of extra information in the link. Before posting these links you can remove all the extraneous information and just post the much shorter link.

Here is a shortened version of your first link.


Note the last information in this link matches "ASIN: B0B7QQ1DYC" for this item.

BTW, on another forum I am asking about adding heatsinks to the two M.2 NVME SSDs in my laptop. In this case there is a lot less space so my options are limited. I am concerned because while running a benchmarks the SSDs temperatures are exceeding 105C.
 
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I've placed heat sinks on several in my systems, no regrets for doing it. Wonder if I'd have regrets if I didn't?

Anyway, heat is the number one issue when running PCs, particularly OCing them. Knowing this, heat sinks become a default plan with me.
 
Heatsink a PCIe 4.0 x4 drive, yes.

That said, you likely wouldn't see throttling anyway unless you're running a long arse transfer between another fast AF drive tho...


... but they are cheap and absolutely couldn't hurt.
 
As a general rule of thumb, any Gen4 NVMe M.2 SSD 5000 MB/s and above you will want a heatsink. Naturally, every drive is different with the main contributor to heat being the controller. I have not reviewed any SK Hynix controllers, so they may behave slightly differently. Still, from what I have seen with Phison and Silicon Motion controllers, once you get into the 5000 MB/s territory you start approaching or even reaching the throttle point.

As far as which heatsink style is better, you will need to compare the review results. I'm pretty certain this topic has come up so you might want to do a search here. My guess is they will all work well in preventing throttling if that is your goal. If you are looking for the lowest temps, then this is probably your best option. Personally, I like the look of this one that you linked better.
 
To be honest, even my SATA M.2 drive that is in the slot between the GPU and CPU gets pretty warm with the motherboard's built in heat spreader (may do more harm than good). On the other hand my M.2 drive that's running PCIe 2.0 x4 and has good airflow from below never gets hot. I know it really wouldn't be expected to have thermal issues, but neither would a SATA drive. All this to say, heatsinks don't matter much if you don't have airflow. My GPU doesn't get very hot, but the top drive is in the "shadow" of it, in terms of airflow so it suffers worse temperatures.

Edit: Both CPU and GPU are on a custom loop, so airflow comes in the bottom and out the top for the most part.
 
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well i guess i could pass on those and use the one on the motherboard. Some heatsink is better then nothing..
 
I bought several of these (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07KDDKDNN/) and have been quite happy with them. Two are currently in use on a gen3 512 Samsun 970 and a gen3 1TB HP NVMe. Had them since Mid November of 2020. About 2 years.

They work. I also like that they do NOT interfere with any PCIe cards as the total package hieght is the same as the PCIe slot(s). So a GPU that over hangs the slot: No problem. The tall ones may present a problem depending on the MB location of the M.2 vs PCIe.
 
i still need to put this one on the samsung 980 for the black/gold on the asrock board for 4/5th gen.
i still need to find this one in my "pile"

choices, choices, can not make up my mind right now :D i did choose ones that looked like they would work great and match the motherboard. i would of course you different thermal pads with it, even maybe that thermal putty.

**edit**
looks like Jeyi has a new one, looks better for passive cooling. could get in the way depending on the cpu cooling setup.
 
Your choices look great. For me, if I can see them, then somethings wrong and I have my case open. I never want to see the insides of my machine. I just want it to work and work good. ;)
 
Evilsizer said:
well i guess i could pass on those and use the one on the motherboard. Some heatsink is better then nothing..
Click to expand...
Sometimes the one on the motherboard is not better than nothing. Now that I'm home, the SATA drive that is under the motherboard "heatsink" and near the GPU and also in an airflow "shadow" from the GPU is at 50C, with a min of 43C and a max of 55C. The NVME with no heatsink and airflow (keep in mind it is only running at Gen2x4) is 28C, max 51C, min 28C. Am I worried about either of those temperatures? Of course not, but put a gen4 drive in that location (not that my board can support one) and I don't think it would be adequately cooled without supplemental airflow or a heatsink. Of course some of that is unique to my bottom-top airflow and liquid cooling while a case with front to back/top configuration and a CPU air cooler or GPU blow by could be fine.
 
reading the manual the Asrock Z590m pro, it shows it will "clamp" on when it is screwed down. i do wonder, if do no use the asrock heatsink, will it still tighten the stick down. maybe there are slightly shorter screws in the box for it.
 

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Those Thermalright ones work really well, about 10c better than the ones that come with my board, maybe a bit more with the top slot since my GPU breathes all over it. They look badass. Would be great on a bench, or in a passive setup. And they are sexy AF. Some guys were concerned about the weight hanging off of the M.2 mount, its really not that bad though. I wouldnt stand it up in the car and aim for every pothole, but they should be ok just sitting there in a normal computer :D
 
Evilsizer said:
reading the manual the Asrock Z590m pro, it shows it will "clamp" on when it is screwed down. i do wonder, if do no use the asrock heatsink, will it still tighten the stick down. maybe there are slightly shorter screws in the box for it.
Click to expand...
My ASRock X570 Phantom Gaming X came with different length M.2 Standoff posts for when the motherboard heatsink wasn't in use. I would guess this is the case for your Z590M Pro.
 
I would hope. I'm not a big fan of that design if the M.2 drive is adhered to the heatsink via some kind of adhesive, you'd have to slide the whole thing off the board then scrape the drive off the sticky pad. I would rather have the drive secured to the board and be able to remove the heatsink from the drive while its still mounted.
 
freeagent said:
Those Thermalright ones work really well, about 10c better than the ones that come with my board, maybe a bit more with the top slot since my GPU breathes all over it. They look badass. Would be great on a bench, or in a passive setup. And they are sexy AF. Some guys were concerned about the weight hanging off of the M.2 mount, its really not that bad though. I wouldnt stand it up in the car and aim for every pothole, but they should be ok just sitting there in a normal computer :D
Click to expand...
did you use the thermal pads that came with it?
 
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