M.2 SSD installation with heatsink

[Maculosa]

Hi, I'm building my new PC and i have to install my new SSD (XPG SX8200Pro) on my MSI X570 Meg Unify. I have never installed SSD before so sorry if this may look stupid question.

1. The motherboard heatsink have a protective film that I have to remove when installing the SSD. But for the unused SSD slot do I have to remove the protective film on the MB heatsink or I leave it ?

2. The 8200pro come with a heatsink? (Thin metal sheat with XPG logo on it) it's not installed on the SSD but do I have to put it if I'm using the msi heatsink?

Thanks

 

[dejo]

I would not pull the sticker from the ssd itself, that will void your warranty. I would also try the heatsink from the motherboard first and check temps to see if they are satisfactory, if they are- I would leave it that way

 

[EarthDog]

1. No, pull it when you need to use it.
2. Do not pull the sticker on the drive and just use the motherboard heatsink.

 

[HankB]

I'm a little curious about this (the subject of heat sinks for NVME drives in general.) It's clear to me that some drives will throttle during benchmarks if a heat sink is not employed. And I'm happy that Dell saw fit to add a heat sink for the rive in my XPS-13 (even though the OE drive is dog slow. ) But I wonder if these drives will throttle during typical (desktop) operation.

As to the original question, I can't really add anything to what has already been suggested.

 

[dejo]

from my experiences- when the m.2 drives are not being written to, they run within a few 'C of what sata drives do. When you are doing quite a bit of writes, they can start to get rather hot. In my Skull Canyon NUC, they would run hot enough to make the cpu about 5'C hotter. I added a small ram heatsink of about 1/3x3/4x1/3 with heat tape and it helped immensely. If you have a bit of sinking and some airflow, temps have always been manageable for me to keep them from throttling.