Hi guys,
I think my Samsung 970 Pro NVMe drive is running a bit too hot (note: speaking about drive temps I mean the "Drive Temperature 2" as reported by HWInfo64 which is widely assumed to be the controller temperature) and I'd like to ask for some advice.
The main components is question: ROG Strix Helios case, ROG Maximus Hero XI WiFi mobo and the aforementioned NVMe drive. I also tried to use the EKWB M.2 heatsink, but my results show that the Asus' default heatsink that was included with the mobo performs slightly better under heavy loads, otherwise there's barely any difference:
Now you may say "it doesn't hit temps above 70°C / 158°F , what's the problem?". Well, from what I read 70 deg is where thermal throttling starts and most folks on the Internet report temps that are about 10°C below mine, so I'm kinda uncomfortable with the fact my drive sits less than 10 degrees C below the thermal throttling. I also use Rog RAM Cache III with 4GB of RAM so my disk activity is at 0% most of the time (I use a desktop widget to keep an eye on it). In other words: I'd like to try to reduce those temps.
My guess is the problem is a result of insufficient airflow because the DIMMs kinda block the air coming from the front intake fans, here's an illustration:
I also tried to move the drive into the bottom M.2 slot, however this proved to be a bad idea since in that case it sits directly underneath a fat GPU heatpipe so the temps were even worse.
I'm not aware that overclock can affect M.2 temps, but for the sake of completeness: my i9 9900KF runs at 5.1 Ghz all-core @ 1.35 V and my G. Skill F4-3600C16D-32GTRG RAM is overvolted to 1.45V (the only way I could get it stable at timings loaded from a preset: 13-14-14-350). CPU, DIMM, VRM and other temps are absolutely fine, no issues observed here.
Since the side panel is 100% tempered glass I cannot install an additional intake fan here to improve the airflow. I was thinking about some M.2 active cooler, but the conclusion from my web research was that M.2 active coolers are either useless or extremely loud with the small fans going to 7000 RPM and beyond. Any ideas what else I can do in this particular setup? Thanks.
I think my Samsung 970 Pro NVMe drive is running a bit too hot (note: speaking about drive temps I mean the "Drive Temperature 2" as reported by HWInfo64 which is widely assumed to be the controller temperature) and I'd like to ask for some advice.
The main components is question: ROG Strix Helios case, ROG Maximus Hero XI WiFi mobo and the aforementioned NVMe drive. I also tried to use the EKWB M.2 heatsink, but my results show that the Asus' default heatsink that was included with the mobo performs slightly better under heavy loads, otherwise there's barely any difference:
Activity | Asus heatsink | EKWB heatsink |
Desktop idle | 49 °C / 120 °F | 50 °C / 122 °F |
Browsing, light office work | 51-55 °C / 124-131 °F | 51-55 °C / 124-131 °F |
Gaming, working with Android Studio | 59-63 °C / 138-145 °F | 60-63 °C / 140-145 °F |
Bench (UserBenchmark, PassMark, CrystalDiskMark) | 68-69 °C / 154-156 °F | 73-74 °C / 163-165 °F |
Now you may say "it doesn't hit temps above 70°C / 158°F , what's the problem?". Well, from what I read 70 deg is where thermal throttling starts and most folks on the Internet report temps that are about 10°C below mine, so I'm kinda uncomfortable with the fact my drive sits less than 10 degrees C below the thermal throttling. I also use Rog RAM Cache III with 4GB of RAM so my disk activity is at 0% most of the time (I use a desktop widget to keep an eye on it). In other words: I'd like to try to reduce those temps.
My guess is the problem is a result of insufficient airflow because the DIMMs kinda block the air coming from the front intake fans, here's an illustration:
I also tried to move the drive into the bottom M.2 slot, however this proved to be a bad idea since in that case it sits directly underneath a fat GPU heatpipe so the temps were even worse.
I'm not aware that overclock can affect M.2 temps, but for the sake of completeness: my i9 9900KF runs at 5.1 Ghz all-core @ 1.35 V and my G. Skill F4-3600C16D-32GTRG RAM is overvolted to 1.45V (the only way I could get it stable at timings loaded from a preset: 13-14-14-350). CPU, DIMM, VRM and other temps are absolutely fine, no issues observed here.
Since the side panel is 100% tempered glass I cannot install an additional intake fan here to improve the airflow. I was thinking about some M.2 active cooler, but the conclusion from my web research was that M.2 active coolers are either useless or extremely loud with the small fans going to 7000 RPM and beyond. Any ideas what else I can do in this particular setup? Thanks.