Question Can someone recommend the coldest NVMe model?

[GVM2014]

Hi, I would like to ask something: what are the coldest NVMe drives available (preferable of 2 TB). I want to add a second SSD to a gaming laptop, but, unfortunately, gaming laptops run pretty hot and most often there isn't room for a heatsink (and if a airflow is not great, it does not do much good). Actually, I already put a WD SN750 in the laptop (I picked the SN750 because it was on a discount) and, in retrospect, I think I should not have chosen this model. So I am thinking of taking out the WD SN750 to use it in my desktop or as an external ssd in an enclosure, but I still wish to install a second SSD in the laptop.

Unfortunately, the review for SN750 on Tomshardware was insufficiently detailed (yes, I consulted primarily Tomshardware's reviews to make my pick) and misled me to a certain extent: Mr. Webster's review said "The SN750’s heat output is typically acceptable during most daily usage with no airflow, although it’s a bit warm at idle compared to most other SSDs", but he did not specify what means "typically acceptable" in Celsius, nor what means "a bit warm at idle". The review also said "we hammered it with a few hundred GB of data at once, however, and thermal throttling kicked in when the controller hit 80 degrees Celsius", but, again, it did not specify at what speed were those "a few hundred GB" transferred.

In my case, in an Asus TUF A15 (2022) with Ryzen 6800H and RTX 3070, SN750 sit at around 60 Degrees in idle, 70-72 degrees when reading with 300-400 MB/s (copying files to an external SSD) and hits 80 degrees Celsius after writing 100+ GB at 300-400 MB/s. Based on Tomshardware's review and especially on the assertion that "The SN750’s heat output is typically acceptable during most daily usage with no airflow", I genuinely believed that it will thermally throttle at 1000 MB/s or more and I thought I would have no problems, since I would not be using it at such speeds on a regular basis. Obviously, this belief was wrong. But no matter, one additional ssd which I can put to other uses does not hurt. But, obviously, I cannot afford to buy every NVMe model to test it out, so can people here advise which the coldest NVMe drive available?

Based on Tomshardware's reviews which I have read, the coldest seems to be Silicon Power XD80. I quote "At idle, the XD80 ranged from 28 to 33 degrees Celsius, which is fairly cool compared to some of the SSD’s we’ve tested. Under load, the XD80 reached peak temperatures of 69C after writing roughly 500GB of data, which is 6C below its 75C thermal throttling point. " This is probably in a desktop, but it can be assumed will still be cooler than WD SN750 in a laptop. But since I "burnt" myself with SN750, can the members confirm that assessment? If anyone has utilized XD80 in a laptop and can share their opinion, it would be of great help.

Also, can people point out other cold SSDs? Unfortunately, Tomshardware is quite stingy on details when assessing temperatures, which, in my opinion, is a mistake, because few people care for a few seconds more or less when loading Final Fantasy, but temperature regimes are of crucial importance.

 

[Eximo]

Are you planning to benchmark the drive or just use it normally? Should be a drop in the bucket compared to the CPU and GPU output. When gaming you aren't going to be using storage much except for reads.

Unless you are writing vast amounts of data to it constantly it doesn't matter all that much.

Really comes down to the flash controller and the flash chips how much heat is produced. You could try and track down the units with the latest hardware in them, but given how often the components get swapped in any given product line, hard to say what you will actually end up with. Same for the reviews, the model you buy may not have the same chips on it.

 

[GVM2014]

Are you planning to benchmark the drive or just use it normally? Should be a drop in the bucket compared to the CPU and GPU output. When gaming you aren't going to be using storage much except for reads.

Unless you are writing vast amounts of data to it constantly it doesn't matter all that much.

Really comes down to the flash controller and the flash chips how much heat is produced. You could try and track down the units with the latest hardware in them, but given how often the components get swapped in any given product line, hard to say what you will actually end up with. Same for the reviews, the model you buy may not have the same chips on it.

I think you misunderstood what I said.
When I specified "In my case, in an Asus TUF A15 (2022) with Ryzen 6800H and RTX 3070, SN750 sit at around 60 Degrees in idle, 70-72 degrees when reading with 300-400 MB/s (copying files to an external SSD) and hits 80 degrees Celsius after writing 100+ GB at 300-400 MB/s.", it is the WD SN750 drive which hits those temperatures, not the whole system. The CPU and GPU have normal temperatures for a gaming laptop (the CPU for instance like 50-60 for the CPU in idle, 60-70 degree in normal load, 85-88 degrees in full load at 100% - I ran a test with AIDA64).
I specified types of usage in my first post, so I don't understand where the question about benchmarking the drive is coming from, nor the remark about writing vast amounts of data.
60 degrees in idle for an SSD is not good, pretty much every topic on the subject I searched on Google says so. The working temperatures for WD SN750 from its spec sheet are up to 70 degrees, so the drive heating up to 75-78 degrees when downloading a game from Steam at a meager 80-100 MB/s (when compared with the max speeds of NVMe) is NOT normal. The drive hitting 84 degrees when I transfer files from an external SSD at 300 MB/s, a TENTH of its maximum speed, is also not normal.
"

Really comes down to the flash controller and the flash chips how much heat is produced. You could try and track down the units with the latest hardware in them, but given how often the components get swapped in any given product line, hard to say what you will actually end up with. Same for the reviews, the model you buy may not have the same chips on it.

If that is the case, why does Tomshardware write any reviews of SSD at all? If the specs of the same product change and there is no way to differentiate between them, not only are all the reviews pointless, but they can actually mislead the readers into buying the wrong product. It would be better just to explain the situation and do away with reviewing SSDs altogether.

 

[hotaru.hino]

The problem here is any NVMe drive you're going to get is going to have to operate bare, in likely an already warm laptop, and without much airflow. That's going to exacerbate things. Heck, even though my Samsung 970 Evo has something resembling a heat sink, it still got up to 51C (one of the probes hit 62) in a CrystalDiskMark test.

Unless you get a really low-end NVMe SSD, most of them consume the same amount of power, so you'll end up with similar temperatures that you're seeing until you improve the thermal management in the laptop in some way.

 

[USAFRet]

If that is the case, why does Tomshardware write any reviews of SSD at all? If the specs of the same product change and there is no way to differentiate between them, not only are all the reviews pointless, but they can actually mislead the readers into buying the wrong product. It would be better just to explain the situation and do away with reviewing SSDs altogether.

Sometimes, the manufacturer publishes the changes, and outputs a different SKU. Samsung.

Sometimes, they don't. Kingston and ADATA.

 

[GVM2014]

The problem here is any NVMe drive you're going to get is going to have to operate bare, in likely an already warm laptop, and without much airflow. That's going to exacerbate things. Heck, even though my Samsung 970 Evo has something resembling a heat sink, it still got up to 51C (one of the probes hit 62) in a CrystalDiskMark test.

Unless you get a really low-end NVMe SSD, most of them consume the same amount of power, so you'll end up with similar temperatures that you're seeing until you improve the thermal management in the laptop in some way.

With all due respect, are you guys giving bad advice on purpose because I made a veiled criticism at tomshardware for not including sufficient details on SSD temperatures or what is going on?

What you said above is simply not true. Here is an example: I borrowed a Kingston A2000 of 1 TB from a family member. Kingston A2000 is a very good SSD from his experience (and Tomshardware's review agrees). I have personally tested in my laptop and its thermals are MUCH better: it idles at 40 degrees and hits a max 59 degrees in a CrystalMark 32 GB test (WD SN 750 idles around 60 as I said and hit 79 degrees in he same test). I would buy a Kingston A2000, but it has gone completely out of stock at all national vendor, and even on big sellers like Amazon can't be found anymore (at least not the 1 TB model).

I am even more baffled since you've said yourself your Samsung 970 EVO got up to 51 C (and 62 C) in a CrystalDiskMark test. Since I've made it clear what kind of temperatures WD SN750 experiences (at idle it is hotter than your 970 in a benchmark test and your SSD is at least 20 degrees cooler in load), how on Earth can someone tell with a straight face that "I'll end up with similar temperatures"? I wish be appreciative of people trying to help (if that is the case), but am I being mocked?

Speaking which, tomshardware's zero had absolutely nothing to say about Samsung 970 EVO Plus temperatures, despite using 5 pages on it, for the 500 GB, 1 TB and 2 TB models.

PS: I would add that Tomshardware's own reviews contradict your statement that "most of them consume the same amount of power, so you'll end up with similar temperatures". The test performed by Mr. Webster indicate otherwise, they just lack sufficient details. I already pointed out Silicon Power XD 80. Here are some others:

Crucial P5 Plus - 55 at idle, 78-81 at heavy load
Patriot P400 - idle at mid-to-high 50, 75 at heavy load
Adata Legend - idle at 34, 78-80 in heavy load
Kingston KC3000 - idle at 48, 78 in heavy load (without airflow)
Adata Gammix S70 - idle temp is not specified, 69-71 in heavy load
WD SN570 - idle temp not mentioned, 61 degrees in heavy load
WD SN770 - idle temp 52, 80 degrees in heavy load
Corsair MP600GS - idle 40, heavy load 80
Seagate Firecuda 520 - idle not mentioned, heavy load 79-85
Kingston Fury Renegade - 27 at idle, 75 in heavy load
Samsung 980 - idle not mentioned, mid-70 in heavy load
Samsung 980 Pro - idle not mentioned, 69-88 in heavy load
Gigabyte Aorus - 40 degrees at idle, 78 in heavy load
WD SN850X - idle 48, 78-85 in heavy load
WD SN700 - idle not mentioned, 81-85 in heavy load
Patriot VP4300 - 62 at idle, 90 degrees in heavy load
Silicon Power XD80 - 32 at idle, 69 in heavy load

Crucial P3, Silicon Power A80, Corsair MP600 XT and Samsung 970 temp are not specified at all. Also I think I've seen an SSD with even more crazier temps than Patriot VP4300, but I can't remember now which.

 

[hotaru.hino]

As much as I want to reply with some long winded post, I feel like that'll ust waste our time.

Besides, you already found an SSD that apparently meets your requirements, so what's the point of even talking about this further?

If you want people to do better on their reviews, why don't you start your own thing? That's what a lot of people have done.

EDIT: If you want something maybe remotely helpful, instead of mucking around here, why don't you hit up ASUS's forums or some subreddit for their laptops? The chances of any one of us having the model of laptop you have is really slim, so there's little in the way of offering any real experience.

You may as well be asking how to make authentic Italian pizza from people in New Zealand.

 

[GVM2014]

Besides, you already found an SSD that apparently meets your requirements, so what's the point of even talking about this further?




You may as well be asking how to make authentic Italian pizza from people in New Zealand.

Things like exploring all options?

As much as I want to reply with some long winded post, I feel like that'll ust waste our time.

Nobody forces you to reply. I was in doubt only because you gave advice which I knew from experience that is not true and was contradicted in your very own post. If what you said about your Samsung 970 Evo is correct, that would be a second option.
When you said "Unless you get a really low-end NVMe SSD, most of them consume the same amount of power, so you'll end up with similar temperatures that you're seeing until you improve the thermal management in the laptop in some way" I found it a, let's say, bizarre statement, especially in the light of your other statement that "it still got up to 51C (one of the probes hit 62) in a CrystalDiskMark test."
If your Samsung 970 you referred to was from a laptop, that is a thermal regime even better than Silicon Power XD80. So was the Samsung 970 in a laptop?

If you want people to do better on their reviews, why don't you start your own thing? That's what a lot of people have done.

Replying to remarks about how reviews could be improved with something like "do it yourself" is not constructive.

EDIT: If you want something maybe remotely helpful, instead of mucking around here, why don't you hit up ASUS's forums or some subreddit for their laptops? The chances of any one of us having the model of laptop you have is really slim, so there's little in the way of offering any real experience.

That is an absurd remark. It is absolutely not necessary for any one of you to have that model of laptop (and frankly, some might, because Asus TUF A15 is a popular brand), you can easily extrapolate from the behavior in other laptops or even in desktops if more details are provided.
For instance, here are the kind of things which would be useful to know but have never been included in reviews: how much do specific SSDs throttles, because it is a major difference if the speed drops to 1000 MB/s, 500 MB/s or to 100 MB/s. The reviews mention (sometimes) the amount of written data after which thermal throttle starts, but they do not specify how much is this influenced by speed. For instance, do specific SSD hit peak temperatures only when they transfer data at speeds in the GB range or they do so at much lower speeds? Again, is a massive difference if a SSD gets hot only when it writes with, say, 1500 MB/s or does so at 200 MB/s as well. A reason why is because speeds above 1000 MB/s don't have much practical use, but speeds below that could be used much frequently if one has a 2.5, 5 or 10 Gbps Ethernet connection (they have started to be implemented in some countries) or if he uses external SSDs frequently (which would transfer data at 300-400 MB/s for USB Type A and 700-800 MB/s for Type C and Thunderbolt).
Again, there is absolutely no need for someone to have an Asus TUF A15 to provide useful feedback. If an SSD runs hot in a desktop, it would certainly be hot in a laptop as well.

And, btw, I remembered which SSD I saw with a crazy thermal regime. It was Crucial P5 (not plus): 50 in idle, but 100-103 in heavy load (as reported by SMART - per Tomshardware review).

 

[kerberos_20]

so the drive heating up to 75-78 degrees when downloading a game from Steam at a meager 80-100 MB/s (when compared with the max speeds of NVMe) is NOT normal

do you have heatsink? without heatsink it would be throttling, any nvme without heatsink would be throttling especialy during writing

 

[GVM2014]

do you have heatsink? without heatsink it would be throttling, any nvme without heatsink would be throttling especialy during writing

No, I did not buy one because I was not sure it would fit. I will analyze if I can install one. As to your comment, that "without headsink would throttle", I agree, but I wish to find out which SSD would throttle less, hence why I open this thread, because I can't figure this out from reviews, and for some SSDs there is no information about temperatures. For instance, I expected that SN 750 would throttle, but what I did not expect was for SN750 to throttle even at relatively low speeds (for an NVMe): I genuinely believed I would have needed to get much closer to 3000 MB/s in order for throttling to appear. Tomshardware for instance specifies that, after the cache is exhausted, SN750 has an average speed of 1.4 GB/s: this is the speed I thought it would push the drive to peak temperatures, not 300 MB/s.
But speaking of which, what is better: an SSD with an already installed heatsink like Gigabyte Aorus, Silicon Power XD 80, Corsair MP600, etc, the heatsink provided by a motherboard or a third party heatsink?

Here is an updated list of SSDs and their temperatures:

Crucial P5 Plus - 55 at idle, 78-81 at heavy load
Patriot P400 - idle at mid-to-high 50, 75 at heavy load
Adata Legend - idle at 34, 78-80 in heavy load
Kingston KC3000 - idle at 48, 78 in heavy load (without airflow)
Adata Gammix S70 - idle temp is not specified, 69-71 in heavy load
WD SN570 - idle temp not mentioned, 61 degrees in heavy load
WD SN770 - idle temp 52, 80 degrees in heavy load
Corsair MP600GS - idle 40, heavy load 80
Seagate Firecuda 520 - idle not mentioned, heavy load 79-85
Kingston Fury Renegade - 27 at idle, 75 in heavy load
Samsung 980 - idle not mentioned, mid-70 in heavy load
Samsung 980 Pro - idle not mentioned, 69-88 in heavy load
Gigabyte Aorus - 40 degrees at idle, 78 in heavy load
WD SN850X - idle 48, 78-85 in heavy load
WD SN700 - idle not mentioned, 81-85 in heavy load
Patriot VP4300 - 62 at idle, 90 degrees in heavy load
Silicon Power XD80 - 32 at idle, 69 in heavy load
Intel 670P - 30 at idle, 70 in heavy load
Patriot P300 - idle not mentioned, 68 in heavy load
Kingston NV2 - The drive idled at 56C by IR and 37C in SMART, a wide deviation between measurements, then hit 86C and 70C, respectively, after roughly 500GB of sustained writes).
Silicon Power A60 - idle not mentioned, 67 in heavy load
Adata Swordfish - idle not mentioned, 77 in heavy load

From this list, the best temperatures are registered for Silicon Power XD80, WD SN570, Patriot P300 and Intel 670P. Any observation for these? For instance, can anyone specify the idle temps of Patriot P300 and WD SN570, which I was not able to find out?

I have not found temperature information for Crucial P3, Silicon Power A80, Samsung 970, Adata Gammix S11 Pro, Adata legend 800, Adata Legend 840, Adata Legend 850, Adata SX 8200 Pro, Verbatim Vi3000, Emtec 2 TB X400, Mushkin Tempest, Mushkin Vortex. If anyone could provide feedback on these, it would be useful.

I left out the SSDs with a tall heatsink who would not fit in a laptop like Patriot VPN110 or Corsair MP600 Pro.

The fact that people don't have the same laptop, as Hotaru pointed out, does not matter, because I still want to put an additional SSD in that laptop and it is reasonable to assume that the one which heats less in a desktop will also heat less in a laptop. I'm not looking for a "perfect" heating solution (which is impossible in a gaming laptop), but for the one which would have the least impact.

 

[kerberos_20]

No, I did not buy one because I was not sure it would fit. I will analyze if I can install one. As to your comment, that "without headsink would throttle", I agree, but I wish to find out which SSD would throttle less, hence why I open this thread, because I can't figure this out from reviews, and for some SSDs there is no information about temperatures. For instance, I expected that SN 750 would throttle, but what I did not expect was for SN750 to throttle even at relatively low speeds (for an NVMe): I genuinely believed I would have needed to get much closer to 3000 MB/s in order for throttling to appear. Tomshardware for instance specifies that, after the cache is exhausted, SN750 has an average speed of 1.4 GB/s: this is the speed I thought it would push the drive to peak temperatures, not 300 MB/s.
But speaking of which, what is better: an SSD with an already installed heatsink like Gigabyte Aorus, Silicon Power XD 80, Corsair MP600, etc, the heatsink provided by a motherboard or a third party heatsink?

Here is an updated list of SSDs and their temperatures:

Crucial P5 Plus - 55 at idle, 78-81 at heavy load
Patriot P400 - idle at mid-to-high 50, 75 at heavy load
Adata Legend - idle at 34, 78-80 in heavy load
Kingston KC3000 - idle at 48, 78 in heavy load (without airflow)
Adata Gammix S70 - idle temp is not specified, 69-71 in heavy load
WD SN570 - idle temp not mentioned, 61 degrees in heavy load
WD SN770 - idle temp 52, 80 degrees in heavy load
Corsair MP600GS - idle 40, heavy load 80
Seagate Firecuda 520 - idle not mentioned, heavy load 79-85
Kingston Fury Renegade - 27 at idle, 75 in heavy load
Samsung 980 - idle not mentioned, mid-70 in heavy load
Samsung 980 Pro - idle not mentioned, 69-88 in heavy load
Gigabyte Aorus - 40 degrees at idle, 78 in heavy load
WD SN850X - idle 48, 78-85 in heavy load
WD SN700 - idle not mentioned, 81-85 in heavy load
Patriot VP4300 - 62 at idle, 90 degrees in heavy load
Silicon Power XD80 - 32 at idle, 69 in heavy load
Intel 670P - 30 at idle, 70 in heavy load
Patriot P300 - idle not mentioned, 68 in heavy load
Kingston NV2 - The drive idled at 56C by IR and 37C in SMART, a wide deviation between measurements, then hit 86C and 70C, respectively, after roughly 500GB of sustained writes).
Silicon Power A60 - idle not mentioned, 67 in heavy load
Adata Swordfish - idle not mentioned, 77 in heavy load

From this list, the best temperatures are registered for Silicon Power XD80, WD SN570, Patriot P300 and Intel 670P. Any observation for these? For instance, can anyone specify the idle temps of Patriot P300 and WD SN570, which I was not able to find out?

I have not found temperature information for Crucial P3, Silicon Power A80, Samsung 970, Adata Gammix S11 Pro, Adata legend 800, Adata Legend 840, Adata Legend 850, Adata SX 8200 Pro, Verbatim Vi3000, Emtec 2 TB X400, Mushkin Tempest, Mushkin Vortex. If anyone could provide feedback on these, it would be useful.

I left out the SSDs with a tall heatsink who would not fit in a laptop like Patriot VPN110 or Corsair MP600 Pro.

The fact that people don't have the same laptop, as Hotaru pointed out, does not matter, because I still want to put an additional SSD in that laptop and it is reasonable to assume that the one which heats less in a desktop will also heat less in a laptop. I'm not looking for a "perfect" heating solution (which is impossible in a gaming laptop), but for the one which would have the least impact.

slower drive is, lower temperature it gets
better nand chips needs better controller, which is basicly CPU, as its processing things which will heat more than nand

examples from your list:
Silicon Power XD80 has heatsink
patriot p300 has bandwith of 500MB/s during nand writing
WD SN570 has bandwith of 600MB/s
WD SN750 has bandwith of 1600MB/s

 

[GVM2014]

slower drive is, lower temperature it gets
better nand chips needs better controller, which is basicly CPU, as its processing things which will heat more than nand

examples from your list:
Silicon Power XD80 has heatsink
patriot p300 has bandwith of 500MB/s during nand writing
WD SN570 has bandwith of 600MB/s
WD SN750 has bandwith of 1600MB/s

In principle, I agree, but does this happen regardless of the actual speed at which the drive transfers files? I was aware that SN750 has a bandwidth of 1600 MB/s (1400 for 2 TB models), but I thought it would hit peak temperatures only at that speed or close enough. I was shocked to see it hitting peak temperatures while transferring some files from an external SSD at USB 3.0 speeds.
Does this mean that a SN570 would heat less while writing at 300 MB/s than an SN 750 writing also at 300 MB/s, simply because it has less bandwidth?
It's USB 3.0 type speeds which interest me, in particular, because there isn't really a scenario where I would use speeds higher than 500 MB/s; but I would use speeds up to between 200 and 500 MB/s frequently, with my external SSDs and also because I plan to upgrade to a 2500 Mbps ethernet soon. In light of this kind of usage, I thought SN 750 would be ok, because I believed the speed threshold for hitting peak temperatures would be much higher, closer to its bandwidth.

BTW, do you know the idle temp for SN570 and Patriot P300?

 

[kerberos_20]

BTW, do you know the idle temp for SN570 and Patriot P300?

i dont think you can get some reliable info about that, if you go to power settings and enable pcie link state to maximum power savings, then you should get lower heat at idle then with moderate/off

Remove 'Link State Power Management' in Power Options in Windows 10

How to Add or Remove 'Link State Power Management' from Power Options in Windows 10

www.tenforums.com

 

[GVM2014]

i dont think you can get some reliable info about that, if you go to power settings and enable pcie link state to maximum power savings, then you should get lower heat at idle then with moderate/off

Remove 'Link State Power Management' in Power Options in Windows 10

How to Add or Remove 'Link State Power Management' from Power Options in Windows 10

www.tenforums.com

I meant temp indicated by SMART or programs like CrystalDiskInfo/HDSentinel or others when having the PC open, but without doing any significant writing on the drive, not by intentionally reducing power consumption (you know, like those stated in the reviews for some other drives).
And I was asking the other members who might have them (or have seen the idle temps in other reviews) because I don't have those drives and, obviously, I cannot afford to buy them just to check their temperatures.

PS: Kingston A2000 also has a bandwidth during Nand writing of only 500 MB/s, so I assume that is why it is significantly colder than SN 750, right?
From your feedback, I would conclude that the lower a bandwidth, the colder the SSD is, regardless of whether it makes full use of that bandwidth, is that correct?

 

[kerberos_20]

I meant temp indicated by SMART or programs like CrystalDiskInfo/HDSentinel or others when having the PC open, but without doing any significant writing on the drive, not by intentionally reducing power consumption (you know, like those stated in the reviews for some other drives).
And I was asking the other members who might have them (or have seen the idle temps in other reviews) because I don't have those drives and, obviously, I cannot afford to buy them just to check their temperatures.

that also depends on your ambient temperature, if you have 50C ambient in laptop than your idle would be higher than with ~20C ambient open air desktop

 

[GVM2014]

that also depends on your ambient temperature, if you have 50C ambient in laptop than your idle would be higher than with ~20C ambient open air desktop

Yes, but some conclusions could still be drawn from inferences and comparisons.
For instance, I know that the ambient temperature in that laptop is not that hot to push an idle SSD to 60 degrees by itself, because a Kingston A2000 was idling at around 40 degrees (20 degrees lower) and peaking at around 60 degrees. The laptop's native SSD also stays at idle at around 45-48 degrees, albeit it gets hotter in heavy load (up to 75-78 degrees).
So, while a NVMe in a laptop does indeed get hot, I think it is plainly obvious than I can do better than with the SN 750, in whose case I obviously misjudged how fast and how easy would hit peak temperatures.
Now what remains is to select the SSD with the lowest temps from the list above (those are almost all NVMe SSD available to me and at a reasonable price - Sabrent is not available in my country, so I did not include it).
If anyone could provide info about the SSD for whom I was not able to find information on temperatures, it would be great.
I am particularly interested in Samsung 970, Adata Gammix S11 Pro, Adata legend 800, especially the S11 pro, who has a thermal shield.

 

[kerberos_20]

samsung 970 throttles easily without heatsink, got two of them evo and evo plus

drives at idle, aspm is off, ambient 23C

 

[USAFRet]

samsung 970 throttles easily without heatsink, got two of them evo and evo plus

How does that chart show throttling?

 

[GVM2014]

samsung 970 throttles easily without heatsink, got two of them evo and evo plus

drives at idle, aspm is off, ambient 23C

The chart shows 36-38 at idle, which is significantly lower than the reported idle temperatures for WD SN750 and most PCI 4.0 drives.
And, as USAFret said, what throttling are you talking about?

And, BTW, I wish to apologize if I sounded irritated in my first posts, but I was somehow troubled by some of the replies, which implied that 60 degrees at idle is either not a problem, or inevitable; this in the context when my search on Google for some feedback about temperature ranges produced a list of links longer than a telephone book asserting that 60 degrees at idle is cause for concern.

PS: Does SSD capacity has an impact on temperatures?

 

[kerberos_20]

How does that chart show throttling?

it doesnt, i did mention that they throttle without heatsink

And, as USAFret said, what throttling are you talking about?

when writing on drive it jumps quickly to 80C and throttles,as i had it without heatsink at start... i do have heatsinks now so they dont throttle, 40GB file copy from one drive to another resulted in temperature slowly rising up (30sec file copy)

odd that internal writes jumped by almost 200GB, SLC caching at its finest

 

[GVM2014]

One more thing:

1. Does storage capacity influences an SSD temperatures?

2. I've heard that SSDs with DRAM cache are colder than those without, is that correct?

 

[Maxxify]

I'll tackle this briefly.

First, Sean is on our discord server (NewMaxx) and can probably answer questions about specific drives and reviews. He has thermal-tested dozens if not 100s of drives. The SN750 is 8-channel with older flash and DRAM, so it runs hotter even with its small cache because the TLC speed is high (although if they change the flash this will change depending on capacity, but not at 2TB). In any case, modern DRAM-less 4-channel drives with the newest flash are the most efficient and work fine in a Gen3 slot (and are even more efficient). If you need sustained write performance, there are a few that can fit that bill. But basically this is E21T/SM2269XT/MAP1602 + 176L+ 3D NAND.

You can tell the SSD's warning temps with SMART (smartmontools/smartctl). Usually it should be below 80C in all conditions, preferably under 75C, 70C better yet, but these values are not reliable or the same for every drive based on how things are measured. Sean used SMART and his own IR to show this difference. Idle should be 50C or lower usually but up to 55C is not ridiculous in hot systems. For the record I help maintain a SSD database of my own, the number one subreddit and discord on the subject, and help with the TPU SSD database as well, plus I regularly work with reviewers (beyond Sean), so I can safely say there's nothing misleading here.

The Crucial P5 did run hot, but Crucial quietly updated its flash later IIRC. But its controller and that of the P5 Plus run hot due to the M3 management cores. Temperature scales with other components but less so.

Performance/speed of the flash is related to its generation, SLC cache scheme, etc, but you can find the steady state temperature which varies based on these values. The SN570 being DRAM-less, 4-channel, and having newer flash (112L) does mean it'll generally be more efficient and produce less heat, though. Higher capacity drives do or can pull more power and you need more capacity for performance (interleaving).

If you can make brief questions I will answer them, I only skimmed your posts. FYI, there are special low-profile heatsinks for laptops, look up icepc copper on Amazon. Alternatively or additionally thermal padding can help depending on laptop material.

 

[GVM2014]

I'll tackle this briefly.

First, Sean is on our discord server (NewMaxx) and can probably answer questions about specific drives and reviews. He has thermal-tested dozens if not 100s of drives. The SN750 is 8-channel with older flash and DRAM, so it runs hotter even with its small cache because the TLC speed is high (although if they change the flash this will change depending on capacity, but not at 2TB). In any case, modern DRAM-less 4-channel drives with the newest flash are the most efficient and work fine in a Gen3 slot (and are even more efficient). If you need sustained write performance, there are a few that can fit that bill. But basically this is E21T/SM2269XT/MAP1602 + 176L+ 3D NAND.

You can tell the SSD's warning temps with SMART (smartmontools/smartctl). Usually it should be below 80C in all conditions, preferably under 75C, 70C better yet, but these values are not reliable or the same for every drive based on how things are measured. Sean used SMART and his own IR to show this difference. Idle should be 50C or lower usually but up to 55C is not ridiculous in hot systems. For the record I help maintain a SSD database of my own, the number one subreddit and discord on the subject, and help with the TPU SSD database as well, plus I regularly work with reviewers (beyond Sean), so I can safely say there's nothing misleading here.

The Crucial P5 did run hot, but Crucial quietly updated its flash later IIRC. But its controller and that of the P5 Plus run hot due to the M3 management cores. Temperature scales with other components but less so.

Performance/speed of the flash is related to its generation, SLC cache scheme, etc, but you can find the steady state temperature which varies based on these values. The SN570 being DRAM-less, 4-channel, and having newer flash (112L) does mean it'll generally be more efficient and produce less heat, though. Higher capacity drives do or can pull more power and you need more capacity for performance (interleaving).

If you can make brief questions I will answer them, I only skimmed your posts. FYI, there are special low-profile heatsinks for laptops, look up icepc copper on Amazon. Alternatively or additionally thermal padding can help depending on laptop material.

One brief question: does SSD capacity have an effect on temperatures? I want to know whether I should go for a 1 TB or a 2 TB model, depending on that.
As I specified in my first post, I've tested a different model (Kingston A2000), which I borrowed from someone, to see if the drive is the culprit and whether lower temperatures were possible in that type of laptop - and Kingston A2000 stayed significantly cooler (40-45 in idle, 60-65 in intensive load). I was wondering whether the fact that A2000 I tested was a 1 TB model was a factor in this.

If you need sustained write performance, there are a few that can fit that bill. But basically this is E21T/SM2269XT/MAP1602 + 176L+ 3D NAND.

Yes, I need sustained write performance, but not very high. That is why I misinterpreted the information Sean has provided in his review: because SN750 2TB has an average write speed of 1400 MB/s after cache, I assumed, when Sean said that it thermally throttled after several hundred of GB written, that it happened at the average speed of 1400 MB/s - while I need sustained write performance only in the USB 3.0 range, of maximum 400-500 MB/s.

You can tell the SSD's warning temps with SMART (smartmontools/smartctl). Usually it should be below 80C in all conditions, preferably under 75C, 70C better yet, but these values are not reliable or the same for every drive based on how things are measured. Sean used SMART and his own IR to show this difference. Idle should be 50C or lower usually but up to 55C is not ridiculous in hot systems.

I agree, but mine stood at 60 and hit 80 even in lighter writing loads. Hence, why I became determined to replace it, since I've seen from the reviews that SN750 is one of the hottest SSDs even in ideal conditions.

The SN570 being DRAM-less, 4-channel, and having newer flash (112L) does mean it'll generally be more efficient and produce less heat, though.

Well, Sean's reviews indicated a maximum temp of 61 degrees for SN570 in a desktop and I've seen similar results in other reviewing tests from youtube. Does your own information contradicts this data?
Also, checking the types of controller you mentioned above brought out Solidigm P41 plus. I've read Shane's review and it says that the 2 TB version "measured it at 34C when idle. After writing 500GB of data, the drive peaked in the mid-60Cs". A 400 MB/s sustained write performance, after filling out a 270 GB of cache, is good enough for me in this regard. Therefore, Shane says "we would absolutely recommend the P41 Plus for laptop use". Would you agree with that assessment?
If higher capacity drives pull more power and therefore get more hot, I am leaning between a 1 TB SN570 and a 2 TB Solidigm P41 Plus (because 1 TB Solidigm P41 Plus has only 250 MB/s speed after cache, which is a bit slow). If not, I could go for a 2 TB SN570 or Solidigm.
There is also Silicon Power XD80, but I've heard that Silicon Power downgraded some models later, so they won't perform as well as the initial reviews indicate, which makes me hesitate about them

 

[thestryker]

There is no simple way to tell what sort of temperatures you're going to see in a given device (without testing it yourself). It's one of the many downsides to M.2 SSDs because of all the variables that can change heat output (power consumption, NAND type, amount of NAND, double versus single sided, number of memory channels, controller type etc etc it goes on and on).

If you're looking for something with solid performance for laptops just get a SK Hynix P31 as I doubt you'll find anything that can touch it on performance vs power consumption. You'll be limited to PCIe 3.0 speeds, but in a laptop that very much shouldn't be a problem.

 

[GVM2014]

There is no simple way to tell what sort of temperatures you're going to see in a given device (without testing it yourself). It's one of the many downsides to M.2 SSDs because of all the variables that can change heat output (power consumption, NAND type, amount of NAND, double versus single sided, number of memory channels, controller type etc etc it goes on and on).

I assumed that the coldest in a desktop environment is also to be the coldest in a laptop (albeit hotter in absolute terms - like if it is 35 degrees at idle in a laptop, then it could be like 45 degrees in a laptop).
Taking SN750 as a reference point, this was described in Sean's review as "warmer than average" in idle, which probably means at least 50 degrees. Since it stays at 60 in my laptop, this would mean I can expect max 10 degrees more from an SSD in ideal environment.
Is that kind of inference wrong?

If you're looking for something with solid performance for laptops just get a SK Hynix P31 as I doubt you'll find anything that can touch it on performance vs power consumption. You'll be limited to PCIe 3.0 speeds, but in a laptop that very much shouldn't be a problem.

Hynix P31 is not available at the vendor in my country, and I don't want to buy it from international sellers because both the delivery and the RMA (if something goes wrong) is slow and cumbersome. I looked on Amazon and it takes at lest 3 weeks for delivery (and probably just as long to return it if it does not work out), while from a national vendor I can get one in max 2-3 days.
Also, Sean's report that "After writing roughly 400GB of data to the SSD, write performance started to gracefully degrade after surpassing the thermal throttle point (83-84C according to the SSD’s S.M.A.R.T. data)" does not sound well, in light of the fact that there are models which did not throttle at all in tests. Besides, Sean points out that "After the workload filled the SLC cache at a rate of 3.2 GBps, post-cache write speeds degraded to 1.4 GBps for the remainder of the test." After the experience with SN750, I would stay away from SSDs with very high post-cache speeds.
And yes, you are right, being limited to PCIe 3.0 speeds does not matter.