Question Does Gen 4 Nvme need heatsink on Gen 3 mobo?

[scubaslim]

I have a mobo with Gen 3, but am thinking of getting a WD Black SN770. My understanding is most Gen 4s need a heatsink. Is that still the case if it's on a motherboard with Gen 3 since the speeds will be slower?

 

[lvt]

The question should be "does Gen 3 NVME need heatsink?"

Yes they do.

 

[scubaslim]

The question should be "does Gen 3 NVME need heatsink?"

Yes they do.

Do they, though? Everything I've read is that Gen 3 NVMEs don't need a heatsink.

 

[Bob.B]

Do they, though? Everything I've read is that Gen 3 NVMEs don't need a heatsink.

Iffy.... I suspect it might have to do with your usage and the cooling inside the case.

 

[lvt]

Do they, though? Everything I've read is that Gen 3 NVMEs don't need a heatsink.

Try to touch the chips on the NVME with your finger after a couple of files transfers, specially the controller, if you feel that it's hot then use a heat-sink.

 

[Pextaxmx]

this is a really good question. If I may, I would like to rephrase the OP's question.

We all know that PCIE4 drives have much hotter controllers and often heatsinks are necessary for proper operation. Then what if PCIE4 drives run in PCIE3 mode? Do PCIE4 drives lower the controller wattage accordingly and only produce heat only as much as PCIE3 drives? Or the high TDP PCIE4 controllers still draw higher wattage (designed TDP) regardless of which PCIE mode they operate in?
I have been curious about this matter as well for a while.

 

[Lafong]

I have an SN 770 on a gen 3 board.

Temp right now 42.

No heatsink.

I also have an Intel gen 3 SSD on the same board; no heatsink; its temp right now is 40.

I also have a WD Green HDD; 5400 rpm; current temp 32.

I have a simple mid level cooler spinning at 800 and 2 case fans spinning at 500.

What should you do?'

Suit yourself.

Words mean what the user chooses them to mean. You can define "need" any way you like.

You may have little or no control over your general anxiety level about temperatures. I have NO idea about that.

 

[Deleted member 2838871]

While we are talking about m.2 heatsinks... here's something odd.

That's my board... and below the CPU you can see the heatsink covers for the 01, 02 and 03 m.2 drives.

To the right of the battery at the bottom is the 4th m.2 slot... and for some reason it doesn't have one.

All are Gen 4 with the 1st slot being Gen 5.

Nothing I'm worried about I have plenty of airflow and temps consistently show in the low 40's... but strikes me as odd as to why they wouldn't have a heatsink on the 4th slot.

 

[scubaslim]

this is a really good question. If I may, I would like to rephrase the OP's question.

We all know that PCIE4 drives have much hotter controllers and often heatsinks are necessary for proper operation. Then what if PCIE4 drives run in PCIE3 mode? Do PCIE4 drives lower the controller wattage accordingly and only produce heat only as much as PCIE3 drives? Or the high TDP PCIE4 controllers still draw higher wattage (designed TDP) regardless of which PCIE mode they operate in?
I have been curious about this matter as well for a while.

Thank you for rephrasing. Hopefully it'll help get a real answer.

I also reworded a Google search and found this short Reddit thread:

Reddit - Dive into anything

www.reddit.com

 

[Rokinamerica]

The question should be "does Gen 3 NVME need heatsink?"

Yes they do.

Do they, though? Everything I've read is that Gen 3 NVMEs don't need a heatsink.

Iffy.... I suspect it might have to do with your usage and the cooling inside the case.

Running a Sammy 1 TB 980 4th Gen on H470m board. Currently pc has been on for about 45 minutes now, highest temp in HWiNFo is 37c so far this morning. No heat sink.

 

[Eximo]

While we are talking about m.2 heatsinks... here's something odd.

That's my board... and below the CPU you can see the heatsink covers for the 01, 02 and 03 m.2 drives.

To the right of the battery at the bottom is the 4th m.2 slot... and for some reason it doesn't have one.

All are Gen 4 with the 1st slot being Gen 5.

Nothing I'm worried about I have plenty of airflow and temps consistently show in the low 40's... but strikes me as odd as to why they wouldn't have a heatsink on the 4th slot.

For the person that buys an SSD that comes with a heatsink?

My board has an empty M.2 with no heatsink and two with heat sinks. Cost saving measure I imagine.

 

[Deleted member 2838871]

For the person that buys an SSD that comes with a heatsink?

My board has an empty M.2 with no heatsink and two with heat sinks. Cost saving measure I imagine.

I guess. Just seems odd on a $300 board.

 

[Phaaze88]

NVMes have at least 2 sensors for the memory, which most monitoring apps show, and the controller, which are 'blazing fast', figuratively and literally. That part's where Gen 4(and upcoming Gen 5) got their rep for being hot.

The memory is optimal if it's a little warm, like 40-50C.
The controller is what's troublesome to cool, and a user may not know how it's holding up depending on what software they're using.

Motherboards with M.2 slots above the primary x16 slot are not an ideal location for one of these drives, as it's a bit of a deadzone or hotzone for airflow.

 

[kerberos_20]

this is a really good question. If I may, I would like to rephrase the OP's question.

We all know that PCIE4 drives have much hotter controllers and often heatsinks are necessary for proper operation. Then what if PCIE4 drives run in PCIE3 mode? Do PCIE4 drives lower the controller wattage accordingly and only produce heat only as much as PCIE3 drives? Or the high TDP PCIE4 controllers still draw higher wattage (designed TDP) regardless of which PCIE mode they operate in?
I have been curious about this matter as well for a while.

wattage would be similar...the only thing that would slowdown would be ram/slc cache, but on native nand speed they would perform about same in both gen3/gen4 without bottleneck as no nvme drive cant hit even 3.5GB/s without caching

 

[Deleted member 2838871]

Motherboards with M.2 slots above the primary x16 slot are not an ideal location for one of these drives, as it's a bit of a deadzone or hotzone for airflow.

That probably explains why the 3 slots closest to the GPU have heatsinks but the 4th at the bottom of the board does not.

Regardless... my drives run in the 40-50C range which seems pretty normal.