Question High SSD temperature

[busu3]

I recently bought a Samsung 970 evo plus 500Gb SSD. Today while doing some file transfer I noticed that in hwinfo, the temperature of the ssd was 80'C and in ASIC controller it was 105'C. Is this ok or should I return this product?

 

[hotaru.hino]

No, that's not okay since it's likely thermal throttling. However, it's not a fault of the product. It depends on where it's installed and if there's any sources of hot airflow (like the video card) going over it

If there's enough room, you can buy a heatsink for it like https://www.amazon.com/EKWB-EK-M-2-NVMe-Heatsink-Black/dp/B073RHHYCM

 

[busu3]

Its inside a laptop(Predator Helios 300). When I was doing the file transfer, the CPU was at 50'C and GPU was at 40'C. So if I buy a new one, will it also heat like this. I think the current SSD is generating that much heat by itself.

 

[hotaru.hino]

Its inside a laptop(Predator Helios 300). When I was doing the file transfer, the CPU was at 50'C and GPU was at 40'C. So if I buy a new one, will it also heat like this. I think the current SSD is generating that much heat by itself.

A lot of high performance NVMe SSDs will heat up similarly to the 970.

A cursory glance on the internet tells me the laptop should've came with metal heat shields for the NVMe drives, but I'm not sure how effective this is at dissipating heat. If you want to confirm that the SSD is not a problem, open the laptop, keep the underside facing the open air, and either run Crystal Disk Mark or do the same thing you did. It shouldn't hit over 70C in comfortable room temperatures.

 

[busu3]

I ran samsung magician benchmark. It was again at 105'C and 75'C.

 

[Maxxify]

Yep, these drives can run hot in a laptop. If you want something more appropriate I'd suggest the SN550 for example (esp. at 1TB), even though that's technically a downgrade. Your 970 EVO Plus will throttle anyway.

Usually Samsung drives have two sensors, one for the flash/NAND and one for the controller. NAND can handle temperature, at least within the range of consumer use, but the controller will throttle once the composite (aggregate) temperature exceeds 70C. There's then critical throttling at 82-85C. The internal temperature of the controller (ASIC) will be higher than this, as ARM microcontrollers they can technically hit 125C but 105C is up there. Given the performance drop in the critical range, it's worth getting a cheaper drive that will run cooler. The SN550 is one of the most efficient drives on the market, with the exception being SK hynix's Gold P31 if you can find it in your region on sale (sometimes $107 at 1TB) which is even better and also faster.

 

[busu3]

So even if I replace this with a another 970, that will also go to the same temperatures? Also this drive seems to be unaffected by any ambient temperatures(even at 20'c it hits the same temps). I can go for a cheaper drive but I want to be sure that this drive is not faulty and thus throttling. From what I have found online , in PC's this drive's ASIC settles at about 70'C. I understand that better ventilation will cool the drive but better ventilation cooling the drive by 35'C sounds a bit too much to me.

 

[lvt]

80°C on the SSD?

Are you actually located somewhere in Sahara desert?

Maybe your SSD's temp sensor is stuck or malfunctioning, I have a SSD which temperature is fixed at 40°C regardless of whatever I do with it. I know that the temp sensor is bad because when the PC just boots up, even the CPU temp doesn't reach 40°C.

 

[busu3]

I have checked the temperature with crystaldiskinfo, samsung magician and hwinfo64. Hwinfo shows 2 temps one for drive1 and another drive2(I have mentioned earlier). Drive does heat to 80'C and sometmes even more. Currently I am in a room of ambient 23'C and I ran crystaldisk and its again at 79'C(in about 30 secs it will reach 80+). The ASIC controller is worse as it goes straight to 97'C the instant I start the test. How do I know if temp sensors are malfunctioning?

 

[lvt]

I have checked the temperature with crystaldiskinfo, samsung magician and hwinfo64. Hwinfo shows 2 temps one for drive1 and another drive2(I have mentioned earlier). Drive does heat to 80'C and sometmes even more. Currently I am in a room of ambient 23'C and I ran crystaldisk and its again at 79'C(in about 30 secs it will reach 80+). The ASIC controller is worse as it goes straight to 97'C the instant I start the test. How do I know if temp sensors are malfunctioning?

All the monitoring software on Earth will just show you what the SSD sensor reads.

So to check your SSD temp you may want to touch it with your own finger, or use an infrared temp sensor.

To give you some hint, at 50°C it's warm, at 80°C it's burning, you won't be able to touche it for more than a couple of seconds.

80°C is bad for computer parts, that's why your compute will shut down when the CPU reaches that temperature. Only a few components like capacitors or mosfets could withstand such temperature (but not for long).

 

[busu3]

I can't unfortunately touch the SSD because it's in a laptop. However the area above the SSD becomes quite hot it would be about 60 degrees I think. I ran crystal disk benchmark and compared my results online, I found that the first 2 read tests give exceptional scores but after that performance drops to exactly half of what's expected. At the same time I can also notice that the temperature crosses 80'C. My only concern is that if I replace this, the new one will also heat this way? Also my cpu doesn't cross the high 50's and GPU doesn't cross 40's so I don't think SSD heating is because of the cpu or GPU.

 

[lvt]

I can't unfortunately touch the SSD because it's in a laptop. However the area above the SSD becomes quite hot it would be about 60 degrees I think. I ran crystal disk benchmark and compared my results online, I found that the first 2 read tests give exceptional scores but after that performance drops to exactly half of what's expected. At the same time I can also notice that the temperature crosses 80'C. My only concern is that if I replace this, the new one will also heat this way? Also my cpu doesn't cross the high 50's and GPU doesn't cross 40's so I don't think SSD heating is because of the cpu or GPU.

If it's about a standard SSD, just pop up the SSD cover and you can touch it.

 

[busu3]

Ok I tried it, it is indeed hot. I coudlnt even keep my finger there for a second.

 

[lvt]

Ok I tried it, it is indeed hot. I coudlnt even keep my finger there for a second.

So it's not good at all.

For immediate solution, I would think about a laptop docking station with built-in cooling fan, simply leave the SSD compartment open and put your laptop on the docking station.

 

[lvt]

 

[busu3]

There is no ssd compartment in my laptop. I have to remove the entire case. I already have a cooling pad but no avail. So do I replace this ssd with another samsung or even the new one will heat the same way?

 

[lvt]

There is no ssd compartment in my laptop. I have to remove the entire case. I already have a cooling pad but no avail. So do I replace this ssd with another samsung or even the new one will heat the same way?

OK so yous is a M.2 SSD, it seems that you can't put an after market heatsink on it when when it's a laptop.

I did a search on this SSD and surprisingly the overheating issue is quite common with it.

 

[lvt]

Can you take a pic of your laptop with the SSD's location?

Is your laptop's case aluminum or plastic?

 

[busu3]

I just opened it. Its takes some effort to open the back case. U can google Predator helios 300(PH315-51) teardown. There you can see the ssd location. Its on the side there are some vents near it but not directly above the ssd. the case is aluminium.

 

[lvt]

I just opened it. Its takes some effort to open the back case. U can google Predator helios 300(PH315-51) teardown. There you can see the ssd location. Its on the side there are some vents near it but not directly above the ssd. the case is aluminium.

I saw the photo, and I think there might be a solution. You could try to place a piece of thermal pad between the SSD and the aluminum case, the case would act like a giant heatsink.

https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/w~kAAOSwmv1e3dXF/s-l300.jpg

 

[busu3]

But if I remove the sticker it would void warranty.

 

[busu3]

And also there is quite a big gap there so it wont touch the case. If it does then the case will become very hot right

 

[lvt]

But if I remove the sticker it would void warranty.

No need to remove the sticker, just cover as much space on the SSD as possible.

 

[lvt]

And also there is quite a big gap there so it wont touch the case. If it does then the case will become very hot right

You can apply several layers of thermal pad until it touches the case, the thermal pad are removable. It's normal for the case to become warm, many laptops from Apple use the case for heat dissipation.

 

[busu3]

I tried it with one layer and many layers(I use ADWITS 6w/m.K thermal pads). It didn't help still it was heating. I think it didnt work because there was no contact with the inside die and the sticker was too insulating. I couldnt find any exposed dies too.