[SOLVED] How Important Is The Heat Sink For A WD Black M.2 NVMe SSD?

[maskedriderchris]

Partly since it affects my choice of mobo for my next build, and partly in general; how important is the heat sink for a Western Digital Black M.2 NVMe SSD? Can I skate by without it? I plan on a good 4 or 5 fans (or perhaps a water cooling system) for cooling in my case. Is the heat sink important or can I get by without it?

 

[bmockeg]

I wouldn’t worry about it. The new pcie4 drives need them. Just put it in the slot away from your GPU and it will be fine.

 

[Newtonius]

Partly since it affects my choice of mobo for my next build, and partly in general; how important is the heat sink for a Western Digital Black M.2 NVMe SSD? Can I skate by without it? I plan on a good 4 or 5 fans (or perhaps a water cooling system) for cooling in my case. Is the heat sink important or can I get by without it?

I have the wd black 250GB m.2 for my OS and it never goes above 55. Usually those drives remain stable 'till it reaches 80-90c but to get to those temps you need to really be stressing that drive. So you can get by without a heatsink, though if you notice the temps getting too high try moving it to another m.2 slot if possible.

 

[Digital 987]

It should be fine without the heat sink just keep an eye on it.

 

[maskedriderchris]

I wouldn’t worry about it. The new pcie4 drives need them. Just put it in the slot away from your GPU and it will be fine.

So the WD Black isn't one of the PCIe4 drives? What are good examples of those drives, and thank you for the input!

 

[bmockeg]

So the WD Black isn't one of the PCIe4 drives? What are good examples of those drives, and thank you for the input!

No it isn’t. You need a X570 board to use a pcie 4.0 nvme and they aren’t worth the money as you will never notice the performance difference. WD black is fine.

 

[Digital 987]

For instance the Gigabyte AORUS drives are gen 4 NVMe. As you can see they're rather expensive and as mentioned above, only compatible with particular motherboards. You'll be equaly well served by the WD Black or a Samsung 970.

 

[maskedriderchris]

For instance the Gigabyte AORUS drives are gen 4 NVMe. As you can see they're rather expensive and as mentioned above, only compatible with particular motherboards. You'll be equaly well served by the WD Black or a Samsung 970.

Sounds good--the mobo I'm eyeballing is a MSI MPG Z390M, which I do believe will play nicely with that SSD.