Question Install Heatsink on M.2 SSD if Under Graphics Card?

Boris_yo

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Feb 14, 2010
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Hi. I have B450 Aurous Elite from Gigabyte motherboard that had 1 heatsink plate. On the bottom slot I have 250GB Samsung EVO 970 Plus M.2 installed that contains Windows 10 OS. I did not install heatsink plate on it.

The top-most M.2 slot I decided to leave empty because GeForce RTX 2060 is over it and I did not want to have it installed there due to more heat that video card creates. I bought M.2 WD SN570 1GB and want to install it in that slot and wonder if I should stick heatsink plate on it because it will be under video card. The purpose of M.2 drive is storage with few copy/paste activities and occasional gaming.

I learned that is has 12GB SLC cache which restricts it to around 700MB write speed. Assuming I will need to move 50GB file it might get even hotter sitting under video card? It is what I read here: https://www.techoverwrite.com/m-2-slot-under-gpu/

Should I better install heatsink plate on main OS M.2 drive? I remember reading one review where person received their M.2 with a very small detached part from PCB and asking if drive will still work. I also remember seeing someone sticking heatsink on PCB side itself. I thought it could result in a scenario with some small part detaching too.

Thanks
 
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Boris_yo

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Sure. You get 2x more bandwidth in upper M.2 slot.

In my use case will I feel the difference to warrant the change? I do not want to have potential issues down the road due to change of storage media. I have encrypted drive by VeraCrypt with password and PIN on boot. I do not want to lose data because of that change. Hardware storage devices have these paths in boot sector so I am not sure.
 
The need for heatsinks and airflow on m.2 drives is only there if the m.2 is pounded with long sequential activity.
Even then, any overheating results in a temporarily slow down of activity.
You would never notice any of this.
I would not bother with such a heat sink,
 
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