Question Is a good idea to purchase a Samsung Evo 870 4tb nowadays with M.2 here?

[psaez84]

Hi

Some time ago, M2 units were a bad option because they were very warm and increased temperature inside the box, harming nearby components. Aso that high temperature decreased their performance and life. Now I can read that some units come with heatsink, and I don't know if that temperature issue has been solved with that.

I have seen a samsung evo 870 4tb ssd unit for 200 euros, and I'm considering purchasing it... but it is not an M2 unit, so I'm not sure if this is a correct decission or I'll spend 200 euros in an obsolete component.

The main purpose will be gamming and storage.

What do you think?

 

[Eximo]

Not sure that has ever been strictly true.

Would depend on the motherboard whether you want an M.2 with or without a heatsink depending on if the motherboard provides one. Those that did provide one in the early days are probably still around. Running a naked M.2 drive with no airflow to the motherboard would be cause for some concern.

M.2 drive's controllers can get hot, but that simply means they will self throttle. Not necessarily have shorter life spans. The NAND flash actually operates better when it is warm.

Nothing wrong with a SATA 4 TB SSD if you are just using it for storage or using it with a system that lacks additional M.2 slots. If this was some main drive that you are going to do a lot of transfers to and from, pretty much any M.2 SSD would be faster and have the same durability. If you crack open most SATA SSDs these days, you will find a drive roughly the same size as an M.2 drive (though that 4TB might be a bit larger depending on the flash density)

Pretty much all M.2 drives are passively cooled, or there is active cooling on motherboard chipset. So it doesn't take much to keep them happy. I will add that the newer PCIe 4.0 and 5.0 NVMe drives perform about the same as a PCIe 3.0 drive once they get too warm. The idea is that you still benefit from those short bursts of speed.

 

[Misgar]

The few Watts dissipated by an M.2 drive (typically under 8W for Gen 4) is absolutely dwarfed by the 250W output from a 13900K CPU and 450W from an RTX 4090 GPU when running flat out.

The power dissipated by an M.2 drive on a modern motherboard is not going to raise the temperature in a well ventilated computer case by any appreciable amount. The 600W+ dissipated by a high end CPU + GPU is a different matter.

The 13900K and many GPUs will run continuously at 100C. Most M.2 drives start to thermally throttle at 70 to 80C.

 

[psaez84]

Would depend on the motherboard whether you want an M.2 with or without a heatsink depending on if the motherboard provides one. Those that did provide one in the early days are probably still around.

Do you mean that the heatsink of the M2 drives must be included in the motherboard? I don't understand you.

Is not included in the M2 drive like the DDR memories with heatsink?

 

[Lafong]

Some motherboards include heatsinks for at least some of the M.2 ports.

Some don't.

Some M.2 drives are sold with a heatsink.

Some are not.

It depends on the SPECIFIC parts you intend to buy.

 

[Eximo]

Do you mean that the heatsink of the M2 drives must be included in the motherboard? I don't understand you.

Is not included in the M2 drive like the DDR memories with heatsink?

Not must, cheaper motherboards do not include motherboard heatsinks for NVMe drives.

You can still get M.2 drives with no heat sinks, these are intended for situations where a heatsink is provided. Either in a laptop or motherboard.

Many NVMe stickers are made of copper and are small heatsinks. It is best to not remove the stickers unless you verify they are not made of metal.

 

[psaez84]

Some motherboards include heatsinks for at least some of the M.2 ports.

Some don't.

Some M.2 drives are sold with a heatsink.

Some are not.

It depends on the SPECIFIC parts you intend to buy.

Not must, cheaper motherboards do not include motherboard heatsinks for NVMe drives.

You can still get M.2 drives with no heat sinks, these are intended for situations where a heatsink is provided. Either in a laptop or motherboard.

Many NVMe stickers are made of copper and are small heatsinks. It is best to not remove the stickers unless you verify they are not made of metal.

Hi

and what happens if I purchase a M2 unit with heatsink for my current old motherboard (no heatsink incorporated) and in the future I wanna use that M2 unit in a new motherboard with heatsink incorporated? Is the m2 with heatsink compatible with motherboards with heatsink included?

 

[Lafong]

Is the m2 with heatsink compatible with motherboards with heatsink included?

I don't use heatsinks, but I think the answer to your question varies from instance to instance....depending on what specific motherboard, what drive, and the design of the heatsinks involved.

If you own a drive that came with a heatsink, you'd likely have to choose between using that heatsink or the heatsink that came with the motherboard. One or the other. You wouldn't be able to use both.

All on a case by case basis. Clearance issues may not be easily determined until you actually try to assemble the PC.

 

[joeldf]

Hi

and what happens if I purchase a M2 unit with heatsink for my current old motherboard (no heatsink incorporated) and in the future I wanna use that M2 unit in a new motherboard with heatsink incorporated? Is the m2 with heatsink compatible with motherboards with heatsink included?

A heatsink that comes with a motherboard can be removed. It has to be removed to install the SSD in the first place. If the drive you're sticking on the board already has it's own heatsink, then just put the board provided heatsink in the box the MB came in. Along with all the other extra stuff it comes with that you might not use.

You're not forced to use it just because they provide one.

 

[Colif]

even with the existence of nvme, most boards only have at most 3 slots and offer more sata connectors, so there is no reason not to use a 4tb ssd if you want to.

I actually plan on getting one myself as even though I have a spare nvme slot on board, its easier to install another sata drive than to remove my GPU to put the other nvme in.

games don't care if they on nvme or ssd, there is really no time difference in loading. Plenty of videos as proof of that.

 

[kerberos_20]

M2 SATA drive like that 870 evo mentioned above, does not need any heatsink, drive has max temperature around 70C but it runs without heatsink at around 50C

its just SATA drive which uses M2 slot

btw its for 170 bucks at amazon now in 2.5" format

Amazon.com

M2 nvme on the other hand needs heatsink as that one is much faster and can hit 70C very quickly