Question Is Crucial T700 a viable choice? What heatsink/cooler to use?

[MaxT2]

I may be purchasing some components and make a new PC soon.

I focus mostly on productivity performance. For demanding photography, video editing, also some virtual machines --> so gaming performances are irrelevant, only a nice-to-have. And keeping this computer as main computer to 4 to 6 years.

Some components I am considering for now are

• NVMe: Crucial T700 as system, and "demanding projects" drive
• MB: Z890, AsRock Taichi (or maybe Asus Maximus Hero or something in that category)
• CPU Intel Core Ultra 285K
• Air cooling: Be quiet Dark Rock 5 + some SilentWings Pro 4 here and there.
• Case: CoolerMaster CM Storm Troop (it's old, but it's got features that I can't find anywhere on recent cases.)

My question is about the NVMe. Does it heat too much? Should I purchase it with it's manufacturer heatsink? Or us the motherboard heatsinks? (I never had a motherboard with such heatsinks in the past...) . Should I get and NVMe cooler? (Gen5 socket seems quite close to the CPU so I'm not sure how space will be left there.) Should I pick another Gen5 model? Why?

 

[Lutfij]

What other options do you have at your disposal? Meaning, where are you located, what is your budget for the storage and what is your preferred site for purchase?

Some of the workstation systems I've built had two SSD's, one which was smaller in capacity for the OS, app's and launchers, while the secondary drive was equally small or a little larger to act as a cache or scratch disk. I then would have an HDD to house all final projects. You don't need PCIe 5.0 drive as your OS drive since real world cases you won't tell the difference with a PCIe3.0 or PCIe4.0 drive. You could have the secondary project drive as the PCIe5.0 drive though, if you're going back and forth with videos during your production runs.

As for your question on the heatsink, since practically all motherboard's now come with some form of heat dissipation and are in the path of the case's airflow, I wouldn't opt for the heatsinked version.

Case: CoolerMaster CM Storm Troop (it's old, but it's got features that I can't find anywhere on recent cases.)
What features would that be?

 

[MaxT2]

Thank you for your reply

What other options do you have at your disposal? Meaning, where are you located, what is your budget for the storage and what is your preferred site for purchase?

I'm asking about the viability of this drive, or another Gen5 NVMe drive, and cooling. I don't want advice on the all the other parts. (At least not in this thread...) Otherwise, even if all-round hardware conversations are interesting too, I won't be done by next year (I mean December next year).

Some of the workstation systems I've built had two SSD's, ...

I already have that in my current PC. 3xGen4 NVMe + 1 spinning hard disk (for more terabytes). Some of the current Gen4 drives will probably go into the new PC as well. (In example, when using Lightroom, software is on a drive, project files are on another drive, cache files on yet another drive (all NVMe in this case) ... and it's still getting slow.)
Well, this also reminds me that I was also thinking of installing the OS on a Gen4 drive and dedicate a Gen5 drive to demanding projects only... Still thinking about it.

As for your question on the heatsink, since practically all motherboard's now come with some form of heat dissipation and are in the path of the case's airflow, I wouldn't opt for the heatsinked version.

So, that's 1 vote for using the motherboard heatsink.
But does this drive heat too hot?

Case: CoolerMaster CM Storm Troop (it's old, but it's got features that I can't find anywhere on recent cases.)
What features would that be?

1. Mostly the 5 5.25 bays in the front. (I have specific CD-ROM drivers that is optimal for ripping CDs accurately, those have features that cannot work through USB + I use "cold swap SATA slots" to switch archive-dedicated hard drives. I like to have 4 of those, though I could do with 2.)
2. Nice-to-have/keep: the handle at the top of it is quite handy when it needs to move.
3. (Also, it looks cool.)