Question MSI Z690 Tomahawk, which M2 slots for best thermals ?

Nov 24, 2022
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Hello,

I am about to build a new PC with the MSI Z690 Tomahawk WiFi DDR4 as motherboard, an Intel 13700K and an Asus TUF 3080 10GB GPU. I've bought a Samsung 980Pro 1TB and a WD SN770 2TB for storage, both PCIe 4x4.

The board has four M2 slots. The one closest to the CPU is connected directly to the CPU and I guess this will be the fastest. But it also is directly between CPU and GPU which make me think about heat. Slot 2 will be covered by the GPU, which blows the air directly on top of it - I guess that would be the worst place. Slots 3&4 are at the bottom of the motherboard which might be the coolest location, but one of the slots is only PCIe 3x4.

Do you think, that Slot 1 will be fine according to heat?

Or do I have to trade speed for heat and put both to Slots 3 and 4. If I put the SN770 into the PCIe 3 slot, how much speed will I possibly loose ?

Thanks

Marc
 
That NVMe drive (and many others) could deliver stable performance even at high temperatures (-50°C to 85°C).
You could install it in any of the 3 PCIe 4.0 x4 slots.
The motherboard includes nice heatsinks that helps keep the temperature within specifications.

By the way, in consumer workloads, you won't notice any performance differences even if the drive happens to run at half is rated speed.
 

Aeacus

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The one closest to the CPU is connected directly to the CPU and I guess this will be the fastest. But it also is directly between CPU and GPU which make me think about heat.

Depends on what kind of CPU cooler you get. If AIO, then heat there would be more of an issue than tower-type air cooler (e.g NH-D15).

Slot 2 will be covered by the GPU, which blows the air directly on top of it - I guess that would be the worst place.

All GPU fans are intake and if you get open air styled GPU, you'll at least have airflow over it. Since the SSD would be living under GPU.
Having airflow is always better than having 0 airflow.

Slots 3&4 are at the bottom of the motherboard which might be the coolest location

That depends on a PC case you get. If PC case has PSU shroud and you won't install any bottom intake or front bottom intake fans, then yes, airflow there would be limited on what GPU fans can provide.

All-in-all, i wouldn't be worried about temps, at least when you don't install the M.2 Shield Frozr (covering the M.2 slots).

Now, if the M.2 Shield Frozr would have good connection to M.2 drives, then it can act as a heatsink, helping to cool the SSDs. But if the connection isn't good and/or there is small air gap between it and SSD, it actually hurts the thermals, trapping them under it.

Though, to this day, it is questionable if M.2 NVMe SSDs need better cooling or not. Thus far, i have yet to see M.2 NVMe SSD die due to overheating it can produce while in operation.
Speaking of it, i also have two M.2 NVMe SSDs in use: 960 Evo (500 GB) sitting between my GPU and CPU cooler and 970 Evo Plus (2 TB) sitting below my GPU (essentially the same spot as #3 spot on your MoBo), and both of my M.2 drives are bare, without any heatsink of heat shield. Temps wise, 960 Evo sits at snug 35C and 970 Evo Plus is at 45C.

Pic too (because why not):

dshKhdC.jpg


Build: Skylake (full specs with more pics in my sig).

If M.2 NVMe SSDs would need better cooling, they would come with the heatsink straight from the factory.
In a similar sense, most RAM sticks also come with a heatsink. Though, with RAM sticks, the heatsink on it, is only for eyecandy and doesn't actually matter in terms of cooling.
 
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Nov 24, 2022
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Thanks for your hints !

Depends on what kind of CPU cooler you get. If AIO, then heat there would be more of an issue than tower-type air cooler (e.g NH-D15).

I've got the NH-D15. Building the PC on my own, I've most respect about installing the CPU cooler. Reviews claim, that this one is easier to install than others like Dark Rock etc. - and it is a great cooler too.

All GPU fans are intake and if you get open air styled GPU, you'll at least have airflow over it. Since the SSD would be living under GPU.
Having airflow is always better than having 0 airflow.

That's a good point.

That depends on a PC case you get. If PC case has PSU shroud and you won't install any bottom intake or front bottom intake fans, then yes, airflow there would be limited on what GPU fans can provide.

I've got a Fractal Design Define 7 silent case. I'll install two front fans, so I'll have some airflow for the lower part of the motherboard.

The PSU is a Corsair RM1000X, which will stop the fan until about 400W. So with normal work, GPU and PSU fans will be at 0 RPM.

Marc
 

Aeacus

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The PSU is a Corsair RM1000X, which will stop the fan until about 400W.

Your PC case has PSU shroud and you'll be installing PSU with fan facing downwards. This creates complete own ecosystem for PSU and it doesn't affect the rest of the PCs airflow in any way.

So with normal work, GPU and PSU fans will be at 0 RPM.

Idle/low loads, when your GPU fans aren't spinning, the load on M.2 SSDs is also low or none. Whereby they don't need active cooling.
But once you put a good load on your PC and GPU fans kick off, they also provide additional cooling for your M.2 drives (since there's airflow generated by GPU). And if you have plenty of case fans as well, it doesn't matter if GPU fans spin or not.

Reviews claim, that this one is easier to install than others like Dark Rock etc. - and it is a great cooler too.

Yeah, NH-D15 has been crowned as "king of air coolers".

As far as installing it goes, i don't necessarily think that installing NH-D15 is easier than e.g Dark Rock Pro 3 or 4. As long as you follow the manual/guide and are careful, it's quite easy actually. Complaints about CPU cooler installation (or any hardware installation in that matter) usually come from those blokes who aren't bothered to read the manual/guide and try to install the hardware based on their own intuition. And when they can't figure it out, on their own (since they didn't read the manual), complaining starts, e.g "this cooler is so hard to install".