Question NVMe SSD enclosure very hot

[valoryea]

For years I've been using a 2242 mSATA SSD in an enclosure as an external drive. Mostly idle, it merely feels warm.

Recently I acquired a ThinkPad T480 which came with an Intel 256GB 2280 NVMe SSD, which I promptly removed to attach a Transcend 512GB model in its place. Naturally, the Intel SSD got slotted into an enclosure.

While connected (to my desktop computer USB hub), I was surprised how very hot the enclosure got even when idle. Almost as scalding hot as a regular 3.5" hard disk in use. I cannot hold on to it without hurting my hands. Plugging it into my laptop's USB port results in the same heat up.

Is this... normal for 2280 or NVMe SSDs?

 

[Fix_that_Glitch]

Use cpuid hwmonitor app and see what the actual temp is. A normal range is 35-40c on normal loading, and up to 70c under heavy use.

 

[Fix_that_Glitch]

Mine at idle is 35c- about 100 degrees Fahrenheit so they do get hot.

 

[SkyNetRising]

For NVME drive ~40C at idle and ~60C at load would be expected temperatures.

 

[Deleted member 14196]

what is the actual temp? SSDs can run hot, even at idle.

 

[valoryea]

Use cpuid hwmonitor app and see what the actual temp is. A normal range is 35-40c on normal loading, and up to 70c under heavy use.

Well strangely HWMonitor can read temperature of my desktop mSATA SSD; but when I run HWMonitor on my laptop - where the 2280 enclosure is connected to - drives only report space utilisation and no temperature.

https://imgur.com/a/vstPJO8

View: https://imgur.com/a/vstPJO8


Don't know if its the laptop mainboard or something about NVMe SSDs...

 

[valoryea]

what is the actual temp? SSDs can run hot, even at idle.

Since I can't get a reading from HWMonitor, I tried a simple physical reader and its around 40°C.

https://1drv.ms/u/s!AoTCPqdqt9-2idQ1hY7TM6luIaPe6w

But boy does it feel a lot hotter than my other external SSD (which registers itself at 46°C!)

 

[valoryea]

Just came across this article on SSD thermal pads that corroborates the extra heat output from NVMe models.

https://www.anandtech.com/show/11139/silverstone-launches-thermal-pads-for-m2-ssds

My enclosure also comes with thermal pads, but, is there any practical point? The casing is already so hot; is the thermal pad supposed to draw more heat away from the chips to make the casing even hotter (and painful to touch)? Besides the design of this enclosure is side lids to slide the circuit board out; there's no top lid that allows vertical pasting of the thermal pad in between to connect the chips to the casing. Unlike this more pricey model.

https://www.windowscentral.com/how-ssd-enclosure

 

[SkyNetRising]

Put your external nvme enclosure on a laptop cooling pad.

BTW - what nvme enclosure model exctly are you using?

 

[valoryea]

I'm just using a generic cheapo enclosure; bought off AliExpress.