Question PCIe 4 m.2 ssd for mini pc, which brand is coolest running without using a heatsink?

[dprespecki]

I have a minisforum barebones pc coming in soon and was wondering what gen4 PCIe 4.0 m.2 ssd will run the coolest overall without using their associated heatsinks? If I use a heatsink on the drive, there is no room in the pc for a regular 2.5 ssd hard drive.
I was leaning towards the Samsung 990 pro but there have been some hiccups with the 990 and 980 pros, sort of looking at the WD SN850x now. Is there anything out there in this category that runs noticeably cooler than all the others??
Thanks for any and all help...

 

[Aeacus]

without using their associated heatsinks?

If M.2 drive is sold without heatsink, then it doesn't need one.

I was leaning towards the Samsung 990 pro but there have been some hiccups with the 990 and 980 pros, sort of looking at the WD SN850x now. Is there anything out there in this category that runs noticeably cooler than all the others??

Weaker performance = less heat. So, if you don't want high-ish temps, look towards 970 Evo Plus.

My OS drive: 970 Evo Plus (2TB) is chilling at 43C, while my old OS drive: 960 Evo (500GB) is idling at 35C.

 

[dprespecki]

If M.2 drive is sold without heatsink, then it doesn't need one.


Weaker performance = less heat. So, if you don't want high-ish temps, look towards 970 Evo Plus.

My OS drive: 970 Evo Plus (2TB) is chilling at 43C, while my old OS drive: 960 Evo (500GB) is idling at 35C.

I need the gen 4 setup for my PCIe 4.0... I believe the 970 pro plus is PCIe3.

 

[Aeacus]

I need

None of the PCI-E 4.0 drives will be utilizing the PCI-E 4.0 interface at their fullest. So, there wouldn't be any noticeable difference between PCI-E 3.0 (970 Evo Plus) and PCI-E 4.0 (980 Pro). Only difference would be in synthetic benchmarks, and that too, a negligible level of ~20%,
comparison: https://ssd.userbenchmark.com/Compa...ng-980-Pro-NVMe-PCIe-M2-1TB/m693540vsm1302577

But if you want PCI-E 4.0 drive, here,
pcpp: https://pcpartpicker.com/products/internal-hard-drive/#c1=di_m2.pcie_40_x4&sort=price

Take the cheapest drive. Since cheap = low performance, which = low temps.

Edit:
990 Pro review;

We also tested temperatures to see how effective Samsung’s thermal optimizations work in practice. The drive idled around 40C - 36C by sensor, 45C by IR gun - which is well within reason. Over 1.6TB of writes saw the drive reaching around 72C which is comfortably below the first throttling point. This is a significantly lower load temperature than with the bare SN850X and the Platinum P41. Our 2TB 990 Pro sample did not come with a heatsink and it is likely that a heatsink would lower temperatures considerably.

Source: https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/samsung-990-pro-ssd-review/2

 

[bill001g]

I am too lazy to go look this up for you but if search the SSD reviews on this site you will find a area where they compare the power consumption of the devices. That will not directly tell you if you have to use a heatsink but it would show you the units that would likely do better if you did not use a heatsink.

 

[dprespecki]

I am too lazy to go look this up for you but if search the SSD reviews on this site you will find a area where they compare the power consumption of the devices. That will not directly tell you if you have to use a heatsink but it would show you the units that would likely do better if you did not use a heatsink.

Hi.. I was actually just reading through those ! In some, it was not clear if they were testing certain models with or without their optional heat sinks... The seagate firecuda 530 for example.. no over heating and throttling but it was hard to tell if it was with or without a heatsink. Regarding the samsung Pro 990, seems they are having some issues with that model right now... it was a good contender!