[SOLVED] SSD temperature

[busu3]

This just a general question to those who have a samsung 970 evo plus installed in a laptop. I want to know what is the temperature of your ssd under load. Also specify if you have a heatsink or not. Thanks!

 

[Lutfij]

Use Samsung Magician Tool/app and see what the temps of the SSD are. Make and model of your laptop? I've worked with that SSD on a desktop, never on a laptop since laptop's either didn't need such a high end SSD or that they lacked the cooling/airflow inside the chassis of said laptops. To add, I've worked with that SSD on a desktop environment since the SSD was located in an area of the motherboard that had access to proper case airflow.

 

[sonofjesse]

It depends. Just like CPU's under load. Depends on the laptop, your room temp, etc etc etc.

Less temp checking and game on

If your super concerned about temps run a desktop with lots of cooling you can control.

 

[busu3]

I actually bought that ssd and it heated to unreasonable temps so I wanted to know the temperatures of other people using the same ssd in laptops so that I can know if its an ssd issue or airflow issue.

 

[avg9956]

I have the exact same model of SSD you're talking about, but mines is on a desktop
Idle temps is 42C Nand Flash and 48-49C for controller
When gaming it will gradually increase to 50C NAND Flash, Controller temp at 57C
Currently going to experiment adding an internal fan inside my case to blow off the air
My open case + Desk fan test gives 46C for NAND flash and 50C for controller (quite a significant drop)

I would only advise using a SSD on laptop if your laptop has enough cooling to handle it, as laptops usually have limited space and the fact that its near other heat producing components just makes it harder to cool. Its more of like a: "Just because you can fit a SSD doesn't necessarily mean you should" personally, for me. But I guess for the vast majority of others its like: "Go ahead if you can do it!" without considering the cooling aspect.

Laptops that don't have enough air flow internally will usually heat up significantly and its keyboard may become hot to the touch if the temps get that bad. This of course will also affect other components nearby, reducing their lifespan. The effects of heat can't be denied and it must be stressed that cooling is of utmost importance in terms of ensuring your component's longevity.

I was offered to upgrade my laptop's HDD to a SSD when I had it cleaned from dust by technician and replace its exhaust fan, but I declined the offer knowing that my laptop's cooling can't afford it. Even if technically I could do it, I wanted my laptop to last longer so I turned down the offer

 

[busu3]

I currently have a kingston A400 128GB. It reaches a max temperature of about 50'C. The samsung which I had reached 80+ on the drive and 105+ on the controller. So I have ordered a replacement. So what do you think, was the ssd defective or even the replacement one is going to heat that much? Everything else in my laptop is quite cool. Max cpu and gpu are like 75 and 65 so i dont think those heat the ssd.

 

[avg9956]

How long has the SSD been used? Mines is only 1.5 months old (Just recently did an upgrade). I suspect that temps increase over time mainly if the thermal pad on the heatsink of the NVMe SSD for the samsung 970 evo - if that is you're using a heat sink for the samsung 970 evo ssd on a laptop, has already degraded or was leaking grease. If it leaked grease, the contact of the thermal pad will have been deformed by then resulting in poor cooling. The grease is non conductive though, but it does leave quite a mess if it was left accumulated in large quantities.

Yes, it is the correct move however to order a replacement as soon as possible before your warranty ends. I do think though that if no improvements are done to cooling in your laptop (which is admittedly hard to do because of the limited space), you will get the same result over time.

The Samsung 970 evo or the 970 evo plus for that matter uses the Phoenix controller, which is said to get quite hot. That's anecdotal evidence from other forums, but I do find it to be true. Exact specs and data on the controller however is nowhere near to be found.

I personally do think however that the 970 evo or 970 evo plus (they have such little difference btw such as in sequential read/writes), need to be cooled in proximity by a fan in order to better drop their temps. This can be done best on a desktop pc - with a chassis that haves a fan attached to the drive cage so that air flow is unobstructed. Just gotta keep pushing that hot air out of the way on top of the ssd and it will be cooled efficiently.

Edit: If you find your temps are increasing while idle and made sure that no programs are doing heavy activity on your ssd (i.e. malware, crypto miners, etc.) then it can be a sign of defect on the SSD's part and must be replaced. Operating temperatures of a lot of SSDs are from 0-70C. Once it reaches 70C, that's when you experience throttling (speed of your SSD should slow down) in order to cool itself down. If it doesn't and it keeps going higher than 70C, that's when you should be worried and start looking for a replacement.

 

[busu3]

How long has the SSD been used? Mines is only 1.5 months old (Just recently did an upgrade). I suspect that temps increase over time mainly if the thermal pad on the heatsink of the NVMe SSD for the samsung 970 evo - if that is you're using a heat sink for the samsung 970 evo ssd on a laptop, has already degraded or was leaking grease. If it leaked grease, the contact of the thermal pad will have been deformed by then resulting in poor cooling. The grease is non conductive though, but it does leave quite a mess if it was left accumulated in large quantities.

Yes, it is the correct move however to order a replacement as soon as possible before your warranty ends. I do think though that if no improvements are done to cooling in your laptop (which is admittedly hard to do because of the limited space), you will get the same result over time.

The Samsung 970 evo or the 970 evo plus for that matter uses the Phoenix controller, which is said to get quite hot. That's anecdotal evidence from other forums, but I do find it to be true. Exact specs and data on the controller however is nowhere near to be found.

I personally do think however that the 970 evo or 970 evo plus (they have such little difference btw such as in sequential read/writes), need to be cooled in proximity by a fan in order to better drop their temps. This can be done best on a desktop pc - with a chassis that haves a fan attached to the drive cage so that air flow is unobstructed. Just gotta keep pushing that hot air out of the way on top of the ssd and it will be cooled efficiently.

I dont have a heatsink for the ssd. The ssd heated to those temps right from day 1. So it was brand new and heating that much. I have asked some others on other forums but they say that on laptops the ssd does becomes hotter than PCs but no one could tell me if it was heating to such high temps. My laptop does have a vent near the ssd but it doesn't seem to be enough or maybe the piece was defective.

 

[avg9956]

I have asked some others on other forums but they say that on laptops the ssd does becomes hotter than PCs

Definitely true. Most laptops have poor air flow internally and were usually designed for HDDs back in the days. If by default your laptop came with a HDD and then you upgraded towards a SSD, the manufacturer of the laptop may not have taken into account the air flow requirement needed to cool the SSD down.

Its all about how efficiently you're able to push the hot air coming from the SSD out of the laptop which translates to cooling. You may want to trace the direction of air flow internally on your laptop, but anything that's in the way/obstructing air flow will definitely hinder cooling. Hot air needs somewhere to go and if it can't go anywhere it will just build up like a pressure cooker inside the laptop and then expect to see high temps.

 

[busu3]

I bought this new ssd thinking that it can handle the temps because I have replaced the other ssd in the laptop with this new one. But the older ssd gave speeds of only up to 500MB/s so I don't know if it didn't heat that much because it wasn't as powerful as the 970. Does installing a heatsink really help?

 

[avg9956]

It may or may not help, its something that you personally need to test out. Some claim that it does help, I do too personally in my testing results.

But the older ssd gave speeds of only up to 500MB/s so I don't know if it didn't heat that much because it wasn't as powerful as the 970.

Higher speeds means more heat output. Slower speeds means less heat output.

Generally that is the case, unless the SSD has such bad power efficiency that it consumes more power to do the same amount of work as compared to other SSDs.

It may be the case that the older SSD may be better for your laptop (If you still have it), you can try that out and see the temps. You can't have the best of both worlds in this case, there's a trade off. Either higher speed = more heat or lower speed but better longevity of your device, even if it means waiting additional seconds to boot up your laptop. That's my take on it.

 

[busu3]

Ok thanks a lot for your advice!