Do Nvme drives get too hot?

[Tezza]

I've got a choice between putting my sample libraries on a 2.5 SSD or putting them on a Nvme. Most might say well Nvme drives are faster so do that, except.... My SSD drives can be put on their own in the hard drive cage whereas the Nvme drives are on the motherboard right next to the CPU and the other one right next to the GPU, literally millimeters clearance, and it is covered completely by my GTX1060 turbo card. I worry that the one next to the graphics card will get too hot.

[Jack Stoner]

I have an M.2 2280 NVME SSD drive installed in a Dell laptop without a heatsink and I haven't checked temps but no "temp alarm".

I have another M.2 2280 NVME installed in my desktop motherboard and located about the same as yours.  The motherboard came with heatsinks for M.2 2280 drives.  The current temp for the NVME drive is 43 deg C and thermal max is listed at 80 deg C.   I also have a 2.5" SSD mounted in a case hard drive slot and its current temp is 37 deg C and thermal max is 70 deg C (Both SSD's are Samsung).

My motherboard is a Gigabyte Designare Z390.

 

 

[Jim Roseberry]

I've got half a dozen M.2 drives in my main DAW.

You can get heatsinks for individual M.2 drives (if the motherboard doesn't already provide).

Heat will be greater with PCIe 4.0 M.2 drives that sustain ~7000MB/Sec.

If you're talking PCIe 3.0 M.2 drives, I wouldn't be overly concerned.

[Tezza]

Thanks,

I got caught with the old "Gigabyte B560m Aorus elite motherboards don't support the primary nvme pcie 4.0 drive when used with a 10th gen intel processor". Who would have thought? Nobody tells you that, you have to search the tech forums to find out. But of course you only search the forums...after.... you make the mistake, only to find that the techs themselves have also made that mistake because the manufacturer says they do support both 10th and 11th gen processors. Not to worry, an 11th gen is on it's way  and that will unlock both nvme ports.

I was going to use just one nvme and 2 ssd drives (one from my old computer) but given there will now be 2 nvme ports on the motherboard i intended to use the pcie 4.0 one (closest to the CPU) for sample libraries only and the secondary pcie 3.0 one for the operating system/applications and then an ssd for recording/projects.

Nice to know about the heatsinks and also perhaps even using a pcie 3.0 in the 4.0 port to reduce heat. I don't know whether there would be any real world speed impact from doing this. Or I could use a pcie 4.0 nvme there with a heatsink and see how it goes.

It doesn't feel right to me to put hardrives so close to other components but I guess if nobody is having a problem with that then it should be ok.

 

 

 

[Tezza]

So i decided on a pcie 3.0 nvme because that's fast enough for me and will keep the temp down. I was going for something cheaper with good read speeds but I don't care about write speeds because it's only going to hold sample libraries, there are plenty of cheaper alternatives like this, it seems the write speeds are what drive up the costs. Then I thought what if I decide to swap stuff around as I am doing with one of the drives in my old PC. So I played it safe and got a 1tb Samsung 970 evo plus. Don't need the blistering speeds (and heat) of the pcie 4.0, they also seem to use more electricity, even at idle, but wanted reasonable read and write speeds with Samsung reliability (they've not let me down yet) while not breaking the bank.

Edited October 17, 2022 by Tezza