M.2 NVMe cooling necessary?

[Fritz]

Just bought a Hynix P31 1TB M.2 NVMe drive and an external USB enclosure to house it. Neither the SSd nor the enclosure came with a heatsink or pad. In fact the enclosure is so thin that there is no room for a heatsink of any kind. The last M.2 drive I bought, a WD SN850 came with a pad and a chunky heatsink. I've copied a fair amount of data to the Hynix and it barely gets warm so it appears it doesn't need a heatsink. OTOH, the WD obviously does since it came with one that's not just for show. So do some drives nee a heatsink while others don't?

TIA

 

[i386]

So do some drives nee a heatsink while others don't?

Yes.
I think especially large capacity ssds with many nand packages and other ics might require more cooling in form of heatsink

 

[itronin]

Just bought a Hynix P31 1TB M.2 NVMe drive and an external USB enclosure to house it. Neither the SSd nor the enclosure came with a heatsink or pad.

P31 runs pretty cool and IME generally doesn't need a heat sink. These folks also seem to think that it runs pretty cool too.

 

[vangoose]

My 980 Pro runs 46C at idle with heatsink from motherboard, close to 60C during performance test. I think it will throttle without heatsink under high load.
My FireCuda 530 runs at 26C with heatsink from motherboard, around 46C during performance test.

 

[juma]

PCIE Gen. 3 drives typically don't, while its much preferred with Gen. 4 drives.

Your P31 is Gen. 3 while your SN850 is Gen. 4.

 

[Fritz]

Thanks all. I can't get a temp reading from it when it's installed in the USB case but now I just won't worry about it. I doubt it will even break a sweat in this case anyway.

 

[acquacow]

I have this old sabrent m.2 external enclosure and it does have a thermal pad in it and the whole enclosure acts as the heatsink. It does get warm with my old 980 Pro m.2 in it.

https://www.amazon.com/Sabrent-EC-NVME-BLK-Type-C-Aluminum-Enclosure/dp/B07K4TCKVL/

 

[newabc]

I have a same question on the micron 7300 pro (m2 nvme) which has chips on both sides. Its max writing speed is like the SATA drive. Does it need heat sinks on both sides?

 

[acquacow]

I have a same question on the micron 7300 pro (m2 nvme) which has chips on both sides. Its max writing speed is like the SATA drive. Does it need heat sinks on both sides?

If you need any cooling, it'll be for the controller, not the NAND. NAND likes heat.

 

[newabc]

If you need any cooling, it'll be for the controller, not the NAND. NAND likes heat.

Thanks! Your words solve the problem.