How to Cool NVMe SSD When It's Right under Graphics Card

NeoX on 11/11/2022 - 12:18
Last edited 11/11/2022 - 12:35 by 1 other user

Hi,

Was wondering how to cool your nvme ssd when it's right under the graphics card (ie, right next to pci-e) Other than trying to get some air flow to it, is it better to keep attached heatsink on the ssd or remove it?

I got 2 slot of m2, after noticing the ssd getting quite warm when playing games etc, I moved it to the 2nd slot which doesn't have graphics card over and it's much much cooler. I'm seeing if there's any way to get some airflow going under the graphics card. as 1 air flow is blocked by mem slot.

If you look at this image you can understand what I'm saying.

https://asset.msi.com/resize/image/global/product/product_16…

so right now I use ssd on the bottom m2 slot as there's no graphics card covering it, but if I was to get another nvme only slot left is under the graphics card and it's hot….

Such stupid design :(

• 

  freefall101 on 11/11/2022 - 12:41

  +1

  Do you mean running it without a heatsink entirely? That will just make it run hotter, don't do that.

  What temps is it actually running at? Warm is fine, it can run at 60-70C quite easily and most SSDs have heat throttling (it'll slow down when it gets too hot rather than damage it). It shouldn't impact the life of the drive. You can see the temps by going to Manage Disks and Volumes in windows (hit start and type that), look at the properties of the disk (not the partition) and go to advanced disk properties. It'll tell you the actual temp.

  • 

    NeoX on 11/11/2022 - 13:16

    It was getting up to 80 after extended gaming :(

    It's cos like heat it trapped in there cos no air flow and tiny space.

    Moving to the 2nd slot, it's so much cooler, goes up to about 40 during intensive gaming. I believe the GPU is hot and then the heat from gpu is going onto the nvme and then there's no big gap for airflow and thus makes the ssd quite hot. crap thing is the memory slots are blocking airflow from the front and the heat sink of cpu is quite big and so covering the nvme as well (got the noctua NH-d15)

    • 

      AustriaBargain on 11/11/2022 - 13:50

      Isn't 80 degrees kinda fine for an ssd?

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  silentsoar on 11/11/2022 - 13:44

  Depending on which model of board you have, it may only have one Gen4 M.2 Slot (with the other one operating at Gen3).

  A Gen4 SSD will run cooler (but slower) in a Gen3 slot.

  If it's a B6XX chipset (newest) then both will be Gen4, but if it's a previous model then it'll just be the first slot that is.

  If you are really concerned about temps, you can set the slot to be Gen3 manually in the BIOS.

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  iamherenow on 11/11/2022 - 13:53

  I found when I had a similar cooler that my case would be cool everywhere besides to the corner above the graphics card, and between the cpu cooler and exhaust at rear. That corner just didn't want to be cool. In fact would get quite toasty. Changed to a aio cpu water cooler. That half solved it. But the fans still not moving the air in that area well. Then with the space freed up without the tower cooler I mounted a 120mm fan above the gpu blowing upwards. It moves the air very nicely and there's no more hot corner. But that was a lot of work for what really wasn't an issue in the first place haha - too much spare time!

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  BobD on 12/11/2022 - 07:49

  I have a fan at the top of the rear panel and another at the rear of the top panel both blowing out and a big tower cpu cooler and they are all nicely cool. That NVMe slot under the graphics card usually is driven direct from the cpu while the other slot(s) are via the chipset. The suggestion about setting the slot to be Gen 3 sounds good. My boot drive is a Gen 3. I have had it for a couple of years and I'll have have it a couple more years.