Samsing SSD 970 EVO Plus Running Hot

[Marc100]

My Dell XPS 13 9350 laptop was delivered new in 2016 and was fitted with a Samsung SSD PM 951 NVMe 1Tb.  Idling speed of this drive was around 45 to 50C.  Under load - video editing for example, the temperature varied from 55 to 60C.

Two months ago I replaced the PM 951 with a Samsung SSD  970 EVO Plus NVMe 2Tb.  This drive idles around 55 to 60 C.  Under load it rises to 65to 70C.

While running Samsung Magician performance benchmark just now it rose to 76C.

Is this normal?  Does Samsung consider this to be acceptable given that Magician says "too high"?

[victorstan]

Hello. I created an account to share my experience as I've been also searching online for answers to the overheating questions.

I have the following setup:

Gigabyte Aorus Xtreme 399 with 3 x NVME M.2 slots that have included aluminium heatsinks and thermal pads. All inside a Fractal Design Define R6 cooled with Noctua fans. CPU is cooled by Corsair H115 Pro AIO as front intake,

Installed in the 3 slots I have:

1 x Samsung 970 Evo Plus 500GB acting as OS drive C:

1 x Samsung 970 Plus 1TB acting as Games, Media and Project drive (video editing & 3D) 😧

1 x Samsung 970 Plus 1TB acting as Scratch and Cache drive (for editing & 3D apps) E:

The OS drive is running at 55C in idle and peaks at 64C while benchmarking in Magician

The other 2 drives are running at 62C in idle and peak at 76C while benchmarking. The weird thing is that the temp of the E: drive also increases by 5C while benchmarking 😧 drive, but they are pretty far away on the MB.

Any thoughts why and how to improve temps?

[David2504]

I believe that it is the temperature gauge in the Samsung SSD that is at fault.  I'll explain why.  

With my computer switched off for more than an hour and allowed to settle to room temperature my infrared temperature measuring gun (VOLTCRAFT IR-380) says that almost all my computer components are between 26C and 28C, and this includes a direct reading on the Samsung SSD (27.8C)

I switch my computer on and immediately launch Hard Disk Sentinel (https://www.hdsentinel.com/)  and all hard disks still read around room temperature except the Samsung SSD, which reads 41C.  My infra red measuring gun confirms that the temperature of the Samsung SSD is still around 30C.

I leave my computer to idle for ten to fifteen minutes and the IR Gun reads 45.5C for the Samsung SSD while Hard Disk Sentinel says that the reading from the thermistor in the Samsung SSD says 53C. 

The fact that the thermistor in the Samsung SSD reads 41C when the SSD is actually still close to room temperature indicates that the measurement in the Samsung SSD is unreliable.    I think that it is safe to say that the Samsung SSD 970 Evo Plus reading is at least 8C too high at idling usage.

It is impossible to know how to extrapolate the error in a wrongly calibrated thermistor to higher usage temperatures.  If one measurement is wrong then we can't trust any of the other readings. 

The bottom line is that you can't trust the temperature measurement built into the Samsung SSD. The best is to buy an IR temperature gun and measure the temperature directly yourself. 

To find VOLTDRAFT products you have to go to CONRAD.COM 

[davmax]

I suggest that the IR thermometer is reading the surface temperature and the 970 sensor to internal chip temp. Therefore a difference.

For those with very hot temp readings I will relate my experience. When installed the 970Plus  ran at 55C during system idle and ran substantially hotter under load. I installed on the 970 a heatsink equipped with a 10,000 rpm fan. Initially this did not gain much temperature drop. An IR scan revealed that the mother board was running hot making the 970 cooler ineffective, despite 3 fans in the desktop case. I re-arranged the cooling airflow and added a fan blowing directly on the motherboard. This made a significant difference. As I write the ambient case temperature is 16.5C and the 970 temp is 35C, a temp rise of 18.5C. With an ambient temp of 25C the 970 will be about 44C. Pretty good.  Yes I have carefully removed the Samsung heatsink labels and preserved them should they be needed. However running at these temps I do not expect any problem. To summarise it is not about the number of fans, it is always about the airflow and also making sure to filter the airflow.

[Treborriam]

I'm having same issue 970 EVO Plus 1tb (on mother board, interface PCIe Gen. 3 x 4) in a full tower case with plenty of air flow idling at 57c which stays pretty constant to be fair not sure this is a problem with the SSD but a problem with magician.

[SuperTweaker]

I installed the EVO 970 500 GB a month after it was RTM.  My idle heat is 55C. Load heat to 60C. This is based on Samsung Magician.  Plenty of fans in the case with excellent air flow. All I did was buy the thermal pad online and attached it to the NVME - easy process.

Though Samsung Magician is always showing 50 to 60C I believe these are normal temperatures for this type of super-fast SSD.

My recommendation is the thermal pad, attach and move on.

Thermal Pads at Newegg

Or any online tech-store. They are at Amazon etc.

[TheArcanist]

Hello everyone. While I'm glad to see that I'm not the only one struggling with a hot 970 Evo Plus (mine is 1TB), I'm also sad to see so many people having problems with it.

My case is a Corsair 5000D Airflow, with 3x120 mm intakes at the front, one is directly blowing at the Evo Plus at 900 RPM. Curiously, changing the fan speed does little (if anything) to the drive temps). There are two exhaust fans, one 120mm at the top back, and a 280 mm AIO at the top.

Ambient temps are, admittedly, a bit high (29-32°C on average - it's summer, after all), but the drive is still idling at about 60-62°C. Whenever there's any load, it starts to creep up to the high 60's, sometimes tipping over 70°C.

There's an EKWB heatsink on the Evo Plus (I did not remove the sticker, I don't want to void my warranty), and the cooling pad covers the controller and some of the DRAM (so that it fits well in the heatsink case).

I don't know what to do and I'm seriously starting to regret my purchase.

Just thought I might share my pain with you.

[Meppy]

Today I noticed that Macician updated and now the temp of my 970 Evo Plus is saying "Normal". I have had no performance issues in over a year, I think it's just either reporting a different temperature (closer to the heat source than the 960 Pro I have which runs about 20 degrees cooler).

I wouldn't stress over it... 

[TheArcanist]

Thanks for noticing me about the update. Did it, and my temps are now "normal" as well. Although, it is fall now, and temps are lower in my room, and I noticed that HWiNFO also reports lower temps overall on the Evo Plus. Yeah, I also stopped stressing over it.

[treboriam]

Hi, agree all of your comment, have updated and reporting normal without any issues.

[Meppy]

No worries. It's spring here and getting warmer. When my PC woke just now it started at 27 and is now at 45.. my 960 Pro started at 23 and is now 31 (Celsius of course :).

I think the new Evo both runs a bit hotter and the sensor is just different...

Have a good weekend.