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"?

[hgsdodo]

very, here for the same thing, my SMART is going wild.

[Meppy]

In my experience SMART shouldn't be reporting any problems, just the Samsung Magician. Have you updated to the latest Magician? That fixed it for m (still runs hot but it's not marked as a problem anymore).

If you are getting SMART alerts there might be another problem with your drive.

[TheArcanist]

I'm not really concerned about Magician telling me whether the drive is "Normal" or not, I'm more concerned about the actual temps HWiNFO (or Magician, for that matter) is reporting. Idling at 55-60°C is still too high, considering throttling kicks in at 70°C and that can happen even under light sustained loads.

[davmax]

See my post 25 May 2021 it may be helpful.

[TheArcanist]

Thanks, that is some useful advice for sure, but I don't know how I could point a fan directly onto the motherboard. The SSD already has a heatsink on it, and it gets some airflow from the front intake AIO fans. However, when there were only intake fans in the front, and not an AIO, the temps were almost the same, so it doesn't seem to make a difference.

The only time the SSD drops its temps is when the GPU fans turn on - it is in the second m.2 slot, so directly under the GPU, which is why it helps. But even if I increase the front fans to max speed, the temps don't change at all.

[davmax]

Your experience demonstrates that the GPU is causing a heat transfer to the SSD. My experience is the same. Perhaps it will help if I describe the fan arrangement in my tower. One fan in the front drawing in air. another on the side panel that directs air onto the GPU and the mother board. Air exits through one fan at the rear and also through the power supply fan. All input fans are filtered.

[TheArcanist]

I will try adding another fan maybe this weekend, and see what happens. Thanks.

[Meppy]

That's why I said if you are getting SMART alerts then something else is wrong. I have never had any problems with performance or a single SMART alert for my drive and it's sitting at 57°C while doing nothing right now, and during a benchmark climbs to maybe to 63°C. That's with no fans running and the internal temp about 33°C.

Sounds like there is an airflow, or heatsink issue with your SSD or maybe it's faulty?

[GrantJG]

I have two Samsung NVME drives. A 970 Pro 512Gb and 970Evo 500Gb. The Evo is being used as C: drive because believe it or not it measured slightly faster than the Pro with Samsung Magician. I also tried them in NVME Raid but the result was noticeably slower Read/Write so there is no benefit - at least not on a PCIE3 architecture.

Both mounted side by side on a Gibabyte X399 Aorus Motherboard in a box which has 5 x 120mm fans  3 front and 2 bottom, 1 x 90mm rear, 2 x 120mm top for liquid cooler radiator and powers supply fan.

The 970Evo typically runs around 60C but has got up to 70C under heavy load. The 970 Pro runs around 35-40C and I have never seen it above 50C under load. I guess this says a bit about the different controller and architecture in the Pro version.

My fans normally run at about 900-1000 rpm which is very quiet. If I crank them up to around 1400rpm the noise is still ok but the 970 Evo temp will slowly drop by about 10C, so increased airflow is certainly helpful. Don't know why they haven't adopted  a standard heat sink to drop the temp by 10-15 deg which must be hugely beneficial to life. I guess these drives are only intended to last 2-3 years anyway. Three years on from their release we have 980 Pro running on PCIE4 at double the speed. Kind a makes you think about upgrading but means new Mobo and CPU and I still like my Threadripper 12 core - it flies.

[davmax]

Some good news Recent Gigabyte motherboards come equipped with heat sinks for M.2 drives.