Anyone removed the heatsink from a 990 pro

[chaparral]

Guys am thinking of buying a 4TB 990 pro with fitted heatsink as the old motherboard I have at the moment needs a heatsink on the second m.2
But am hoping to upgrade my motherboard sometime in 2024 and may need to remove the 990 pro stock heatsink

So am wondering how easy it is to remove the stock heatsink on a 990 pro

 

[Rroff]

It isn't easy unfortunately - very high risk of bending the PCB, maybe possible to loosen the adhesive with a heat gun but I wouldn't recommend trying to remove it.

I ended up mounting mine on a PCI-e adaptor and buying another one, non-heatsink edition, to go under the motherboard's integrated heat spreader on the M.2 slots.

 

[Tetras]

am hoping to upgrade my motherboard sometime in 2024 and may need to remove the 990 pro stock heatsink

Many boards have at least one unsinked M.2 slot and some have partially removable sinks.

 

[nlel1975]

Speaking of heat sinks, my PCIe x4 M2 adapter came with a heat sink but I didn’t bother attaching it to the NVMe drive because it never had a heat sink on it even when in the motherboards M2 slot. No harm in this I presume and some PCIe M2 adapters don’t come with a heat sink anyway.

My 4TB NVMe didn’t and doesn’t have a heat sink on it either and that’s now in the motherboards M2 slot.

 

[chaparral]

My 4TB NVMe didn’t and doesn’t have a heat sink on it either and that’s now in the motherboards M2 slot.

The non heatsink 4B 990 pro version costs a lot more (£60 extra) then the heatsink version at the moment

If they were the same price i would have just ordered the non heat sink version and added a cheap aftermarket heatsink to it that i could hopely remove easily at a later date

 

[chaparral]

Many boards have at least one unsinked M.2 slot and some have partially removable sinks.

Just wish i knew which motherboard i was going to buy as i keep changing my mind every day.

I keep changing my mind on if i want to get an AMD or intel cpu less alone which motherboard

 

[FredFlint]

I would not get an M.2 with a pre-installed heatsink as removing them can damage the drive. Its easy to get a good heatsink if needed and most boards have them now anyway.

 

[chaparral]

I would not get an M.2 with a pre-installed heatsink as removing them can damage the drive. Its easy to get a good heatsink if needed and most boards have them now anyway.

I would have got the non heatsink version, But it costs around £60 extra at the moment
Was going to wait till after christmas to see what the prices did, But was worried they may go up even more.

 

[FredFlint]

I would have got the non heatsink version, But it costs around £60 extra

In that case, just remove the boards heatsink. Heatsink version normally cost more.

 

[Devious]

i was going to post about a similar thing. After Black friday I ended up with both the heatsink and non-heatsink version. I also have a third party heatsink.

I was thinking of using the third party heatsink as I imagine all the fins would do a better job than the Samsiung effort? Whaty do you reckon?

 

[chaparral]

i was going to post about a similar thing. After Black friday I ended up with both the heatsink and non-heatsink version. I also have a third party heatsink.

I was thinking of using the third party heatsink as I imagine all the fins would do a better job than the Samsiung effort? Whaty do you reckon?

I wouldn’t remove the Samsung heat sink unless you really have to. Then again it may be pretty easy to remove (I don’t yet)
I recommend you just try it first and see if you’re happy with the temps you get with the stock Samsung heat sink.

If I find I need one without a heatsink then I just stick my 4TB 990 pro with heat sink in my PS5 to replace the 2TB 980 pro it has in it at the moment.


This reminds me of the days when I used to buy external hard drives and remove the harddrives to use in my PC

 

[Rroff]

i was going to post about a similar thing. After Black friday I ended up with both the heatsink and non-heatsink version. I also have a third party heatsink.

I was thinking of using the third party heatsink as I imagine all the fins would do a better job than the Samsiung effort? Whaty do you reckon?

As per my post above removing the factory heatsink on the 990 Pro is extremely difficult to do non-destructively. If you have a long very slim flat surface tool and a heat gun it might be possible - you can't just undo a few screws and pop it off.

EDIT: Though it keeps it within normal range the factory heatsink is quite a bit behind the non-heatsink drive using a hefty 3rd party heatsink:

EDIT: I could probably improve on those temperatures a bit - my case cooling setup is profiled for "silence" over performance.

 

[Devious]

Sorry, I wasnt clear. I wasn't going to remove the Samsung heatsink, i was asking if the non heatsink version with the aftermarket heatsink would do a better job than the Samsung heatsink version.

You answered my question though at the end

 

[nlel1975]

Here's the heat of my two. The Force MP510 on a PCIe x4 M2 adapter. Neither drive has a heatsink on it.

All I did was a benchmark of CrystalDiskMark to heat up the drives, if there's a way to make them hotter let me know.

 

[kieran_read]

i was going to post about a similar thing. After Black friday I ended up with both the heatsink and non-heatsink version. I also have a third party heatsink.

I was thinking of using the third party heatsink as I imagine all the fins would do a better job than the Samsiung effort? Whaty do you reckon?

Hey just FYI.

Samsung are doing a £75 cashback on this drive. I literally just bought one and got my 75 quid approved right away.

Ended up only costing me £205. Which i'm really happy with.

 

[random_matt]

More difficult that a Corsair one? That one removed easy.

 

[kieran_read]

Do you really need to remove it though? I mean most don't even have one it feels like an unnecessary step

 

[Rroff]

More difficult that a Corsair one? That one removed easy.

990 Pro w/ heatsink wasn't designed to come apart again - probably doable if you've experience and the right tools but high risk of destroying it. Even just getting the smaller bottom part of the shell off is a faff and that is just where disassembling starts :s

 

[nlel1975]

Here's the heat of my two. The Force MP510 on a PCIe x4 M2 adapter. Neither drive has a heatsink on it.

All I did was a benchmark of CrystalDiskMark to heat up the drives, if there's a way to make them hotter let me know.

Now have a new motherboard with heatsinks over the NVMe with a thermal pad on them, these are my temps now...