Do I cut the M.2 aluminium thermal guard plate ???

richardjb · 9 Feb 2020 at 15:59

I have just purchased a Gigabyte Aorus motherboard and installed 2x NVMe SSD drives in the first two NVMe slots. However, in order to do so, I had to remove the aluminium thermal guard/cover. (Mid/Lower right of mobo photo with Aorus on it - 2 pieces cover the three M.2 slots)

The question is, the Gigabyte NVMe are encased in a large copper heatsink that prevents the replacement of the fairly large aluminium thermal guard that I removed from the motheboard. So do I

Remove the heatsinks from the NVMe drive, and replace the motherboard thermal guard (there does appear to be a protective pad on the back) OR....
Leave the NVMe heatsink and CUT the thermal guard (simply for aesthetic reasons) to cover the area exposed by its removeal

Motherboard - See Triple Thermal Guard, the lower two gauards are actually a single solid aluminium plate https://www.aorus.com/upload/Album/201905241526392614ef5e8bea789d0ceac2f6c7b4b25db2_big.png

NVMe
http:// https://static.gigabyte.com/Product/54/6924/2019052417474198be5a147da755abbbd0f099550c7b227c_m.png
www.gigabyte.com/FileUpload/Global/KeyFeature/1192/images/dimension.jpg

** Do not hotlink images ** <---- SOZ didn't know - RB :-)

ANDARIAL · 10 Feb 2020 at 08:59

Personally i would remove the heatsinks from the nvme drives,BUT only if you can do this without damage to the drives affecting your warranty

richardjb · 10 Feb 2020 at 10:55

ANDARIAL said:
Personally i would remove the heatsinks from the nvme drives,BUT only if you can do this without damage to the drives affecting your warranty

Do you or anyone else know if these types drives get (particularly) hot? the heatsink they come with looks they might given its copper and finned -- the aluminium Aorus plate looks like it might do a lesser job of cooling, assuming cooling is required.

pastymuncher · 10 Feb 2020 at 20:09

Gen 3 drives can get hot and I am sure I read somewhere that Gen 4 drives get even hotter. I just checked several reviews of your drive and in many of them the drive hit 67 degrees C even with that big heatsink on it so I don't reckon the basic motherboard heatsinks will be enough to stop the drive from throttling. As much as it would bug me I think I would have to put up with the copper heatsink as I wouldn't want to risk the basic motherboard heatsink and there is no way I would be cutting up parts of the thermal guard and voiding the warranty on a stupidly expensive motherboard. I really don't understand why Gigabyte didn't paint the heatsink black so it matches their motherboards. The shiny copper colour doesn't match anything and it sticks out like a sore thumb.

One thing you could do is buy a black M2 heatsink for the drive. They range from £6 for a basic one to £23 for a massive one that even has heatpipes (Sabrent Rocket M2 2280 SSD Rocket Heatsink SB-HTSK). You can even get ones with RGB (if you like that sort of thing) down the centre of the heatsink for £14.

Mcnumpty2323 · 10 Feb 2020 at 20:25

3rd option?
Put the nvme drives in
A pcie card
Leaving the motherboard
Aesthetics as they were to
Begin with

Drumroll · 10 Feb 2020 at 20:43

Either remove the heatsink from the motherboard, and use the one provided by the drive or, if deciding to use the one from the motherboard, try replacing the thermal pad with something like Gelid GP Extreme, and a fan pointed at them would help greatly.
NVME runs hot. G4, as far as I'm aware, runs hotter.

ANDARIAL · 11 Feb 2020 at 08:25

Does that mobo not have the chipset fan?
The size of the heatsink looks much bigger to me and is it not connected?looks that way to me

Good call about a better pad though

gupsterg · 11 Feb 2020 at 08:44

Mcnumpty2323 said:
3rd option?
Put the nvme drives in
A pcie card
Leaving the motherboard
Aesthetics as they were to
Begin with

I'd be tempted to do this.

I'd think removing heatsinks from NVMe results in warranty void, as would cutting thermal guards. On another point cutting the Aorus Extreme thermal guards seems like sacrilege...

richardjb · 11 Feb 2020 at 12:59

Some interesting points, thanks

1. @pastymuncher - The Sabrent Rocket M2 2280 SSD Rocket Heat-sinks certainly do look like they'd do a better job than the existing heat-sinks on the Aorus NVMes, but that said the Aorus NVMes do come with a chunky and finned lump of copper, just not the heat-pipes. The Sabrent heatsink also doesn't change the scenario from the Aorus heat-sinks, both of which need the thermal guard removed and and left off the motherboard, unless I cut.

2. @Mcnumpty2323 - The PCIe card is a good idea, so long as I can retain the PCIe4 performance. I dont intend SLI'ing and got the extreme mobo wth 10GB network card, so have no other use for the slot. Has anyone done this??? thanks, good idea that one!

3. @MrPotato - It looks like the Aorus Aluminium thermal guard on the motherboard MUST be removed of you're planning on adding any NVMe that isnt simply bare crcuit board. Any heatsink on the NVMe looks like it will prevent the replacement of it. Unless the intention IS that I remove the copper heatsink the NVMes cam with and use the Aluminium Aorus plate

For reference: The large aluminium Aorus plate isn't what i'd call a heat-sink as its perfectly flat, which is not the greatest shape for transference of heat to ambient air (although it is quite a large volume of material, on the plus side it will keep the room warm for quite a while after i leave) Frankly it looks more like a protective and decorative guard, than a heat-sink. While I'm not overly fussy, its the removal leaving a large blank hole that's the most annoying. Hence the need to trim it to fit around the NVMEs and replace

Time to do some research

Mcnumpty2323 · 11 Feb 2020 at 14:06

Have done the PCIe card with
Pci~e 3 drives
Not tried gen 4 drives
Akasa I think it was do a card takes
2 drives rather than needing
2 cards
Yeah it's mainly Aesthetics that
Big flat lump of so called
Heatsink on that board
So cutting bits off would be ugly

pastymuncher · 11 Feb 2020 at 19:37

My point was to remove the copper heatsink and replace it with a black heatsink so it doesn't stand out so much. I know you wouldn't be able to replace the thermal guard but at least you won't have a shiny copper heatsink staring at you.

richardjb · 12 Feb 2020 at 07:51

pastymuncher said:
My point was to remove the copper heatsink and replace it with a black heatsink so it doesn't stand out so much. I know you wouldn't be able to replace the thermal guard but at least you won't have a shiny copper heatsink staring at you.

My apologies, I misunderstood. The Sabrent definitely looks better, you're right. Although I think the "gap" that annoys me the most

Skynet5 · 12 Feb 2020 at 08:13

Spent how much on stuff and need to start modding? Did you plan this? Lol

Defo exchange your nvme for one that just slots right in to that mobo.

The only reason to buy that mobo is aesthetics, which I think looks awesome.

Not using the inbuilt will make it look naff.

richardjb · 12 Feb 2020 at 08:54

lnoton said:
Spent how much on stuff and need to start modding? Did you plan this? Lol

I've not built a PC in 20+ years so definitely a learning curve, and no, I wasn't planning on modding sadly.

lnoton said:
Defo exchange your nvme for one that just slots right in to that mobo.

It sounds like G4 NVMe's run hot form what others have said, so frankly they'd need a heatsink whether Sabrent or the one they came with. What doesn't feel like it is an option is the pretty flat plate the mobo came with, as it couldn't be worse as a heatsink unless they made it from glass or ceramic

lnoton said:
The only reason to buy that mobo is aesthetics, which I think looks awesome.
Not using the inbuilt will make it look naff.

Well I don't care for RGB, so purchased the mobo in order to find suitable slots to install a CPU, RAM, NVMEs, Graphics card etc, not sure how to achieve that without the motherboard.

Mcnumpty2323 · 12 Feb 2020 at 10:50

If planning to remove
The copper heatsink off it
Just check online if its easily
Remove able
And not held on with thermal
Adhesive instead of just
Thermal pads or screws

pastymuncher · 12 Feb 2020 at 11:22

richardjb said:
Well I don't care for RGB, so purchased the mobo in order to find suitable slots to install a CPU, RAM, NVMEs, Graphics card etc, not sure how to achieve that without the motherboard.

I think the point he was trying to make was that the only reason to spend a staggering £770 on a motherboard is for the looks and there is little other reason to spend that much. You could have easily saved £570 or more and still got a motherboard to do everything you want.

richardjb · 13 Feb 2020 at 12:35

pastymuncher said:
I think the point he was trying to make was that the only reason to spend a staggering £770 on a motherboard is for the looks and there is little other reason to spend that much. You could have easily saved £570 or more and still got a motherboard to do everything you want.

I don't mean to be a motherboard racist, but frankly they (the Aorus) all look the same to me!, so one doesn't look more "awesome" than another!
The selection of that board was a requirement for 10GB and minor desire the the Sabre DAC. Yes, I could have bought cards and bit n bobs to reduce the cost, but the cost wasn't a particular concern frankly and have never once suggested it was. I guess I should have bitten my lip and not responded flippantly to a less then helpful response among a plethora of really helpful ones. Lesson learnt.

richardjb · 13 Feb 2020 at 12:46

Mcnumpty2323 said:
If planning to remove
The copper heatsink off it
Just check online if its easily
Remove able
And not held on with thermal
Adhesive instead of just
Thermal pads or screws

Thanks McNumpty2323 - I'm not asking you to do my research, but do you know of any PCIe Gen4 M.2 expansion cards (Dual, Triple or Quad) I've found a few, but all PCIe Gen3.
If they're not available yet, but might be soon, ill hold off cutting the Aorus plate, and just go with the default heatsink, unless they get real hot and upgrade to the Sabrent's pastymuncher suggested.

orbitalwalsh · 13 Feb 2020 at 13:25

keep the copper one ! designed and encased in them for a reason. specially if you run Raid and heavy data stuff like GEOMapping .

looks to be PCIe 4.0 version... if your not doing data intensive stuff then go for it... though PCIe 3.0 would have saved a lot of cash ...

not sure if @GIGA-Man can state anything about warranty removal of the M.2 heatsink.

also- looks like Heatsinks on the mobo aren't linked to the heatpipes/heatsinks of the board to increase surface area .

as a rule, copper conducts more heat but aluminum is better at dispersing it .

GIGA-Man · 13 Feb 2020 at 13:28

If you removed the M.2 heat sink and the drive dies it would void the warranty, sorry.