m.2 on ITX - is Asus the coolest option?

[eddiew]

Hey folks,

Having concluded that mATX boards for X470 are not going to be plentiful, I'm seriously considering downsizing to ITX instead. I have 2x16gb Trident Z, and I feel like that will probably last until DDR5 is a thing.

However I've noticed that a lot of ITX boards seem to put the m.2 slot round the back, which makes me worry for my 960 Pro (current board bakes it in the GPU exhaust, which I want to fix!) Does anyone have experience of fitting fast drives into ITX boards and what it does to running temps?

Also I've spotted that Asus ROG Strix X370 and X470 both have a riser card in which the m.2 sits, which has a heatsink on it; again, any experiences with these? I'd love to imagine they actually work and take a few degress off, but I'm too old and cynical to trust the marketing

https://www.asus.com/uk/Motherboards/ROG-STRIX-X370-I-GAMING/
https://www.asus.com/Motherboards/ROG-STRIX-X470-I-GAMING/

Thanks!

 

[eddiew]

Do M2 cards suffer from heat issues?

Some high performance ones will throttle if they get too hot. Mine is unfortunately stuffed behind my GPU's heatsink due to monumentally stupid board design, where it gets an average temperature of 66 degrees. It's max operating temperature is 70, so... I'm not pleased with this!

 

[eddiew]

I have 2 x m.2 drives installed, using HWMonitor I checked their temperatures.

Good to hear, thank you. Out of gaming, mine is idling at 50-55... I know the Pros run quite hot, but I'm sure being stuck behind the GPU heatsink isn't helping. Definitely tempted by an ITX now. Only thing I'll lose is my Soundblaster Z, and I'm increasingly sure I can't hear/appreciate the difference anyway. And I like the idea that I can shrink the case in future and not have to change the essential hardware