Samsung 970 EVO plus - heatsink needed?

proxyc · 15 Feb 2021 at 09:51

Hi all,
I've recently purchased the Samsung 970 EVO plus as part of the components that I'm putting together to start a new build. After reading some reviews about these M.2 SSD came across the info where people are complaining about the drive to run at high temperatures.

Should I get an heatsink? Is it needed or just a waste of money?

Specs:
Mobo - MSI B450 tomahawk max
CPU - R5 3600
RAM - 2x8gb Ballistic 3600mhz
GPU - none yet :rolleyes:

TIA
proxyc

mickyflinn · 15 Feb 2021 at 10:38

You can get heatsinks for £5 so its not a big expensive if it lower temps.

proxyc · 15 Feb 2021 at 11:20

mickyflinn said:
You can get heatsinks for £5 so its not a big expensive if it lower temps.

Nice, thanks for the advice. Are they necessary?
I do also need to look for the space , to make sure it doesn't take much space once that I haven't decided yet about which GPU to go for

mickyflinn · 15 Feb 2021 at 11:24

proxyc said:
Nice, thanks for the advice. Are they necessary?
I do also need to look for the space , to make sure it doesn't take much space once that I haven't decided yet about which GPU to go for

If it was necessary it would come with one.

pp111 · 15 Feb 2021 at 11:27

No they are not strictly speaking necessary, but the controller chips can get very hot indeed and then throttle the performance, so a lot of people do put a heatsink on just to ensure their performance is maintained. You can also get some that are just 5mm thick so will fit just about any situation.

Rroff · 15 Feb 2021 at 11:29

You can run them without a heat sink but you may see thermal throttling under sustained use depending on your cooling setup and it will probably help to ensure the drive has a good life span - I've put one on mine.

Kautya · 15 Feb 2021 at 11:58

For PCIe 3 nvmes, I dont think the temps are that bad. I have a sabrent rocket and without any heatsink, it normally sits around the case temperature. PCIe 4.0 are probably ones that require a heatsink. Also with any heatsink (if you do decide to get one) check that the height is not an issue, as your mobo only seems to have only one slot.

proxyc · 15 Feb 2021 at 14:30

Thanks everyone for your opinion. I will keep that in mind before starting to put the parts together. Trying to go for the RTX 3060 GPU, if I manage to get one, the heatsink should fit just fine on the m.2 SSD if not. If I can't get hold of one, then I might have to reconsider whether to use the heatsink or not.

Rroff · 15 Feb 2021 at 14:33

Kautya said:
I have a sabrent rocket and without any heatsink, it normally sits around the case temperature.

The 970 Evos run a bit warmer than average for these NVMEs - my 970 EVO Plus is sitting at 41C with light use vs 25-27C for the rest of the drives in my system - one of which is under heavier use than the NVME.

Kautya · 15 Feb 2021 at 17:51

Rroff said:
The 970 Evos run a bit warmer than average for these NVMEs - my 970 EVO Plus is sitting at 41C with light use vs 25-27C for the rest of the drives in my system - one of which is under heavier use than the NVME.

Ah okay. Out of interest, do you know at what temp do they start throttling ?

AStaley · 16 Feb 2021 at 12:01

Kautya said:
Ah okay. Out of interest, do you know at what temp do they start throttling ?

They throttle at 70c.

chaparral · 18 Feb 2021 at 18:33

mickyflinn said:
If it was necessary it would come with one.

Not really as a lot of motherboards come with a heatsink for a NVMe M.2 which is most likely why you can buy them with & without a heatsink fitted

xPETEZx · 27 Mar 2021 at 11:44

I am running a 970 Evo Plus in my system, and I see temps up to 75 degress. I am only using the little "heat sink" or cover that comes with my X570 Tomahawk board.

When running Samsung Magician, it warns the drive is "Too Hot", even at idle which seems to be around 50-57 degrees for me.

Googling around, Samsung does not recommend mounting a heatsink to these drives... yet there own software claims mine is too hot?

I am using the primary slot above the GPU, and cooling my CPU using a dark rock 4 Pro, so there is a lot of heat in the area when gaming.

Slightly worried my drive could fail prematurely, or is going to be performing poorly due to heat.

tres_kun · 27 Mar 2021 at 13:15

In a ITX system i have a samsung 970 evo
The ssd is on the back of the motherboard
No room for heatsink
SO i got thermal pads in between the controller and the motherboard
Idle temps are rubbish in the 60-62 but load stays under 74
No thermal throttle observed

xPETEZx · 27 Mar 2021 at 13:36

How can you tell if your thermal throttling on the SSD?

Keep running diskmark again and again? Observe if speed drops?

Cooler running · 27 Mar 2021 at 14:15

What case do you have OP?

I'd say it doesn't need a heat sync unless you have a low airflow setup.

tres_kun · 27 Mar 2021 at 20:33

The ssd will lower performance so bad you will notice while in use
In my case i felt the system becoming laggy once with an ssd reaching 80 degrees

xPETEZx · 27 Mar 2021 at 20:41

Never felt my system go laggy. And the OS is on the Evo Plus, are as most of the games I play.

tres_kun · 27 Mar 2021 at 21:32

Well i have a samsung 970 pro that was above a gtx 1080ti
With the VRM running at 98 degrees
And the ssd controler was going over 80 degrees
it was affecting the frame rate in my games

xPETEZx · 27 Mar 2021 at 21:45

tres_kun said:
Well i have a samsung 970 pro that was above a gtx 1080ti
With the VRM running at 98 degrees
And the ssd controler was going over 80 degrees
it was affecting the frame rate in my games

How did you resolve this? With an nvme heatsink?