SSD in the back or on the base

chili

chili

chili

Associate
Joined
19 Mar 2011
Posts
816
So i built a new pc 12mth ago and mounted my ssd's in the back behind the mobo tray, where there were 2 spaces designed for this purpose, however after watching numerous videos on builds etc i am seeing more and more ssd's mounted in the case at the generally below the graphics card and above the power supply, like in the picture, my question:- are the drives safe here by the power supply?

this is not my pc i used this image for illustration purposes only
2018122527223.jpg
 
Your all wrong, SSD's have thermal throttling.

https://harddrivegeek.com/ssd-temperature/

And this from Samsung.

"However, if the temperature of the SSD exceeds the permitted conditions as a result of constantly processing I/O at high speeds, it may result in damaging the internal hardware of the SSD and causing data loss.
To prevent such loss, SSDs for data centers activate an automatic temperature control feature to prevent hardware damage and user data loss from increasing temperatures."

https://www.samsung.com/semiconductor/minisite/ssd/support/faqs-03/
 
I played with an SSD once. I have one that runs pretty hot. I tried placing it in front of a fan and it made little difference so I removed the top and stuck a 50x50x10mm heatsink on the controller chip. It did make a difference but what really made a huge difference was then placing it in front of the PC intake fans.
So, placing one in front of a fan, no, won't do a lot, but taking the top off, yes, does a little more, but the real answer is to stick a heatsink on that controller.
Was it all worth it? Not really, but it was a lot of fun!! It did drop the peak temperature by 30-40 degrees C though.
 
pp111, just picking up on what you say.

I use Silverstone FT02's with 3x 180mm fans at the bottom, most of the time these fans run idle speeds. Anyhow my SSD's are in the HDD bay directly above one of these fans.

By dropping the peak temps down your reducing the chance of NAND failure.
 
JasonM said:
Your all wrong, SSD's have thermal throttling.

https://harddrivegeek.com/ssd-temperature/
Click to expand...

That isn't what people are saying. SSDs can thermal throttle, particularly NVME drives under heavy loads. I've never seen a SATA drive thermally throttle, or even get particularly warm. They're not going to have issues stuck on the back of a mobo tray.

The Samsing link is referring to enterprise use and doesn't refer (as best I can see) to a specific type of drive.
 
JasonM said:
Your all wrong, SSD's have thermal throttling.

https://harddrivegeek.com/ssd-temperature/

And this from Samsung.

"However, if the temperature of the SSD exceeds the permitted conditions as a result of constantly processing I/O at high speeds, it may result in damaging the internal hardware of the SSD and causing data loss.
To prevent such loss, SSDs for data centers activate an automatic temperature control feature to prevent hardware damage and user data loss from increasing temperatures."

https://www.samsung.com/semiconductor/minisite/ssd/support/faqs-03/
Click to expand...

Under normal usage (Gaming/Internet browsing etc) a SATA SSD isn't going to overheat. That first article is talking about overheating when doing sustained read/writes, which would mean constantly copying huge files etc. If you were using the pc for that then you would be better going with an NVMe SSD.

That Samsung link only refers to Data centres, which again isn't the same as a desktop pc.

The only SATA SSD's I have heard that can overheat are ones that incorporate RGB (HyperX Fury RGB is one). You also have M.2 format which can run hot (NVMe more so than M.2 SATA). You can usually sort that with a heatsink if the board doesn't have one.
 
Minstadave said:
I've never known SATA drives to have thermal issues. NVME yes, but not SATA.
Click to expand...
There are some SATA drives with thermal issues, but even if they're placed in airflow, the cases are plastic with no pads.

NAS or server drives are usually made out of metal with pads to the controller and (less often) memory.
 
In the back behind the motherboard tray. The only reason I can see to mount them there in the base would be if you want to show them off - but who needs to show off a SATA SSD?
 
I remember there were some sata ssds that had rgb, and they literally cooked. But I have 3 sata ssds sitting on the back of my mobo with a 5.2ghz 10900k and reeeeaaaaalllly bad cable management stuffed around it and the hottest drive is the OS drive that is constantly being used at 40C and that's an old 840 evo
 
SSD's can get too hot and throttle but I doubt behind the Mobo Tray in most PC's would be too hot.

It is about 10C hotter for my two behind tray vs the other 2 at bottom of case with airflow over them but 2 are PRO's and 2 are EVO's so not sure if that accounts for some of the difference but out of the two PRO's the hotter is the OS not the Game drive as its constantly in use.

Also there is LTT YT video about this and how an SSD's can be too cool (info directly from manufacturers).


 
Going back to airflow over SSD's.

When you build your computers, you should always take an over-engineering approach. So maybe your SSD is not under load, maybe it will run for years behind a motherboard tray, however given the choice install the SSD in an area with some airflow. I install my SSD's in a HDD bay, and the air in that area keeps SSD's temps more consistent, and more inline with room temp that is somewhat in the middle of SSD's recommended operating temps.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom