How to do better M2 onboard cooling / ASUS Z690-F ?

[dgs68]

Dear experts,
I have used all 3 M2 slots for SSDs on the ASUS Z690-F.
Now there are very hot room temperatures and the M2 temperatures are increasing to 68°C.
I am not sure how long these M2 will run without problems under that conditions.
The PC itself is cooled by 3 Be Quiet Pure Wings 14cm (one at the back and 2 at the front) and the CPU is cooled by EK AIO 360 in a Be Quiet Silent Base 802.
How is it possible to reduce the above mentioned increasing M2 temperatures ?
Is it possible to remove the M2 onboard cover to an active M2 cooling adapter for each M2 or will that not work ?
Would additional cooling i.e.
- with a fan at the bottom of the case or
- with an additional PCI Slot fan
have more success at the end ?

What is your recommendation and experience ?

Many thanks in advance for any recommendation !!

best regards
dgs

[JohnAb]

It's all about airflow inside the case. How are you controlling the fans? One thing you can try is to set all case fans to max and see if that helps for a start. You have 2 fans taking air in and 1 exiting the air?

[dgs68]

Exactly, 2 fans at the front take the air in and 1 fan at the back exiting it.
All fans are managed by the be quiet case „Controller“ connected to the mainboard.
And its already to max 

[Silent_Scone]

As already suggested you may want to investigate airflow. Perhaps upload some photos of the system. With that said, 68c is nothing to be concerned about, especially if under heavy loads.

[Drayco31]

I didn't use the supplied thermal pad and heatsink on the Z690 boards. Already had heatsinks on my M.2 drives

My drives are all in EK heatsinks, link below. This requires modification to install a drive with one of these fitted as the Q-Latch sucks and you can't lock in the drive with the heatsink fitted. To solve that I cut 5-6mm of the lower part off the Heatsink at the Q-Latch. Now the Q-Latch can lock because the heatsink isn't blocking it. Obviously you can't use the motherboards M.2 Heatsinks this way but the drive gets more air to improve it's cooling.

Sure other Heatsinks would have the same issue. They already solved the little screw issue several gens ago by just having a plastic plug. Simple and didn't limit cooling options

Just ran Crystal DiskMark on

2TB 980 Pro located at the bottom of the board max temp was 57 degrees C

1TB 970 EvoPlus located in the middle just below GPU, RTX 3070, max temp was 62 degrees C

https://www.ekwb.com/shop/ek-m-2-nvme-heatsink-black

Also used Themal Grizzle thermal pads instead of the pads supplied with the heatsinks

[dgs68]

Hi Drayco31,

Thanks for your interesting hints. I will check the positions and temps of the M2‘s and come back next days.

[dgs68]

Hi everybody,

Here the pic of my mainboard during hardware setup.
From 1st visible check there should be enough space to exchange the original M2 ASUS  covers with heatsink for each M2.
1) Do you think passive M2 heatsinks are sufficient
2) or should I use active heatsinks
3) and if yes whats your recommendation for it and
4) which fan connection should be used on the board ?
5) if there is no fan connection available or the connection cable of the M2 heatsink is too short
    what about your experience to add an additional PCI Fan controller ?
   Which works best together with the ASUS-Z690-F software ?

Thanks again for your support !

Have a great weekend !
Best regards

dgs68

[Drayco31]

As I said earlier just a Heatsink is fine. I've got a 980 Pro with EK heatsink in the same position as yours and it's absolutely fine. I have the same heatsink on Nvme drives in all 4 M.2 slots.

You may have issues using the Q-Latch to secure a drive with any heatsink. I trimmed my EK heatsinks so they'd fit. Not at home today but if I get chance tomorrow I'll remove a drive and take a picture so you can see what I mean

[Greg7579]

I'm going to build with the Z790 Hero and will install PCIe Gen 5 2TB SSD as the OS drive.  I'm a photographer so will have tons of other drives, but for the Gen 5 SSD, I'm confused on the explanation of how best to install a PCIe Gen 5 M.2 using some kind of expansion card.  I will figure it out when I get my hands on it, but tell me - do I order a PCIe Gen 5 SSD with a heat sink or no heat sink?  The Z790 no doubt has a good heat where the PCIe Gen 5 M.2 SSD will be installed right?  So I should order the M.2 PCIe Gen 5 SSD without heat sync right?  Thanks.  

[Drayco31 · Accepted solution]

Gladd someone gave me a Kudos as I completely forgot to take a drive out and take a photo. Tried to insert as photo but that kept resulting in an error so I attached them instead. I've seen lots of heatsinks for M.2 drives and I always look at the image and think 'No way that'll fit one of these Motherboards'

1. Yes, I forgot to remove the plastic on the logo. Never been an issue but I have just removed it.

2. Rear looks messy. cut it and dropped it while in the Shed and besides a quick wiped down I made sure to ground myself and it before installing the drive before installing in system. Think that was my first tweak/cut and once installed an working saw no point to remove and tidy it up.

EDIT: Forgot to say if you go with the EK heatsink or something similar with a thin bit of metal be careful not to bend it when you cut. I did in that one I photographed and put it in a vice to flatten it. If you do bend it but don't have a Vice use something flat and firm, bricks, hard back books or something