Maximus X Hero - SSD very hot (>70C!) - Samsung 970 Pro 1TB NVMe

[mrvortep]

I have this SSD installed in the main SSD slot, with both the thermal pad and heatsink supplied by Asus on, and the drive (obviously) screwed down.

The drive ("Drive Temperature 2" in HWInfo64) is hitting >70C playing FPS games (eg DOOM 2016) and then, even after stopping the game, sits in the high 60s while doing low-intensity stuff (69C as I write this post, no other processes going on, 0% disk usage in task manager). SSD hits 80C in a single Crystal DiskMark run.

Note, I left the Samsung sticker on, as the 970 Pro uses a copper based sticker/label. Every review site says to leave it on - although I'm not sure that's the right thing to do when you then put a thermal pad and a heatsink on top of it.

Is this a Samsung 970 Pro SSD issue or an Asus mobo issue...? Seems awfully high! Any guidance much appreciated.

[---SK---]

emsir wrote:
WHAT? Please provide some facts......what you just said is rubbish. I have a 970 EVO without heatsink. Temps are idle: 40-45 degrees. Load: 55-60 degrees. So where do you get your info from?

My own tests, and a friend of mine has one too and same results.
I belief there is also one review that tells the truth. and it's also well know on some other forums it gets real hot. its basically common knowledge they get real hot.

And the temps you are speaking about must also be with a heatsink and only a short stress test or you are talking crap 😉 just 2 runs on even that samsung benchmark test with a 970 evo nvme ssd with no heatsink on it make it go 100 degs on mem controller.

why you think they even make nvme heatsinks because they run so cold ?

[mrvortep]

Thanks, sitting here now it's 57C just browsing. Yesterday it was in the mid-60s browsing after gaming for some time (an hour+). But I've stuck a 40mm fan blowing directly on the heatsink, so that's why it's idling at 57C, not 65+.

I'll check out crystal to see if it throttles, but it almost certainly will be. I have some of my own SilverStone m2 SSD pads which I'll use to reapply and take off the asus stuff.

[mrvortep]

I think I've substantially improved the situation on my hot 970 PRO M.2 SSD. I removed the Asus stock thermal pad and replaced it with a 0.5mm SSD thermal pad from Silverstone. Further, given two of the chips on the 970 PRO sit marginally lower than the other two, I put on a second layer of the same 0.5mm thermal pad on top of the lower profile chips. This brought the thermal pad into more even contact with the Asus heatsink.

Now when I run CrystalDiskMark I peak out at around 56C rather than 70+C. And after intensive usage, the SSD drops quickly back down quickly and doesn't stay idling in the mid-high 60s anymore. Pleased with that result - hopefully it helps someone else some time.

[XYchromosone]

thanks for sharing this important tip. What did you do with the copper sticker that I presume is stuck over the chips? that was mentioned in your op? Did you have to remove it to expose the variation in the height of the chips or is this variation in height obvious even with the sticker left in place?

[mrvortep]

XYchromosone wrote:
thanks for sharing this important tip. What did you do with the copper sticker that I presume is stuck over the chips? that was mentioned in your op? Did you have to remove it to expose the variation in the height of the chips or is this variation in height obvious even with the sticker left in place?

I left the copper sticker in place, I did not remove it. The slight variation in height of the two sets of chips is visible even with the copper sticker on, so I didn't see any need to remove it.

[xator]

Hi there,

I was having the same problem with my SSD 960 EVO. Even having thermal throttling issues when benchmarking. So I did a little mod to it, placing a heatsink and a little fan:



Now temps are way better, being far from the thermal throttling limit temp:



If you have a Maximus X Hero, it should come with a fan optional adapter for the VRM. You can use it to cool down the included SSD heatsink. 🙂