M.2 SSD cooling?

malcky

Chassis Packer
Original poster
May 7, 2017
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As title, just wondering if anyone has put any kind of aftermarket cooling solution on their M.2 SSD's (Sata or NVME versions)?

I have just bought the HDPLEX H1.S case and will be home to:

Gigabyte Z170N Gaming 5 motherboard
2x8gb of crucial ddr4 2400Mhz ram
Samsung 950pro NVME ssd (256gb)
CPU will be i7 6700....not yet purchased.

The M.2 slot is on the underside of the motherboard, so not even sure if extra cooling will even be necessary or not?
 

TinyAudio

Cable-Tie Ninja
Jan 9, 2017
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It is pretty tight to the bottom of the case. I think close enough even to simply put a thermal pad between it and the bottom plate of the case.

Have you asked on the HD Plex forum?
 
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malcky

Chassis Packer
Original poster
May 7, 2017
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I have searched on there and posted the same question too a few days ago but no reply yet......thats not as busy a forum as here though.
 

malcky

Chassis Packer
Original poster
May 7, 2017
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Would the manufacturer sticker need to be removed from the SSD for any kind of heatsink to work?
 

msystems

King of Cable Management
Apr 28, 2017
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AFAIK Samsung's has a thermally conductive sticker or something so its somewhat conductive.

Slap a thermal pad underneath and some copper shims and it should transfer heat nicely to the base.

I actually ordered a thermal pad the other day and am planning to see if it drops temps at all. Ill follow up when I get it set up. I am a little concerned that if the motherboard flexes while messing with the socket or cooler it will damage the SSD though.


EDit: Found it:

"Samsung placed a thermally conductive label to the back of the PCB that has a thin copper layer in it that helps move heat away from the controller and Flash. Oddly enough, the sticker on our drives were placed in different spots despite the controller and NAND Flash being in the same location on the front."

Hmm, it says back. Not sure about front.

http://www.legitreviews.com/samsung-ssd-960-evo-review-250gb-and-1tb-nvme-m-2-drives-tested_188027
 
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malcky

Chassis Packer
Original poster
May 7, 2017
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I have the Samsung 950 Pro (on its way to me) not the 960 version, and I don't think that one had a thermal sticker....will keep searching to find that out though.

Also, based on the design of the hdplex h1.s case, the base has the 'bath tub' section under the motherboard and I reckon the M.2 slot is going to be above that area based on pictures anyway.....the case is also on its way to me too.
 
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malcky

Chassis Packer
Original poster
May 7, 2017
20
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Looking at this reminded me that the Kryo M.2 Passive cooler looked good and also would hide any unsightly non matching (Green?) PCBs.
Also seems pretty inexpensive too

Aye I saw that cooler, but not sure how much space there is under the motherboard with the case I'm waiting on.....the M.2 slot is located on the underneath side of the board, so will just need to wait until the case arrives to see what clearance there is.
 

Arboreal

King of Cable Management
Silver Supporter
Oct 11, 2015
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Aye I saw that cooler, but not sure how much space there is under the motherboard with the case I'm waiting on.....the M.2 slot is located on the underneath side of the board, so will just need to wait until the case arrives to see what clearance there is.

Tricky, I forgot that little point...
 
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br3nd0

Airflow Optimizer
Sep 29, 2016
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Looking at this reminded me that the Kryo M.2 Passive cooler looked good and also would hide any unsightly non matching (Green?) PCBs.
Also seems pretty inexpensive too

What a neat little heatsink! Definitely one for top-of-board M.2 slots rather than underneath. My experience with M.2 drives underneath has made me wary for future builds, I'd rather use a more open space with some secondary air movement from CPU fan + this cool looking device (thx for the link btw!) to aid in cooling the M.2 drive - i.e top of board. To me, under-the-board slots leaves little options for cooling and / or heat dissipation (at least from my prior builds), especially if your case is oriented with the mobo sitting flat. Boards like ASrock H/Z270 itx and Asus ROG Strix Z270i (top AND bottom slots) come to mind as preferences for me.
 
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br3nd0

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Sep 29, 2016
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If you search eBay for "M.2 NGFF 2280 Pure Copper Heatsink" there's some pretty cool low profile options too, may just work on ITX boards with the drive underneath, they sit at 2mm in height. Surely that's enough for an underneath job?
 

malcky

Chassis Packer
Original poster
May 7, 2017
20
8
Just to update what I ended up doing here......with the Samsung 950 Pro installed, the controller chip sits right above the bath tub area of the HDPlex case, as does 1 of the Nand chips too, the 2nd Nand chip sits above the normal smaller gap.....so 2 different heights needed to cool the SSD...so what I done was order a 1mm thick gelid extreme thermal pad and a bunch of 20mm x 20mm x 1mm thick copper shims and stacked them below the controller chip then lowered the motherboard down until I could see the shims making contact with the thermal pad, which I'm my case was 10 shims needed, so then placed a little noctua thermal paste on both sides of those 10 shims (except the top one as that made contact with the thermal pad) and only 2 shims were needed to reach the Nand side of the SSD.

Its a crude cooling solution for now, but I'm happy with the results...the highest temp I've seen yet reported by Samsung magician or hardware monitor has been 34°C, but this is only me doing basic things on the computer for now, such as installing windows, surfing, getting updates and drivers etc and the simple benchmark offered on the Samsung magician programme to make sure that it was running at the correct speeds.

I might see if I can find a neater solution for the next time I strip the case down and see if I can find a copper block that is 20mm x 20mm x 10mm thick......if anyone knows where that size block could be sourced from, feel free to let me know.
 

msystems

King of Cable Management
Apr 28, 2017
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I might see if I can find a neater solution for the next time I strip the case down and see if I can find a copper block that is 20mm x 20mm x 10mm thick......if anyone knows where that size block could be sourced from, feel free to let me know.

Nice, I am thinking about using those shims too.

One idea I have is just using arctic silver adhesive for the shim stack to make the assembly permanent and ensure they dont slide out. Then the bottom layer to the case of course would be non-permanent thermal paste, and a 1mm pad against the chips, as you did.
 

malcky

Chassis Packer
Original poster
May 7, 2017
20
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Nice, I am thinking about using those shims too.

One idea I have is just using arctic silver adhesive for the shim stack to make the assembly permanent and ensure they dont slide out. Then the bottom layer to the case of course would be non-permanent thermal paste, and a 1mm pad against the chips, as you did.

I didn't want to use adhesive in case the SSD ever needs to be used in another case.....which wouldn't have the bath tub part.

As for the stack moving about....it only slides about at the start when trying to align it properly (using a toothpick to move it) under the controller chip, once aligned correctly it shouldn't move at all as there is a little pressure when screwing down the motherboard holding the stack in place.

As for the 1 piece block, instead of the 10 x 1mm shims that I used, I contacted a seller on ebay who said can do custom sizes and is going to do me a copper block of 20mm x 20mm x 10mm thick for £2.99 + postage, he is also doing another piece for me which is 20mm wide x 40mm long x 2mm thick for £1.99 which I will use to cover the nand chips correctly.
 

br3nd0

Airflow Optimizer
Sep 29, 2016
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As for the 1 piece block, instead of the 10 x 1mm shims that I used, I contacted a seller on ebay who said can do custom sizes and is going to do me a copper block of 20mm x 20mm x 10mm thick for £2.99 + postage, he is also doing another piece for me which is 20mm wide x 40mm long x 2mm thick for £1.99 which I will use to cover the nand chips correctly.

Can you shoot me the seller's name and link to his products on ebay? Cheers
 

malcky

Chassis Packer
Original poster
May 7, 2017
20
8
Can you shoot me the seller's name and link to his products on ebay? Cheers

Hi there, this is the seller I have been in touch with about the custom size blocks.....obviously I don't have them yet but when I do, I will update this thread accordingly as to wether they are any good or not.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/usr/jd_engineering_supplies




Looking at the specs of that thermal pad, it only has a thermal conductivity of 4W/m.k, where as the Gelid pad that I bought (https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B01AAHM1WW/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s01?ie=UTF8&psc=1) claims it has a thermal conductivity of 12W/m.k ....... I believe the higher that number, the more heat will pass through to whatever heatsink its connecting to?
 
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