If you haven’t already purchased the ASRock motherboard, the ASUS Strix board has a built-in M.2 heatsink.Understood. I posted in that thread to see if I could get some further clarification. I didn't realize it was such a recent conversation. For some reason I thought it had happened in 2017 and I didn't want to necro post.
I'm going to be running a Samsung 960 Evo which is probably somewhat similar to the 950 Evo performance shown here. Under load, even a basic ad-hoc heat sink made out of a small 1.5mm thick aluminum sheet stuck to the SSD was able to quadruple the read time before throttling bottomed out performance . (40 seconds vs 160 seconds). And it bottomed out at a higher speed also. Note that this test was done on a back-mounted card though, which like you said, gets really poor airflow. On the graph, the purple line represents the bare SSD with a side-mounted fan blowing on it which performs well. I suspect in the S4M, being exposed to the ambient air due to the large ventilation holes but not directly being blown on by a fan would put the performance somewhere between the two.
Still, I'd like the option to have one if I decide to. Now it's a matter of finding one that would be able to fit.
There are plenty of cheap 3mm tall M.2 heat sinks out there for < $3 such as this one on ebay. It states it needs 5mm of clearance for the combination of thermal pad, heat sink, and bands that hold it on. I was thinking of using thermal paste instead to see if I could trim that profile down to fit it in the tight space between the mobo and the case wall.
I've also found more expensive ($9) copper heatsinks such as this one which claims to be only 2mm tall, though it doesn't look as thin as the 3mm one above to me. If it really is 2mm, it might be a better fit in the S4M.
As for holding them on, heat stabilized cable ties look appropriate for the task. According to this site, standard nylon zip ties are rated up to 185f/85C but are only good for a max sustained temp of 150F/65.5C. The monoprice page says they heat stabilized ones are rated up to 302F/150C. I know, I'm being overly cautious here. Normal cable ties would likely work fine for normal SSD operating temps.
The cable ties will add some thickness as well, so I might end up having to file grooves into the heat sink to countersink them.
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SKYREACH 4 MINI (S4M)
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The brushed finish looks better than the ones I ordered from FrozenCPU, and it was $4.50 cheaper. I wish I had found those.
Interesting! I did already order the ASRock. I was originally getting the non-F1tality version which has the M.2 slot on the front side, but upped to the F1tality for Thunderbolt 3. Sadly, the Asus Strix doesn't have TBT.
well i am in CA so mine was Taiwan to San Fran to me.
edit: hopefully mini gpu prices come down there are nuttier than squirrel poo. i cant imagine these cards being well for mining since they have the smallest coolers.
Hi everyone,
Can you guys help me troubleshoot my skyreach build.
Motherboard: ASRock - Fatal1ty Z370 Gaming-ITX/ac Mini ITX LGA1151 Motherboard
CPU: Intel I5 - 8600k
CPU Fan: Noctua - NH-L9i 33.8 CFM CPU Cooler
Ram: G.Skill - Trident Z 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3200 Memory
PSU: HDPLEX400
Power: Dell 330W
When I go to test my system with just motherboard,cpu, cpu fan, and ram the HDPLEX400 just clicks and doesn't turn on.
The power brick green light that was on when I plug it in to the socket immediately goes dark when I plug the other end into the HdPlex. The HdPlex itself makes a click and a red light flashes and nothing else happens. When I unplug and replug the Dell 330w without it being plugged into the HDPlex, the green light turns on again.
I've tried reseating the ram and all the psu connections. Anyone have any ideas?
Can you guys help me troubleshoot my skyreach build.
Motherboard: ASRock - Fatal1ty Z370 Gaming-ITX/ac Mini ITX LGA1151 Motherboard
CPU: Intel I5 - 8600k
CPU Fan: Noctua - NH-L9i 33.8 CFM CPU Cooler
Ram: G.Skill - Trident Z 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3200 Memory
PSU: HDPLEX400
Power: Dell 330W
When I go to test my system with just motherboard,cpu, cpu fan, and ram the HDPLEX400 just clicks and doesn't turn on.
The power brick green light that was on when I plug it in to the socket immediately goes dark when I plug the other end into the HdPlex. The HdPlex itself makes a click and a red light flashes and nothing else happens. When I unplug and replug the Dell 330w without it being plugged into the HDPlex, the green light turns on again.
I've tried reseating the ram and all the psu connections. Anyone have any ideas?
Same here. Can you tell me how long it took to receive it from the time you received the shipment notification and what shipping method you chose? (If you don't have it yet, sorry. I wasn't sure if you were saying to didn't receive it yet or you did.)
I doubt it. The problem is supply / demand. Even if the miners didn't buy those mini cards at all, everyone else who wants one for gaming has no choice but to buy whatever they can find. The demand for small cards is increased simply due to the lack of supply of the regular cards.
Mini's are probably even worse because they had much lower supply to begin with. And then of course there are the flippers...You may have a fake Dell brick.
Best way to troubleshoot that is with another brick or HD-Plex.
here's my Skyreach setup - 8700K / Zotac 1080 / Asrock z370 Fatal1ty
Nice. What heat sink do you have below that massive Scythe Slip Stream 120mm Slim? (What's the RPM?)
Edit: NM, searched the boards and found out it's a Titan TTC-NC25/HS. Have you tested the temps since you changed fans? I see the new one is mounted to the skybracket. Is there much of a gap between the heatsink and the fan? I'm considering going this route instead of the Noctua NH-L9i since I'm also using the ASRock Z370 Fatal1ty. Unfortunately, I cannot find the heat sink on ebay.
Edit 2: After looking all over and even setting my Google region to Germany, it looks like the TTC-NC25/HS isn't made anymore. Every shop I can find except Amazon over there is out of stock, and Amazon only has 1 and won't allow me to ship it to the US for some reason.
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So continuing my quest to know exactly how much clearance there is for a rear-mounted M.2 SSD heat sink, I've come up with the following based on the best information I could find:
I calculated that there is a minimum of 3.19mm clearance for heat sink + thermal pad/paste + fasteners.
That's not enough space for a 3mm heat sink + thermal paste + cable tie (1mm according to 3M) unless I cut out grooves for the cable ties. I guess that's what I'll be doing then.
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Case dimensions:
Motherboard standoff: 6.4mm (Measured using Sketchup model [3] (May be slightly inaccurate. Spec says must be >= 6.5mm. [2]))
Case wall thickness: 1.5mm (Measured using Sketchup model [3])
Height from bottom of motherboard to case wall = 6.4mm + 1.5mm = 7.9 mm
M.2 dimensions: [1]
Chip height: 1.35mm (max)
PCB height: 0.80mm +/- 0.08mm
Height from mobo to bottom of PCB: 1.48mm or 2.48mm (depending on socket standard used)
Total height from mobo to top of M.2 chip:
(height from mobo to bottom of PCB) + (PCB height) + (chip height)
2.48mm + 0.88mm + 1.35mm = 4.71 (max)
Clearance for heat sink + thermal pad/paste + fasteners:
(height from bottom of motherboard to case wall) - (total height from mobo to top of M.2 chip)
7.9mm - 4.71mm = 3.19mm
Sources:
(Something's wrong with the forum -- it keeps telling me "Banned Words: (dot) com", "(dot) org", "(dot) net". I've been able to post links for the last two days, but now it's not letting me anymore. Search Google for the following to find the sources.)
1: "All about M.2 SSDs - SNIA"
2: "Dimensions of Standoffs and Screws for ATX Motherboard"
3: "SKYREACH 4 MINI 2017-11-20"
I calculated that there is a minimum of 3.19mm clearance for heat sink + thermal pad/paste + fasteners.
That's not enough space for a 3mm heat sink + thermal paste + cable tie (1mm according to 3M) unless I cut out grooves for the cable ties. I guess that's what I'll be doing then.
----------
Case dimensions:
Motherboard standoff: 6.4mm (Measured using Sketchup model [3] (May be slightly inaccurate. Spec says must be >= 6.5mm. [2]))
Case wall thickness: 1.5mm (Measured using Sketchup model [3])
Height from bottom of motherboard to case wall = 6.4mm + 1.5mm = 7.9 mm
M.2 dimensions: [1]
Chip height: 1.35mm (max)
PCB height: 0.80mm +/- 0.08mm
Height from mobo to bottom of PCB: 1.48mm or 2.48mm (depending on socket standard used)
Total height from mobo to top of M.2 chip:
(height from mobo to bottom of PCB) + (PCB height) + (chip height)
2.48mm + 0.88mm + 1.35mm = 4.71 (max)
Clearance for heat sink + thermal pad/paste + fasteners:
(height from bottom of motherboard to case wall) - (total height from mobo to top of M.2 chip)
7.9mm - 4.71mm = 3.19mm
Sources:
(Something's wrong with the forum -- it keeps telling me "Banned Words: (dot) com", "(dot) org", "(dot) net". I've been able to post links for the last two days, but now it's not letting me anymore. Search Google for the following to find the sources.)
1: "All about M.2 SSDs - SNIA"
2: "Dimensions of Standoffs and Screws for ATX Motherboard"
3: "SKYREACH 4 MINI 2017-11-20"
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Same here. Can you tell me how long it took to receive it from the time you received the shipment notification and what shipping method you chose? (If you don't have it yet, sorry. I wasn't sure if you were saying to didn't receive it yet or you did.)
I doubt it. The problem is supply / demand. Even if the miners didn't buy those mini cards at all, everyone else who wants one for gaming has no choice but to buy whatever they can find. The demand for small cards is increased simply due to the lack of supply of the regular cards.
I believe I picked regular shipping nothing fancy as I wasn’t in a rush. I got my shipment notification on the 19 of jan and picked it up 24-25 of Jan. It sat a day in customs. I didn’t have to update my mailing address as I know some people had issues and josh emailed about it. I also ordered it within the first hour it went live. Rush shipping only shortens shipping time and has nothing to do with production timeframe so it highly depends on where you are on the que I think. So since I bought it right when it went live that’s why I already have it is my hypothesis. I could definitely be wrong so correct me if I am. It was also delivered to my PO Box.
Wow! That's darn fast for standard shipping. It says 3-4 weeks. Guess I wasted $33. :/ From the messages I've read here, I didn't get the impression that there's a massive backlog of orders (fingers crossed).
Wow, that really looks like less than 3 mm of space to me... Okay, looks like that's not going to work then. I'll probably just leave it bare or maybe look for a flat but long 0.5-1 mm aluminum or copper shim I can use as a heat spreader. Your temps sound okay. Thanks for the help!
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On the S4M (not the S4M-C), there's way more space than that between the M.2 and the side panel.
Do you really need cooling for the M.2?
No, but it's cool!
Do we really need such tiny, awesome bespoke cases?Oh, good point. I suppose I'll just have to wait and see when it gets here.
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