Intel SSD 600p Series NVMe SSD Temperatures: ensure you cool it properly even for moderate use
Posted by jpluimers on 2018/04/30
A short while ago, I installed a pair of 1TB Intel 600p NVMe SSD devices.
Performing a straight rsync backup of some 100 gigabyte of data managed to shutdown both of them: the throttling was so much that VMware ESXi lost the volumes on it and showed “Permanently inaccessible device”.
I was quite surprised as the initial reviews did not mention any temperature problems, but apparently there are.
Since then I’ve put a 120mm fan near to it which made the problems go away, but it still every now and then jumped to over 60 degrees Celsius.
Later I “fixed” it in a better way for cooling getting the idle temperature around 30 degrees Celsius and heavy duty temperatures around 40 degrees Celsius:
- Put the NVME drives each on a fan supported PCIe 4x adapter which has different names in the USA and Europe:
- USA: search for
B01NAQPE6J; [WayBack] Amazon.com: Sintech M.2(NGFF) M-Key PCIe 3.0 X4 Card For Samsung SM951 PM951 950 960 PRO SSD: Computers & Accessories- Europe: search for
B06WGLK4CC; [Archive.is] KALEA-INFORMATIQUE © Controller Card PCIe x4 PCIe: AmazonSmile: Electronics- A [WayBack] NF S12A FLX: Noctua 120mm case fan over all the PCIe slots to cool even further
- Added more fans to the [WayBack] Fractal Design: R5 case to ensure better inlet/outlet air flow, especially over the PCI slots and drives using fans of these types:
- Stock 140mm [WayBack] Fractal Design: Dynamic GP-14
- Extra [WayBack] NF-A14 FLX: Noctua 140mm case fan
- Extra [WayBack] NF A6x25 FLX: Noctua 60mm case fan
- Later I will likely replace the fans on the PCIe adapters with a pair of [WayBack] NF A4x10 FLX: Noctua 40mm fans, 10mm height
I did not have to mount any M.2 heatsinks on them yet; they probably won’t fit under the fan anyway
Related links and products:
- [WayBack] Intel SSD 600p Series 512GB NVMe SSD Review – Page 9 of 10 – Legit ReviewsIntel SSD 600p Temperatures
- [WayBack] Abysmal Performance on Intel 600p 256gb – [Solved] – Storage
- [WayBack] INTEL 600P 1TB Temperature AT 70 Degree |Intel Communities
- [WayBack] Permanent Device Loss (PDL) and All-Paths-Down (APD) in vSphere 5.x and 6.x (2004684)
- [WayBack] ESXi drops / loses VMFS-partition |VMware Communities
- [WayBack] Intel 600p 512 GB M.2 NVMe SSD Review Installation and operation
M.2 SSD heat …
Before we will come to the benchmark results, we want to show something very special on OCinside.de and that is the heat distribution and temperature of the M.2 SSD with an infrared thermal imaging camera, which also supports image overlay and results in an interesting mixture of the infrared image and real image.
According to the internal temperature diode, there was a temperature of approx. 41°C in idle and up to 70°C under load. With an external temperature sensor and the thermal imaging camera, we’ve measures approx. 18 degrees Celsius more than the internal temperature diode outputs and achieve a maximum M.2 SSD temperature of approx. 87.8°C.
Tip:
Who like to reduce the SSD temperature, for example could:
a) adjust the power saving mode.
b) perform an active SSD cooling by direct ventilation.
c) apply commercially available silicone heat transfer pads to the top and bottom of the PCB.
d) purchase a special heatsink for M.2 SSDs.
e) buy a M.2 PCIe card with heatsink.
Related:
- [WayBack] M.2-heatsinks review: welke SSD-koeler werkt het best? – Conclusie
- [WayBack] m.2 cooling (Samsung 950 Pro, etc.) : buildapc
- [WayBack] Samsung sm951 NVMe heatsink mod – Album on Imgur
–jeroen
The Wiert Corner - irregular stream of stuff 
damian101 said
I have a 2TB Intel 660p SSD in my laptop and it is 30°C when idle and only gets a bit over 40°C under full load (CrystalDiskMark). There is a metal plate on it though (more a heat spreader than a heatsink).