Do you need a cooler for your M.2 NVMe SSD? The short answer is yes, unless your SSD is operating within its defined temperature range. Read on to find out more.
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Your SSD and temperature
M.2 NVMe SSDs, like most other PC components, are designed to operate within a defined temperature range. In most cases that’s a standard operating temperature of between 32 and 158 degrees Fahrenheit (0 to 70 degrees Celsius). If temps stay within that range, performance will be optimal, and you don’t have to worry about extra cooling.
However, if an SSD gets hotter than 158 degrees, it will start to throttle its performance, and extra cooling will be required for best performance.
Your motherboard might already be cooling it
How hot your SSD runs is different in every case and will be determined by things like the airflow in your system and the generation of SSD you have.
Your motherboard, too, plays a big role. That’s because most modern motherboards ship with cooling apparatus to deal with the higher cooling demands of second-generation PCIe Gen 4 SSDs or the latest PCIe Gen 5. These range from simple heat spreaders to full-on cooling solutions.
So, there’s a good chance some kind of cooling apparatus will already be working with your SSD, and this will be sufficient for most users. If you know your motherboard doesn’t have anything cooling the SSD and you have one of those recent-generation SSDs I just mentioned, you should at least get a simple heatsink to sit on top of your SSD to get the best throughput from it.
Check the temperature
If you’re in doubt about whether you need cooling for your SSD, you’ll get a definitive answer by testing your drive’s temperature. This can be done using software that ships with the SSD.
If you find temperatures are within the specified range, you’re fine, don’t worry. Otherwise, if your software shows it’s running hot, you should do one or two things. First, check to see that you’ve installed your motherboard’s cooler correctly.
Christoph Hoffmann
If you have and you’re still running hot, it may be the that the demands you’re making on your SSD, for high-performance work or gaming, is causing it to get hotter than it should be. Now’s the time to consider getting a an extra fan or two to improve airflow in your system.
In summary, if you’ve got a modern motherboard, chances are you already have a heat spreader, heatsink, or cooler that is sufficiently cooling your M.2 NVMe SSD.
But if don’t, or you’re pushing your system hard and find your SSD is running hot, you might like to consider investing in extra cooling to help disperse the heat from your SSD. Fortunately, you can pick up a name brand model for just $20, or under $10 if you’re willing to go with simpler option from a lesser-known brand.
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