I'm considering buying the SN850X SSD and I'm seeing both options—one with a heatsink and one without—at the same price of $195.28 for the 2TB version. I have an MSI Gaming Plus WiFi B650M motherboard, a Ryzen 5 7500F, and an AMD RX 9060XT with 16GB of RAM. My primary uses are gaming and some programming. Since the heatsink options are the same price and my board already has M.2 heatsinks, should I opt for the one with the heatsink, or is it unnecessary?
4 Answers
Keep in mind the heatsinks might not offer any significant benefit if your motherboard already has good thermal management. If it's for future-proofing or if you eventually get a PS5, then having the heatsink is a solid choice, but the motherboard's cooling should suffice.
Since your motherboard already comes with M.2 heatsinks, you might not need the heatsink that comes with the SN850X. It's designed to fit in a PS5 and is a bit smaller. If you ever want to upgrade or use the SSD elsewhere, just keep in mind that some heat sinks can't be removed without voiding the warranty, so you'd be better off without it if you’re not using it right away.
Adding heatsinks is typically easy, but removing them might void the warranty with some brands. Since you're not planning to remove it, I’d lean towards getting the one with the heatsink, but ensure your motherboard has enough room to fit it comfortably.
If it's the same price, I say go for the heatsink version. Even if you don't use it right now, it's a nice piece of metal for free! Plus, if you want to use it in a PS5 later or think you might need it for cooling down, it’s handy to have on.

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