I recently built a system with an Asus ROG X870E-E Gaming motherboard and installed a Kingston NVMe drive in the M.2_5 slot using the motherboard's thermal pad and cover. While running CrystalDiskMark, HWiNFO64 reported 70°C on the drive's second temperature sensor, with a recorded peak of 79°C and a minimum of 55°C. When idle, that sensor remains around 59–60°C. Kingston reviewed the requested sensor log and said everything appeared normal, explaining that this may be a chip on the SSD that naturally runs hotter than the other sensors. The main drive temperature reading is only about 37°C at idle. Has anyone seen similar readings, and should I be concerned?
2 Answers
Some Kingston NV3 drives use different controller and flash combinations, so the meaning and behavior of the secondary sensor can vary between units. Kingston already reviewed the sensor data and found no issue, and the primary temperature is comfortably low. Unless the drive starts throttling, producing errors, or showing unusually poor performance, I would treat that secondary reading as a sensor peculiarity rather than a hardware problem.
The 79°C peak during a CrystalDiskMark run is not especially surprising for an M.2 drive installed under a motherboard heatsink. The idle reading around 60°C is the part worth investigating, since it can indicate that the drive is not entering a low-power PCIe link state. However, the main drive temperature being only 37°C at idle suggests the second sensor may be measuring a hotter controller or NAND area rather than the overall drive temperature. Check your PCIe and Windows power-management settings, but the result does not automatically indicate a failing SSD.
The regular Drive Temperature reading stays at about 37°C while idle, so it seems to be only the secondary sensor that remains elevated.