I'm upgrading an older PC on a limited budget. The motherboard is a Gigabyte AB350-Gaming 3, and I'm installing a WD Black NVMe SSD in the M.2 slot. I'll also be adding a used graphics card, potentially an RTX 3070 or something newer, and the SSD will sit directly beneath the GPU.
Since the motherboard and SSD will be running at PCIe 3.0 speeds, I'm hoping heat won't be a major concern, but I'm unsure whether the GPU's size and heat output could cause problems. Should I install a low-profile M.2 heatsink, or would it be better to move the graphics card to a lower slot with a riser cable? I haven't done a major PC upgrade in a while, so I'd appreciate some practical advice before putting everything together.
4 Answers
A drive in that position may get somewhat warm, but that doesn’t automatically mean there’s a problem. Around the low 40s Celsius at idle and roughly 60°C under a heavy workload is generally not alarming. Good case airflow matters more than trying to redesign the whole layout.
An NVMe drive under a graphics card is a very common setup, and PCIe 3.0 drives generally don’t produce enough heat for this to be a serious issue. A heatsink can help, but relocating the GPU with a riser would add complexity without much benefit.
If your motherboard doesn’t include an M.2 heatsink, a cheap, low-profile third-party heatsink should be enough for a PCIe 3.0 or 4.0 drive. Just check the clearance beneath the graphics card and make sure the heatsink doesn’t interfere with the GPU or motherboard components. Newer PCIe 5.0 drives are the ones that tend to need much more substantial cooling.
You probably don’t need to move the GPU. Install everything normally, then monitor the SSD temperature during regular use and a stress test. If it runs hotter than you’re comfortable with, a basic low-profile M.2 heatsink is the cheapest and simplest fix.
HWiNFO64 is useful for checking the SSD and other system sensors. It’s free for personal use and gives you plenty of temperature and performance information.
If your SSD does run hotter than expected, you could also look into a PCIe adapter card in another expansion slot, but that should be a backup option rather than the starting point.