My Crucial T700 PCIe 5.0 NVMe drive gets extremely hot, even inside an enclosure that supports M.2 drives. When it was installed as my main motherboard drive, the system would occasionally crash and the SSD would disappear from BIOS until I completely powered the computer off and back on. This is the version without a factory heatsink. Is this a common issue, and would it be better to RMA the drive or install a larger third-party heatsink?
3 Answers
The unheatsinked model should really be used with a proper heatsink and airflow. High-end PCIe 4.0 and PCIe 5.0 drives can run hot enough to throttle or disconnect without adequate cooling. A larger heatsink may help, but because the drive is already crashing and disappearing from BIOS, an RMA is the safer choice before modifying it.
I would contact the manufacturer for an RMA rather than immediately adding a third-party heatsink. A heatsink can improve temperatures, but it may not fix a drive that has already become unstable, and modifying it could complicate the warranty claim.
PCIe 5.0 SSDs like the T700 use a lot of power and can produce substantial heat. An enclosure usually does not provide enough airflow or surface area to cool one properly, so overheating and thermal shutdowns are possible.
It does not have a heatsink, and the factory label looks warped, which makes me think it has already been exposed to damaging temperatures.