I installed a Samsung 970 EVO Plus M.2 SSD in my laptop, and I noticed it gets super hot—almost too hot to touch! I even feel a burn when I briefly place my hand on it. My laptop doesn't have a heatsink, and the space is quite cramped. I bought a thermal pad and a heatsink and installed them, but my temperatures are still around 74°C and 68°C according to Libre Hardware Monitor. I'm worried this may damage my SSD or that it might already be damaged. Also, since the space is tight, the heatsink is making contact with the case, and it's a bit of a squeeze to close it up. I'm not doing anything heavy—just working on a simple React project in Visual Studio Code and browsing a few tabs. Any advice on this?
2 Answers
These SSDs can get super hot compared to regular NVMe drives. There are some articles that say when you check the temp, they can actually get close to 100°C instead of what the readings show in software like HW Monitor or Samsung Magician. Their site mentions they don’t recommend using a heatsink, but if you have room for one, it generally won’t hurt. They have pretty affordable heatsinks available, even some with fans, although that's a bit of overkill. If space allows, I'd suggest trying another heatsink to see if that helps bring the temps down. I found some on Amazon for under $10!
74°C is definitely warmer than I'd prefer, but it shouldn't damage your SSD. The controller should throttle down to prevent overheating if it gets too hot. Unfortunately, with most laptops, there’s not much you can change to improve cooling anyway. By the way, what laptop model are you using?
It's a Dell Inspiron 3593 with an i5-1035G1 Processor.
Thanks for your input! I did install a heatsink already, but it seems like it hasn't helped much. I wanted to share a picture of the setup, but the post wouldn’t let me.