Hey everyone, I was cleaning out a storage closet at work and stumbled upon some old HP towers. While pulling out drives, I noticed these SSDs have what looks like a large, mouse trap-style heatsink, similar to the ones used on processors. I've never seen a heatsink this big on an SSD before, and I couldn't find any info online. Can anyone explain the history behind these heatsinks, why they're not common nowadays, or what the deal is with them? Just really curious! Also, I added a pic of the heatsink in the comments.
4 Answers
In normal use, NVMe drives typically run hot but have built-in protections against heat. I personally always add heatsinks (even active ones with fans) for drives that are frequently in use because continual heat can shorten their lifespan even with those protections. I specifically use heatsinks on cache drives and VM drives to help them last longer.
NVMe (PCIe) drives tend to run hotter than older AHCI (SATA) drives, which is why adding a heatsink can be beneficial. When they get too hot, they start throttling their speeds, so heatsinks help manage that heat issue.
My NVMe drive runs at about 61°C while I'm just chilling on the desktop, and it's got a heatsink. Seems normal to me since I haven't noticed any throttling with it.
Here’s a pic of what I think you’re talking about! This is an NVMe heatsink. Not all SSDs are created equal—old SATA SSDs are quite different from modern Gen 4 NVMe drives.
True, not all heatsinks are just for cooling performance; they're often designed for long-term reliability. If a chip doesn't have one, there might not be a risk of failure at normal operating temps, or it’s just not worth the extra cost of a heatsink for the expected lifespan.
Yeah, those NVMe drives can really heat up. Some Gen 4 drives can overheat themselves over time, and Gen 5 ones do it even quicker! When you mentioned old HP towers, I pictured something from the 2000s, but these drives are definitely still relevant today depending on the model, they could perform quite well.