SSDs With Phison E26 Controllers Shut Down at Higher Temperatures

[AleksandarK]

The advent of PCIe 5.0 SSDs with Phison's E26 controllers has been a double-edged sword. While these SSDs offer impressively high data throughputs, they come with a significant drawback: severe overheating issues that can cause the SSDs not only to throttle down but to shut off entirely. TechPowerUp first noted this issue back in May, in our Corsair MP700 review, where the uncooled drive shut down after 86 seconds of reads and after 55 seconds of writes. Regarding criticism from tech reviewers, Corsair has released a firmware update (version 22.1) for its MP700 SSD to ensure that it throttles down rather than shutting off when overheated. Yet, many other SSDs like the Crucial T700, Seagate FireCuda 540, Gigabyte Aorus Gen 5 10000, and ADATA Legend 970 still suffer from temperature issues.

However, it's crucial to note that these extreme overheating problems occur only when the SSDs run without any cooling. While some manufacturers have planned firmware updates to address the issue, Corsair is the only company that has taken tangible action so far. Crucial has released a new firmware (PACR5102), but the ComputerBase report indicates that the SSD continues to shut off at high temperatures. The problem, though, can generally be mitigated with proper cooling. Whether using the included cooler or placing the SSD under a motherboard cover, temperatures usually stay below the critical limit, thus avoiding a complete shutdown. When we tested the SSTC Tiger Shark Elite 2 TB with Phison E26 (with updated firmware) without adequate cooling, the SSD continued to operate and throttled down, indicating that the remaining SSDs using this controller need a proper firmware update that throttles the SSD instead of shutting it down.



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[TumbleGeorge]

Phison, quickly back to the workbench to fix your poor hot design.

 

[MicroUnC]

 

[GerKNG]

imagine a world where we would have said... yeah these tiny M.2 drives are garbage. let's stick to U.2/U.3 instead.
more space on the Motherboard, larger capacity drives, larger PCBs in a metal enclosure that acts as a heatsink in the back of your case and not frying under your GPU.

 

[Chaitanya]

imagine a world where we would have said... yeah these tiny M.2 drives are garbage. let's stick to U.2/U.3 instead.
more space on the Motherboard, larger capacity drives, larger PCBs in a metal enclosure that acts as a heatsink in the back of your case and not frying under your GPU.

Case makers will need start adding drive cages back in order to accomadate U.2/U.3 drives.

 

[GerKNG]

Case makers will need start adding drive cages back in order to accomadate U.2/U.3 drives.

i could officially mount 6 of them in my H7 or four without the pre installed drive cage.

 

[TheLostSwede]

Case makers will need start adding drive cages back in order to accomadate U.2/U.3 drives.

Most cases still have room for two or three 2.5" drives, some do four or five.

 

[robert3892]

I was one of the first adopters of the Corsair MP700. I noticed it was very hot. I bought this cooling solution which works very well and doesn't have a loud fan.

 

[Assimilator]

Phison, quickly back to the workbench to fix your poor hot design.

This. It was rushed to market just so they could grab headlines as the first PCIe 5 SSD controller.

 

[robert3892]

This. It was rushed to market just so they could grab headlines as the first PCIe 5 SSD controller.

Yes it is hot, but Phison should have mandated a good cooling solution. I also tried a standard M.2 SSD heatsink without a fan which didn't work well. You really need that M.2 SSD cooling fan.

 

[chrcoluk]

imagine a world where we would have said... yeah these tiny M.2 drives are garbage. let's stick to U.2/U.3 instead.
more space on the Motherboard, larger capacity drives, larger PCBs in a metal enclosure that acts as a heatsink in the back of your case and not frying under your GPU.

Yeah its not like anyone predicted these issues.

Case makers will need start adding drive cages back in order to accomadate U.2/U.3 drives.

Still using my Define R4 , still want to get an R5 for my second rig, but the cost is jaw opening and the R6 is a big regression sadly, really regret not buying the R5 few years back when had the chance for that system.

--

Also noticing NVME 2.0 mentioned in TPU's latest review and that we now seeing U.2 HDD's.

I read up on NVME 2.0.

Everything You Need to Know About the NVMe 2.0 Specifications and New Technical Proposals - NVM Express

NVM Express, Inc. recently announced the release of the NVM Express® (NVMe®) 2.0 family of specifications. The NVMe 2.0 specifications were restructured to: enable faster and simpler development of NVMe solutions, and to support the increasingly diverse NVMe device environment. The extensibility...

nvmexpress.org

So HDDs will migrate to NVME, we get the missing management stuff added back and zone control.

But bit hard to add a HDD to a M.2 slot lol. Hopefully we end up with U.2 sooner or later on desktop.

Gen 5 SSDs can then be cooled next to intake fans in a cooler part of the case, the way my HDDs and SATA SSDs are now.

 

[Chaitanya]

Most cases still have room for two or three 2.5" drives, some do four or five.

i could officially mount 6 of them in my H7 or four without the pre installed drive cage.

Many newer cases these days barely have support for 2x 2.5" drives with higher number being quite uncommon to some being optional purchase DLC system.

 

[RamiHaidafy]

I said it since the beginning lol. I will not buy any SSD with the Phison E26 controller. 12nm for a chip that overheats this much? And considering on many motherboards it will be installed quite literally under the GPU.

Wait for gen 2 controllers that are built on more efficient nodes.

 

[Ferrum Master]

Hah, I've been telling that from the start. Even provided data that they do not obey slot power limits. We had a Phison REP here.

What we see here? A botched product. At least they could market it properly for special use cases not the epeen Netburst sequel popcorn numbers.

 

[Bwaze]

When the first reports of drives shutting down came out, I read somewhere that the companies don't need to do anything - benchmarking isn't considered normal operation, and in real life use you practically never use full speed of drive for a very long time - when reading or writing from a memory you quickly run out of that space, which is at best 32 or 64 GB - you can calculate how long it takes that at 10+ GB/s reads and writes. And there are practically no consumers that use two PCIe 5.0 drives on motherboards, capable of full PCIe 5.0 speeds on both M. 2 slots.

 

[TheLostSwede]

Many newer cases these days barely have support for 2x 2.5" drives with higher number being quite uncommon to some being optional purchase DLC system.

Recently got this and it can take up to four, technically five 2.5" drives if you stack two drives in the 3.5" bay.

Torrent Compact

The Torrent Compact is built to air cool your compact build as efficiently as possible. Main standouts include an inspiring layout, the open front grille and two of our 180 x 38 mm Dynamic PWM fans (or Prisma ARGB PWM fans for the RGB version) custom-made to achieve maximum air cooling while...

www.fractal-design.com

Also had one of these for about a year, it takes at least two 2.5" as standard, at least four if you use the 2.5" drive bays and can go up to eight in total without stacking drives in the 3.5" drive bays, although that means buying optional drive holders, but at least they're cheap-ish at $14 for two drives.

Focus 2

Focus 2 offers a precise straight-forward design which has been carefully engineered to leverage its airflow potential. Its innovative approach to the internal layout creates flow throughout the case, making it enjoyable to build and upgrade in, while optimizing direct cooling to components.

www.fractal-design.com

That said, I have exactly zero drives in the drive bays.

 

[Denver]

I wonder why AirJet is not used in high-end SSDs to avoid overheating.

 

[TumbleGeorge]

12nm for a chip that overheats this much?

I didn't think that lithography node is problem here. In data for what contains controller processor they use 2X ARM R5 cores + 3 IP's. Propably with too much voltage and overclock.

 

[Broken Processor]

I'd like to get a gen 5 nvme at some point but at the moment just no they need to figure it out.

 

[claster17]

Case makers will need start adding drive cages back in order to accomadate U.2/U.3 drives.

Ever heard of sticky tape?

 

[TheLostSwede]

I wonder why AirJet is not used in high-end SSDs to avoid overheating.

You mean like this?

Frore Systems and Phison Demo PCIe Gen5 SSD at full performance with no throttling | Frore Systems

At Flash Memory Summit 2023, Phison Integrates AirJet® from Frore Systems, to demo the World’s Fastest Compact Gaming SSD with AirJet®

www.froresystems.com

I didn't think that lithography node is problem here. In data for what contains controller processor they use 2X ARM R5 cores + 3 IP's. Propably with too much voltage and overclock.

The first generation of their PCIe 4.0 controllers (E16) had the same issue so...

Ever heard of sticky tape?

U.2 drives are a bit too heavy for that.

 

[Denver]

You mean like this?

Frore Systems and Phison Demo PCIe Gen5 SSD at full performance with no throttling | Frore Systems

At Flash Memory Summit 2023, Phison Integrates AirJet® from Frore Systems, to demo the World’s Fastest Compact Gaming SSD with AirJet®

www.froresystems.com

The first generation of their PCIe 4.0 controllers (E16) had the same issue so...

Yeah, it has finally been implemented. Now it just needs to be available for purchase

 

[TheDeeGee]

I have a solution.

3 slot GPU cooler sized PCI-E card for Gen5 NVME's.

 

[unwind-protect]

The idea to mount mass storage flat on the motherboard and near the CPU was pretty hare-brained in the first place.

As mentioned, it would have been better to go with U.2 and successors.

 

[csendesmark]

I would like to thank all of you who working in the PCIe gen5 SSD world wide beta test.
So far I see no point to invest into gen5, so the next one will still be "only" gen4 with the low low speed of 7400 MB/s

View attachment 313446
I was one of the first adopters of the Corsair MP700. I noticed it was very hot. I bought this cooling solution which works very well and doesn't have a loud fan.

That tiny fan cannot be efficient and silent
Here is my solution

I have a solution.

3 slot GPU cooler sized PCI-E card for Gen5 NVME's.

3 slot is overkill and you know it, even 4 SSDs will not produce more heat than 40~45W of heat.
Here a valid solution

1kg pure copper and a 5cm double ball bearing fan is a great solution to keep cool your m.2 drives
I know it's "only" gen4, but there is a gen5 version: