990 Pro 4TB - Why is the controller temperature so high in my PC?

[Genadio]

Hi, I'm trying to figure out if there's a cooling issue in my case.
Specs:

• Case: Meshify 2
• Fans: 5x P14 intake (front and bottom), 1x P14 exhaust (rear)
• CPU: 9800X3D cooled with Arctic Freezer iii 360 Pro
• GPU: PNY 4090 XLR8
• Motherboard: Tomahawk X870
• SSD: Samsung 990 Pro 4TB in the first M.2 slot under the motherboard heatsink

When the system is warmed up, the controller temperature sits around 53–54°C during browsing and music playback.
During gaming, it ranges between 60–68°C, depending on the game. In the Samsung Magician benchmark, it goes up to 75°C.

I've tried:

• Added a 0.5mm thermal pad over the controller. This reduced the benchmark temps (it used to hit over 80°C) but only lowered gaming temps by 1–2°C.
• Running all case fans and AIO at 100% during gaming only drops the controller temp by a couple degrees at most.
• The only thing that significantly lowers the controller temp is increasing GPU fan speed. At 75% GPU fan speed, controller temp drops to about 55°C in games, but it's very loud.

Any ideas?

 

[Hardcore Games]

The Samsung 990 is warm by nature. My old 980 was not as bad as the 990 but the faster the speed the more heat is created.

 

[LabRat 891]

75-80c is starting into throttling and Samsung is somewhat verbose in their software about that being a bit too warm.
(IIRC, if you turn off the sleep state power control, you get a warning telling you that this could cause overheating, and failed drives that have experienced high temperatures may have their warranty voided)

990Pros do run somewhat warm, but just about any heatsink similar in size to the small "990Pro with Heatsink" will typically tame it.
The included 'heatspreader' on most motherboards OtOH, is often underwhelming. Technically 'sufficient' with NVMe controller throttling, but not great.

I took My Asus X570-Plus' M.2 shield off of my 2TB 990pro, and strapped on a cheapazz low-profile aluminum heatsink to it. Temps are fine, now.

The only thing that significantly lowers the controller temp is increasing GPU fan speed. At 75% GPU fan speed, controller temp drops to about 55°C in games, but it's very loud.

I experience(d) similar. Especially, when I had my (effectively) 4-slot Nitro 7900 XTX in.
When the GPU warmed up, the NVME temps dropped (from the extra airflow pulled past the drive, by the GPU).

It was really quite counter-intuitive until I thought about it.


Alternatively, find/salvage a little slim blower fan (like out of a laptop), and mount it such that it pulls/pushes air over the drive.

 

[Genadio]

I tried the be quiet! MC1 Pro heatsink instead of the MB's heatsink. The temperatures stayed about the same, maybe even slightly worse.
What actually helped was using the motherboard's heatsink but replacing the thermal pads with Arctic TP-3. I also stacked these pads on the back side of the SSD so that there was contact with the rear heatsink as well. I'm not sure whether it was the back-side contact or the replacement of the front pads that made the difference. Now in games, the controller temperature stays between 52–60°C, and after gaming it cools down to 50°C or lower. In the Samsung benchmark, after one run the controller just reached 54°C.

If anyone is curious how I stacked the thermal pads for the 990 Pro on the MSI Tomahawk X870: I only bought 0.5mm and 1mm pads, since 1.5mm ones weren’t available. I placed a 1mm pad on the front half of the SSD where the controller is, and a 0.5mm pad on the half with the memory. Then I added another 1mm pad on top of that. On the back, I stacked three layers: 1mm + 1mm + 0.5mm.