M2 slot heatsink - how relevant is that?

[lfm]

My Asus MB comes with one heatsink for M2 slot #1 but also mentioned would fit on M2 slot #3. So not for slot #2.

Heatsink has some kind of heat conductive rubber under that you remove for adhesive attachement to the M2 device.

Just make me wonder, are M2 SSD's getting that hot?
It's Kingston KC3000 2TB and I have 2 of them.

Is there something to look for in data sheet about temperature for those?

I have an IR thermometer and will see when I assembled the computer and start running it, but as a precausing thought I would check first.

A bit uneasy to miss something.

Thanks.

[maanga]

M.2 Heatsinks cost around 5 dollars. You can install one if required.
Regards.

[Shabdahbriah]

Heatsink has some kind of heat conductive rubber under that you remove for adhesive attachement to the M2 device.

After market Heat-sinks generally (but not always) come with a thermal pad. Some with several, and some with varying thicknesses to facilitate use with single or double sided PCBs. Yours is single sided (btw). There's a catch-22 here in that not all 'sinks' nor all thermal pads are created equal in their abilities to work effectively. Some I've seen tested, (during my literally hundreds of hours of obsessive research, when considering my going with NVMe, a few years ago) actually worsen the heat transfer.

Just make me wonder, are M2 SSD's getting that hot?
It's Kingston KC3000 2TB and I have 2 of them.

I use heat-sinks and do recommend them, particularly if you are going to be hammering the NVMe with something like hours upon hours of video production/rendering tasks. I also use various thicknesses of 'gelid' (brand) thermal pad material to custom fit the NVMe's to the different heat-sinks.

I have an IR thermometer and will see when I assembled the computer and start running it, but as a precauting thought I would check first.
Is there something to look for in data sheet about temperature for those?

Operating Temperature 0°C~70°C

All that said: IF this particular drive is not going to be used for hours upon hours of 'production' oriented work loads, even as a 'scratch-disk' for video editing, but mainly for back-up/or storage, I wouldn't be overly concerned about it, as long as your case is well ventilated, and then you can avoid the headache of researching heat-sinks. Unless you enjoy researching.

I'll defer to these sites which tested the drive extensively:

The KC3000 comes pre-installed with a thermal label made of graphene-coated metal that is quite effective.

Kingston’s flagship drive looks sleek and keeps cool thanks to a low-profile graphene aluminum heat spreader

That's this black panel "heat-spreader" bit here:

Kingston KC3000.jpg

Your BIOS or other software will give you drive temps, and using the IR thermometer after assembly will confirm the above claims. Should it be deemed necessary to add one, unless you're going to be slipping it in between two graphics cards (etc), installing a spreader after the fact, should not prove difficult, as they are minimally larger than the drive itself. [2c]

{aside} I have several other models, but these are my favorites... mainly because they do work well (for my needs), and I think they look really cool.

ACIDALIE M.2 2280 SSD Heatsink.png

[lfm]

All that said: IF this particular drive is not going to be used for hours upon hours of 'production' oriented work loads, even as a 'scratch-disk' for video editing, but mainly for back-up/or storage, I wouldn't be overly concerned about it, as long as your case is well ventilated, and then you can avoid the headache of researching heat-sinks. Unless you enjoy researching.

I'll defer to these sites which tested the drive extensively:

The KC3000 comes pre-installed with a thermal label made of graphene-coated metal that is quite effective.

Kingston’s flagship drive looks sleek and keeps cool thanks to a low-profile graphene aluminum heat spreader

That's this black panel "heat-spreader" bit here:

Kingston KC3000.jpg

Many thanks for a thorough course on the topic, much obliged.

Did not have enough a readup on KC3000 regaring this obviosly, saw it like memory strips pretty much, until I saw the heatsink with MB later.

Maybe that heat spreader is better alone than what is shipped with Asus MB?


First one will get some cpu fan air, but other one on other side graphics card more general case fans, 3 of them. No other cards installed, use external audio interface now.

These are main workload drives for video and audio. Video mostly, when I started doing multiple camera edits my current 12 year daw computer showed it's limits.