m.2 on ITX - is Asus the coolest option?

eddiew · 18 Apr 2018 at 15:11

Hey folks,

Having concluded that mATX boards for X470 are not going to be plentiful, I'm seriously considering downsizing to ITX instead. I have 2x16gb Trident Z, and I feel like that will probably last until DDR5 is a thing.

However I've noticed that a lot of ITX boards seem to put the m.2 slot round the back, which makes me worry for my 960 Pro (current board bakes it in the GPU exhaust, which I want to fix!) Does anyone have experience of fitting fast drives into ITX boards and what it does to running temps?

Also I've spotted that Asus ROG Strix X370 and X470 both have a riser card in which the m.2 sits, which has a heatsink on it; again, any experiences with these? I'd love to imagine they actually work and take a few degress off, but I'm too old and cynical to trust the marketing

https://www.asus.com/uk/Motherboards/ROG-STRIX-X370-I-GAMING/
https://www.asus.com/Motherboards/ROG-STRIX-X470-I-GAMING/

Thanks!

Ice Tea · 19 Apr 2018 at 05:45

Do M2 cards suffer from heat issues?

eddiew · 19 Apr 2018 at 09:26

Ice Tea said:
Do M2 cards suffer from heat issues?

Some high performance ones will throttle if they get too hot. Mine is unfortunately stuffed behind my GPU's heatsink due to monumentally stupid board design, where it gets an average temperature of 66 degrees. It's max operating temperature is 70, so... I'm not pleased with this!

Ice Tea · 19 Apr 2018 at 11:05

I never knew that , Cheers

Mean Mr Mustard · 19 Apr 2018 at 18:53

I was in the same boat as you; disappointed with the lack of mATX options I went for the Strix X370-I Gaming.

I have 2 x m.2 drives installed, using HWMonitor I checked their temperatures. The one hidden under the heatsink at the front sits idle at around 35C and doesn't go much higher under normal use. The drive in the port on the back of the board idles around 41C. As a sort of basic test I copied a few Gb of data from another drive, onto the m.2 drive in the rear port, highest temperature I got was 45C. Like I say, very basic test but it gives you some sort of idea. The heatsink at the front of the board comes installed with a strip of thermal tape so that it makes contact with the drive.

eddiew · 19 Apr 2018 at 19:25

Mean Mr Mustard said:
I have 2 x m.2 drives installed, using HWMonitor I checked their temperatures.

Good to hear, thank you. Out of gaming, mine is idling at 50-55... I know the Pros run quite hot, but I'm sure being stuck behind the GPU heatsink isn't helping. Definitely tempted by an ITX now. Only thing I'll lose is my Soundblaster Z, and I'm increasingly sure I can't hear/appreciate the difference anyway. And I like the idea that I can shrink the case in future and not have to change the essential hardware

Darren_uk · 20 Apr 2018 at 08:42

The SATA M.2s First Gen 2x don't get hot, The 2nd Gen x4 Express M.2 that come off the CPU Lanes. Can go like over 58c,
If the motherboard Don't have a M.2 Heat Sheild then you can buy Ek M.2 Heatsink

Ice Tea · 20 Apr 2018 at 08:51

I was reading that the after market heatsinks that you can get for M2 drives don't work.

Darren_uk · 20 Apr 2018 at 08:53

Asus ROG STRIX X470-I GAMING Got A Heat Shield,
Also got HDMI support for the APUs 2200g/2400g CPUs
M-ATX Motherboards might come later on

Darren_uk · 20 Apr 2018 at 08:55

I Have the EK m.2 Heatsink , Knocks around 8c off best of times
on my
960 EVO POLARIS 250GB M.2 2280

Ice Tea · 20 Apr 2018 at 09:15

Maybe like CPU coolers it depends what brand you buy?