Question NVME Drive constantly at 50-60C when playing games

[HittingThatYeet]

Title explains most of it. When I am playing games such as PUBG, Apex Legends or GTA. My main OS drive, a WD black Sn850 m.2 is averaging 54C when playing games. When idle, around 43-47C. My idea for the cause of this is that I recently installed a 3090 which gets very hot and is making my NVME located directly beneath it also get very hot. Airflow wasnt an issue when I had a 2070 installed but now things seem to be running hotter. TLDR, Is it normal for my nvme to run at 55C quite often, does it reduce lifespan and can it fry my nvme?

 

[BFG10K]

It probably is the 3090 as it's a 350W+ behemoth compared to the 185W 2070.

The temps shouldn't be a problem but if you're worried about it, try to increase intake airflow so more cold air is blowing across the motherboard.

 

[HittingThatYeet]

It probably is the 3090 as it's a 350W+ behemoth compared to the 185W 2070.

The temps shouldn't be a problem but if you're worried about it, try to increase intake airflow so more cold air is blowing across the motherboard.

Yeah, I already ordered 2 new fans for the top and bottom of my case. Although now I am wondering if I should get a larger case for better airflow, or if I bite the bullet and just do water cooling for my GPU. Its a rough decision.

 

[damian101]

That temperature is just the highest temperature a sensor on the SSD measures, which is most likely at the DRAM chip. The NAND is probably much cooler. That concentrated heat source at the DRAM cache is also the reason why even the simplest heat spreaders for Nvme SSDs normally reduce the SMART SSD temperature significantly.
Also, yes, it's probably warm air from the GPU heating up the SSD so much. My overclocked Vega 56 blew its hot air directly on the Nvme SSD, sometimes resulting in temperatures close to 80°C, at which point the SSD probably throttled down. No idea why so many motherboards are designed like this...

 

[HittingThatYeet]

That temperature is just the highest temperature a sensor on the SSD measures, which is most likely at the DRAM chip. The NAND is probably much cooler. That concentrated heat source at the DRAM cache is also the reason why even the simplest heat spreaders for Nvme SSDs normally reduce the SMART SSD temperature significantly.
Also, yes, it's probably warm air from the GPU heating up the SSD so much. My overclocked Vega 56 blew its hot air directly on the Nvme SSD, sometimes resulting in temperatures close to 80°C, at which point the SSD probably throttled down. No idea why so many motherboards are designed like this...

It really is crazy that they put a m.2 slot directly underneath the GPU, which they know well gets hot, it doesnt make sense. Thank you aswell for the explanation.

 

[BFG10K]

It really is crazy that they put a m.2 slot directly underneath the GPU, which they know well gets hot, it doesnt make sense.

It's the dinosaur ATX form factor which is absolute garbage for modern GPUs, and BTX failed to gain any traction. Sandwiching a furnace GPU right next to a CPU is literally the worst thing you can do.

Probably the best existing solution are those cases that rotate the motherboard 90 degrees so all the exhausts go out the top of the case.

 

[Justinus]

The SN850 controller runs hot for a current gen NVM-e drive. Even with the motherboard heatsink installed on mine (and no hot air from a GPU) it idles in the mid 40's. Mid 50's is not a problem.

The temp is the controller temp. I agree with others here it's likely your GPU exhausting hot air on it but the temps you're seeing are not alarming in the slightest.

If you were seeing high 60's to 70's I'd suggest taking action.

 

[BonzaiDuck]

They make heatsinks to stick on NVME drives -- sticks -- boards -- whatever you call them. That works fine for an NVME on a PCIE x4 expansion card. You may or may not be able to do it for an NVME in a motherboard M.2 slot. But looking at where those slots are located, there is a good chance that you can.