Question Samsung 970 EVO died in laptop (heat problems?) - what substitute has good performance/heat ratio?

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A

Aleq

Junior Member
Apr 14, 2011
11
1
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Hi,
apparently my Samsung 970 EVO 2TB NVMe SSD dies after 3 years of service in ThinkPad T580. At about 1-2 years of age there were suddenly few media errors (visible in SMART), few files unreadable, yet surface check showed zero bad sectors (due to remapping)? And then after 3 years, it died completely. Partitions visible, but unable to read anything more out of it. It is out for warranty repair now, but I wonder - was this caused by the heat, being crammed in a laptop without good air circulation? The cooling doesn't reach there I believe.
I'll be upgrading laptop very soon, I plan to make a RAID (Mirror) of two NVMes. Which ones have good performance to heat ratio - ie. which ones perform the best considering the heat generated? I'm aiming for 2TB+ again and generally prefer manufacturing brands, not OEMs reselling reference designs.

Thanks for any tips,
A.
 
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C

CakeMonster

Golden Member
Nov 22, 2012
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The 970 EVO and especially 970 EVO Plus hold up really well in benchmarks still, I would definitely consider them if the price was right.
 
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Shmee

Shmee

Memory & Storage, Graphics Cards Mod Elite Member
Super Moderator
Sep 13, 2008
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It is possible the death was heat related, but it could have just been a fluke. The 970 series is still solid. Depending on what laptop you get, would likely affect your choice of SSD.
 
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A

Aleq

Junior Member
Apr 14, 2011
11
1
66
Yes, they perform well and I would have no objection (performance wise) to continue with them. But I think they run rather hot under load. I wonder is there anything, what runs less hot, but still performs quite well?
The laptop under my consideration is ThinkPad X1 Extreme Gen 4 / ThinkPad P15 Gen 2. Both latest 8-core Tiger Lake. Depends on reviews.
 
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A

Aleq

Junior Member
Apr 14, 2011
11
1
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It is 5 years indeed, therefore mine is now being taken into warranty repair (I'm actually curious if I'll get new 970 Evo or something better or money back (as it was bought when the price was more then double of today's prices).
SK Hynix looks great, perhaps 2TB comes soon (I don't need it immediately, I can wait) - however the availability in EU seems to be a real problem.
Regarding SN550 - thanks. I'll add it to my list of candidates.
 
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solidsnake1298

solidsnake1298

Senior member
Aug 7, 2009
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When you get your replacement 970 I would run HWInfo, making sure the min/max columns are on, and going about your normal usage. Then note what the actual temps for the NAND flash and controller are. If the temps are excessive then we can conclude that this was very possibly heat related. But if the temps are within normal ranges for a laptop, this was probably a fluke. Lets not base a purchasing decision on conjecture and anecdote. Most desktop motherboards have the CPU connected M.2 slot located between the CPU and GPU. Most NVMe SSDs don't come with a heat sink. They are exposed to all that nearby GPU and CPU heat and they get by just fine. As with most NVMe equipped laptops, your 970 was probably getting by just fine in your laptop and this was probably a fluke. If we can eliminate heat as a problem with actual data, we save you a buck since you now only have to buy a single NVMe SSD for your future RAID setup.
 
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N

nosurprises

Member
Jan 4, 2021
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I misread your first post and thought it said "out of warranty" lol I wonder if Samsung will state what's wrong with it after diagnosis.

I have a 970 Evo 500GB on my desktop for 2 years, and it does get pretty hot on heavy load -- I monitored it a while back and I think it was around 85C during heavy read/write.

How much did you use the drive? Like TBW, etc.
 
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A

Aleq

Junior Member
Apr 14, 2011
11
1
66
Sadly the drive is gone, so I can't even fetch the SMART anymore and I haven't stored the last dump. I believe it was somewhere between 25 - 50 % of the expected lifetime TBW from what I remember (although I don't remember the exact value now, I remember the life expectancy was around that).
Let's see. I just got 970 EVO Plus as a replacement, brand new unit.
 
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BonzaiDuck

BonzaiDuck

Lifer
Jun 30, 2004
15,709
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Shmee said:
The Hynix Gold P31 is a good lower power NVMe SSD, but it currently only comes in capacities up to 1TB. There has been some talk about a 2TB Platinum version of it in the future.
www.anandtech.com

The Best NVMe SSD for Laptops and Notebooks: SK hynix Gold P31 1TB SSD Reviewed

www.anandtech.com www.anandtech.com
Click to expand...
Yes, it has a lower power draw, and benchtests quite well in many aspects. But the benchmark tests for the thermal output were almost astounding. I have good, solid heatsinks on my Samsung 960 units. Looking at the SK Hynix, I don't think they need any.
 
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A

Aleq

Junior Member
Apr 14, 2011
11
1
66
Am I cursed or what? New laptop, new drive (Samsung 980 Pro). 3 months of operation - boom:
1643153125448.png
I had trouble reading one file, checked SMART and saw 1B value in Media and Data Integrity Errors. Then backed up things and ended up with 87...

A.
 
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