Question Thermal pads for M.2 heatsinks

[Dave3000]

I already broke a thermal pad from one of the M.2 heatsinks of my Asus B550-F Strix Wi-Fi motherboard upon removing the Samsung 970 EVO Plus 250GB NMVe drive. Soon I plan to upgrade to a 980 Pro and replace my 2TB 970 EVO Plus with a 2TB 980 Pro NVMe drive and I want to know if there is a proper thermal pad for these motherboard M.2 heatsinks and I don't want to end up breaking apart the thermal pad upon removing the 2TB 970 EVO Plus and be left with a broken thermal pad with a big chunk of thermal pad broken off that would be at risk of overheating the NVMe drive. I'd like to have some spare thermal pads that are the proper size and thickness for this motherboards M.2 heatsinks on hand incase I break a thermal pad upon removing my 2TB 970 EVO Plus NVMe drive from the slot.

 

[Dave3000]

Am I risking data corruption and heat damaging an NVMe if using a broken thermal pad (huge chunk broke off in the area where it would make contact with the IO controller chip of the NVMe drive) even I just want use that slot temporarily for cloning the 970 EVO Plus to the 980 Pro? Should I wait until I have a new thermal pad on that heatsink before cloning to the 980 Pro?

 

[sdifox]

I don't think it would make that much difference, it is just transfering heat from chip to the metal heat sink. Just put the piece on top of the nvme then tighten the heat sink screw

 

[Dave3000]

Too late, I threw that broken off piece of thermal pad in the trash 3 weeks ago since I thought it was no good anymore and I wasn't planning on using the M.2 slot that is underneath that heatsink again and I thought that I could always buy a fresh piece of thermal pads for NVMe drives if I ever needed to use that slot again or if I ever resell the motherboard I could disclose that it has a broken thermal pad underneath one of the M.2 heatsinks of the motherboard.

 

[Fanatical Meat]

I don't think it would make that much difference, it is just transfering heat from chip to the metal heat sink. Just put the piece on top of the nvme then tighten the heat sink screw

I have a grizzly thermal pad and wondered about replacing the thermal pad for my nvme on my x570 steel legend.
I got scared because I read somewhere you don’t want the drives “too cool”.
Runs within spec now what is your thought on replacing the stock with grizzly?

 

[sdifox]

Too late, I threw that broken off piece of thermal pad in the trash 3 weeks ago since I thought it was no good anymore and I wasn't planning on using the M.2 slot that is underneath that heatsink again and I thought that I could always buy a fresh piece of thermal pads for NVMe drives if I ever needed to use that slot again or if I ever resell the motherboard I could disclose that it has a broken thermal pad underneath one of the M.2 heatsinks of the motherboard.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08CGL7MLN/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_glt_fabc_0301NZ777BQ0YA0FPXKQ?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07JB4QM2Q/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_glt_fabc_SQGJ648SY2W1G8EV4ECR

 

[sdifox]

I have a grizzly thermal pad and wondered about replacing the thermal pad for my nvme on my x570 steel legend.
I got scared because I read somewhere you don’t want the drives “too cool”.
Runs within spec now what is your thought on replacing the stock with grizzly?

Waste of time. Controller wants to be cool while nand wants to be toasty if I remember correctly.

 

[Fanatical Meat]

Waste of time. Controller wants to be cool while nand wants to be toasty if I remember correctly.

I will save the grizzly pad for an emergency repair
Thanks

 

[Furious_Styles]

Am I risking data corruption and heat damaging an NVMe if using a broken thermal pad (huge chunk broke off in the area where it would make contact with the IO controller chip of the NVMe drive) even I just want use that slot temporarily for cloning the 970 EVO Plus to the 980 Pro? Should I wait until I have a new thermal pad on that heatsink before cloning to the 980 Pro?

You don't have to have anything on it at all. It will start throttling itself if the temps go up too high.

 

[Dave3000]

Upon reinspecting the thermal pad on the lower M.2 heatshield of my motherboard, it appears that the piece of thermal pad on the area where it will make contact with the controller on the NVMe is still intact. It's the area of the heatshield where the NAND chips will make contact that some chucks of thermal pad have broken off, as a result the NAND chips won't be completely covered by the thermal pad.

 

[Dave3000]

If I do end up using my Samsung 970 EVO Plus 2TB as a 2nd NVMe drive, I'm trying to sell it currently, should I place the thermal pad on the NVMe drive or the heat shield? The thermal pads that came with my motherboards M.2 heat shields were pre-applied on the heat shields that why I'm wondering, but it seems harder to target what I want to cool if I'm not going to apply it directly on the device I want to cool than on the device that is going to cool the device I want to cool.

 

[sdifox]

On heat shield, much easier.