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How would sticking in a WD Black look like?

martine-dee
Level 12
Hi,

I am planning on getting new SSD (link😞

WD Black, 1 TB SSD
(WDS100T2X0C, M.2 2280, PCIe Gen3 x4)


Now, this is something I'm doing for the first time, and would like to know what it entails before I place the order. It looks like the board has two M2 sockets.


  • M.2_1( SOCKET3 )
  • M.2_2( SOCKET3 )

I think I will have to use M.2_1, because M.2_2's path is very very close to my cooler (be quiet! Dark Rock Pro 3), and memory stick may get in the way as well. If the SSD would stand vertically, it would be literally over the cooler's face and adding a cooler for the SSD could be impossible. (photo below)

Do I need some sort of extension to put the SSD in the M.2_1? How does that part look like?

Also, it seems that those SSD drives need some sort of a heatsink cooler. What cooler should I get to keep components comfortable in there?

Thanks! 🙂

78886
Keep exploring, keep innovating, keep creating
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12 REPLIES 12

G75rog
Level 10
That ssd standing in the fan's path will get plenty of cooling from the intake air.

davemon50
Level 11
With that proximity I think the OP is correct that there will be some interaction between the CPU and the M.2, at least for taller cards like 2280 or 22110.

From an air performance standpoint, it appears from your picture that your cooler intake is at the M.2 side, so IMO the fan performance will be affected as suggested in your question because you won't get a good velocity profile at the blades. There's no way to predict the change in performance without testing it. It might be negligible.

From a cooling perspective, you will get great cooling of the M.2 card and won't even need a heat sink IMO because you're getting air directly over the card. Note that the intake air temperature cooling the CPU will be higher by a few degrees. But that may not make a difference since CPU's run hot anyway so the delta is still there for cooling. If you intake over top the M.2 card without a card heat sink, be sure your case filtration is working properly so you don't get dust constantly blowing over it.

If you had the ability to change the direction of airflow you could reverse that by pushing air over the M.2 instead of pulling through it. The advantage would be the CPU sees lower temps at the radiator, but the M.2 would then see the higher temps rejected off the CPU. But in this configuration you wouldn't affect the fan velocity profile at the inlet.

Lots to consider, but if you have the card go ahead and test it, you might find the airflow effect is negligible and it works just fine. 🙂
Davemon50

Nice replies, thanks! 🙂

Was it clear that the original plan is to put the SSD into the other socket, M.2_1( SOCKET3 )? (photo below)

Is that better than M.2_2? Can it happen that some coolings such as EKWB EK-M.2 NVMe don't fit in with the mobo?

There is a GTX 1080 Ti Strix in there, but not showed in the photo mind ya.

78889
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Arne_Saknussemm
Level 40
martine-dee wrote:
Do I need some sort of extension to put the SSD in the M.2_1? How does that part look like?


The M.2_1 socket is under a heatsink on the board....all you need to mount an SSD there, is a standoff (hex nut with small screw in top, included in box) and to expose the thermal pad on the back of the heatsink

P 2-13 of the Manual

Arne_Saknussemm
Level 40
Have a look at the back of the piece you removed from the board to expose the M.2_1 socket....you will find a thermal pad...the piece you removed is a heatsink...you don't need anything else...

Arne Saknussemm wrote:
Have a look at the back of the piece you removed from the board to expose the M.2_1 socket....you will find a thermal pad...the piece you removed is a heatsink...you don't need anything else...


Nais! Well, I will play with it and come back to share what I get.
Ftr, this is the thread mentioned by Arne:

https://rog.asus.com/forum/showthread.php?108955-What-is-this-Part
Keep exploring, keep innovating, keep creating

Arne_Saknussemm
Level 40
It works perfectly well as long as you have some minimal airflow over the board...
🙂

martine-dee
Level 12
Okay, it's the feedback time!

I tried first to put this into M.2_1 socket. That is the one that is under the heatsink.

So... initially, I thought that the heat conducting stick is something to throw away so I put the SSD under that heatsink without any conductor.

80314

That may have even been fine, except there is a 1080 Ti right on the top of it. I was experiencing system freezes. It turned out, the drive was reaching its top temperature 70°C. That wasn't good. Next step, I added the heat conductor.

80313

Hey, it wasn't in the best shape but that got things going. The temperature was in the range 63 - 68°C, so that became workable with but gee, seriously? I watched the temperature and it seemed to fluctuate together with GeForce's. So... next iteration. I relocated the stick to the M.2_2.

80315

That was nice. Stable temperature around 55°C over a few weeks. It took me some time to remove the heat conductor, which I suspected was only keeping the heat instead of letting it be released. And that was right.

80316

Stable temperature 53°C. That is it. That is what I have got now.

By the way, that cooler is sucking the air in so my thought is, in some wild theory, it might suck in the SSD and damage it. But things are really tight in there, I'm not up for installing the metal part that is supposed to keep the SSD straight up.
Keep exploring, keep innovating, keep creating

SirWaWa
Level 7
wd blacks are known to run hot, did you update the firmware? (it might makes things worse actually)
i have almost the same motherboard (xe) and a 1080ti strix with an m.2 in slot 1 and my temps are fine but with an intel ssd
my suggestion is return the wd black and get something else