Crosshair VIII Dark Hero M.2 SSD's get really hot?

[thomas_yiu@ROG]

Does the M.2 manufacturer have recommendation for better thermal pad for the M.2 drives? We only have standard thermal pads. If you want higher performance thermal pads, you might 3rd party thermal pads.

[Silent Scone@ROG]

68c sounds fine. SSD's like being around 60-80 degrees. Do some benchmarks/stress tests to test if the SSD's are thermal throttling.

This. With passive cooling anything under 70c is acceptable. With heavy data writes these drives can get fairly warm.

[H4tch3t]

Your problem is the proximity of your GPU to the heatsink of the M.2. *Simple thermo dynamics he says*.

That card dumps a load of transformed energy into the box. The small distance between the fan vent on the card and the aluminium heatsink on the M.2's will result in heatsoak on the heatsink eventually as the heated air blasts against it constantly. Maybe 3 options here:

1) Watercool the card to shift the expelled energy to outward facing radiators. Costly, pain in the backend in terms of maintenance, but super effective.

2) Use a riser and Vertical GPU stand to change the orientation of the card so that the hot air isn't blasted directly onto your M.2 heatsinks. Cheaper option. Case limitations may apply.

3) Increase ventilation in your case with more fans or better orientation in an attempt to shift the hot air out quicker. (this could buy you some time, but ultimately for long sessions you'll get heatsoak anyways)

Hope you come right!