On Saturday, 8 June 2024 23:41:58 BST Dale wrote: > Michael wrote: > > On Saturday, 8 June 2024 18:46:05 BST Dale wrote: > >> I got the little m.2 thing today. It's a lot smaller than I expected. > >> A whole lot smaller. It's fairly tiny actually. They look bigger in > >> pictures or on video. This reminds me of the discussion on the number > >> of transistors on a chip. I bet they packed tight in there. I bought a > >> heat sink that goes on each individual chip, one on controller, one on > >> data chip, two if it has two data chips. Anyway, it has only two chips > >> so I got extra heat sinks. LOL They fairly large since the mobo has > >> nothing on top of them. I got plenty of room. That said, anyone else > >> notice they make heat sinks for those things that have heat pipes and > >> itty bitty fans?? O_O It does make them run cool tho. :/ I like my > >> little heat sinks better. Pretty good size and no moving parts. They > >> come in a couple colors. Linky. > >> > >> https://www.ebay.com/itm/254119864180 > >> > >> Oh, for those reading this. The data controller chip is a little > >> thinner than the data chip. I confirmed that on mine. If you don't use > >> a heatsink that has a thicker pad for that, it leaves a gap and the > >> controller chip doesn't make contact which means it runs hotter. As I > >> mentioned earlier, the controller seems to produce more heat so it needs > >> the heatsink more than the data chip. On videos, some people use a > >> additional pad to make up the difference on the controller chip. > > > > Additional pad, or alternatively two pads of different thicknesses, with > > the thicker pad fitted on the controller chip. > > > > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIUU5ogVHg8 > > I think this is the one I watched. I'm not 100% certain. I watched > several different ones including reviews etc. > > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I8Z09nU554Q > > >> I > >> noticed on a couple heatsinks, they mention the difference and show they > >> use a pad that makes full contact on both chips. It looks like the > >> thermal pad is thicker and more squishy. One I saw looks like it is > >> just a little thicker on the controller end. > > > > Thermal pads are spongy and compressible. When you screw down the metal > > heatsink on the NVMe stick you should find the thermal pad area over the > > NAND chips will just squish more than over the controller. Not sure if > > it makes any difference in performance using a single thickness thermal > > pad, as long as the thickness of it is enough to make good contact with > > the controller chip, after it has squished over the NAND chips. I would > > think for normal PC operation using a different heatsink to what the MoBo > > comes with would be an overkill and it may not make much of a difference > > anyway. I fitted a single thickness thermal pad on my NVMe and it idles > > at ~46-47°C pushing up to ~54-57°C when being written to in daily > > operations. I haven't run any benchmark load tests to see how hot it may > > get, but with the above temperature range I would think the thermal pad > > is working fine. :-) > > I think it depends on the thickness of the pad. Some pads look really > thin on cheaper devices while some appear thicker on ones costing a > little bit more. A thicker pad has more ability to fill in the > difference with likely not even a lot of pressure. A thin pad or what > some refer to as tape which is not compressible much at all would likely > not work as well unless you either put a lot of pressure on it or added > a little pad to make up the difference.
As I understand it the tape Vs thermal pad is not just a question of thickness. They are for different purposes and used in different places. The tape is for electrical insulation and perhaps (some) thermal conductivity. It is placed underneath the M.2 stick, when the stick is fitted inside a heatsink case. The thermal pad is placed on top of the chips and below the heatsink's heat dissipating plate. The branded M.2 OEM sticker on the chips is meant to offer electrical insulation, while the thermal pad is there to conduct heat away from the chips and transfer it to the heatsink. The stock MoBo M.2 heatsink is often screwed down on top of the M.2 stick, but some makes/models may provide a wrap around heatsink enclosure as many aftermarket heatsinks do. Beware PCIe 5.0 M.2s run hotter than PCie 4.0, or 3.0, especially above 1TB and will require a heatsink or will overheat and end up throttling themselves. > I did a ebay search and found > the generic pads coming in from thicknesses of as little as .2mm to as > thick as like 2mm or so. The 2mm thick one has lots of wiggle room to > contact both chips and easily I'd think. The .2mm not so much but could > if installed right, I guess. Tape would likely be the worst since it > doesn't compress much if any. I used calipers to measure the gap between the stock heatsink and the M.2 stick, then bought a thermal pad of the right thickness (1.0mm) to ensure contact with the controller chip. If you're not gaming, or writing/reading 10s of GBs of data at a time, the stock thermal pad should be more than adequate. A case fan blowing air on the heatsinks will help a great deal too and stop thermal saturation.
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