Crucial M550 512GB M.2 temps???

Ok I just ran a benchmark on the Crucial M.2 SSD mSATA and it did exceed 70 degrees and I believe I saw it get as high as 77 degrees. This was using CrystalDiskMark.

Crucial reps are clueless so I have no idea of this is now considered normal.

Here is the exact one I have:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/171539507319?_trksid=p2059210.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK:MEBIDX:IT

 

Yeah, this is exactly why I would refuse to buy/use an M.2 drive today.

The SSD supplier or the notebook chassis designer should offer additional thermal pads or stop offering the M.2 drives as applicable for the cramped notebook chassis' available today.

Intel did the very same thing with their NUC line when it was discovered the wifi and ssd cards were wreaking havoc with each other. A simple, but specifically placed thermal pad fixed the issues of both.

Heat is and always will be the enemy of computing.

Myself? I would RMA this pos or use/sell it to a desktop user.

No way I would support this new 'standard' with such substandard or actually no standards, performance.

 

Would placing thermal pads on the memory modules at least help? Like a couple of those copper memory heatsinks?

I am willing to try it before I sell it I guess.

 

Personally, I wouldn't bother.

This is supposed to be a brand new product from a premium manufacturer - whom I do hold in the highest of regards - and you - the paying customer - are supposed to be fixing the problems caused by their design?

Get rid of the darn thing and call it a day. I know I would.

My $0.02 only...

 

Yeah, I agree with ajkula66. Get rid of it while you can.

If it was a simple solution with same parts you just happen to have (it isn't, I'm sure) then, it is still on the manufacturer to properly supply the customer with the properly tested and sufficient pads.

While that is what fixed the NUC issues - it doesn't mean it would be that easy to fix the same issue in the myriad of notebooks and chassis designs that are possible with this device.

 

Ok, I've decided to get rid of it - I'm not taking chances of having it overheat and give out on my 6 months later.

Are there currently any M.2 mSATA SSDs that are a good, thermally-sound replacement?

 

None that we (collectively) know of right now.

 

I have a 256GB Crucial M550 M.2 SSD in my MSI GS60 notebook.

MU02 firmware.

Before CrystalDiskMark was run CrystalDiskInfo reported the drive's temperature at 26C
Measuring the drive's temperature several times during the running of CrystalDiskMark saw my 256GB M550 reached a high of 45C

 

And CrystalDiskMark runs for what, two minutes, to almost double the temps?

The SSD is surely throttling on a sustained workflow (even one as 'simple' as a Windows Update).

 

@ tilleroftheearth

Maybe but it's a long way from the temps reported by the OP running the same CrystalDiskMark utility but he didn't state the temp measuring software.

Same notebook and same tests on a 240GB 2.5" SanDisk Extreme SSD

Starting temperature at 26C reached a high of 35C

 

The only way M2 drives stay cool is by having some of the heat they produced being dumped onto the CPU/GPU heatsink using thermal pads so the answer on the whole is no.. Get a 2.5" SSD if you want a cool SSD.. M2 will always run at 50-60C under load even if connected to the heatsink.. HT managed 53C in XP941 but it was connected to the CPU heatsink..

 

I was running CrystalDiskMark from beginning to end, and within that short period of time I saw the drive reach 77 degrees Celsius

 

How did you measure the temperature?

CrystalDiskMark doesn't have temperature but CrystalDiskinfo does.

 

Did you check that the M550 firmware is the latest ( MU02)?

John

PS: By way of comparison, I've just run CDM on the 512 GB M550 mSATA SSD which is currently in my Dell E7440. I had HWiNFO > Sensors open during the test so it would pick up the maximum temperature of the SSD which was 62C. It was 34C before the test and is now back down to 40C and slowly dropping. This mSATA SSD, like the M.2, does not come with any heatsink provision. It is, however, located a reasonable distance from the CPU.

 

For measuring temperatures I was using Speccy.

 

The components can take a lot of heat, 70 is nothing. You're probably fine past 80. I'd have to look closer a the components to see exactly. I worked an a major electronics manufacturer in Quality and was amazed at how temperature-vulnerable some designs were.

 

If we were discussing CPUs/GPUs here, I'd agree with you 1001%. However, an SSD is not supposed to come anywhere near these temps.

 

Get me a components list and I'll grab all the specs for you. Until then, you don't have anything backing your statement.

 

Components of what exactly?

Heh...find me any serious report that explains such SSD temps as normal and we'll have something to talk about.

Fact of the matter is that they're not. Whether you choose to believe so is a whole another matter.

 

Doesn't matter if individual components are safe or not at those temps. As a whole, major throttling takes place when used as a storage subsystem like an SSD...

Also, the major promises/benefits of SSD's over HDD's are supposedly much higher speeds, better battery life and lower heat produced.

So far, I have only seen higher performance out of those three, in a substantial way.

 

Higher speed involves more electrons rushing around in a hurry although the progressive improvements in technology reduce the energy involved. The heat problem with SSDs seems to be much worse with the mini card formats (mSATA and M.2) than with the 2.5" drives which have a metal casing that serves as a heat sink.

I've personally found that SSDs save power when I most value it, which is under light usage and running off battery. However, some SSDs are better than others in minimising their idle power consumption.

John

 

I`m not sure why people are so sceptical to M2 SSDs and the temps. The SSDs are rated at pretty high temperatures and is made to operate here. The chips on the SSD may become hot but the total heat output shouldnt be much of a concern in a notebook anyway.

 

AGREED.

Temps should not be as high as 70+ degrees.

 

But when my temps on this read higher than Crucial's specifications than there's a problem. And not just with my drive as this is a reoccurring theme with Crucial.

 

I'm not quite certain that I understand your train of thoughts here.

Quite a few M.2 SSDs - just like mSATA ones before them - end up in ultrabooks or smaller laptops which don't have too much cooling power to spare to begin with...with "thin & light" design becoming mainstream one has to watch for any component that might add up (less than necessary) heat, and temperatures reported in this thread are most certainly going to affect the overall temps of the system, as well as its performance one way or another.

 

CrystalDiskMark is an artificial benchmark that puts drives to a test that you will encounter extremely rarely. Temps will increase with that load.

Operating temperatures for M550 0-70C. 77C for a brief moment is nothing of concern.
Try reading temperatures during gaming or other real tasks you do.

Another thing is that if the M2 SSD is close to a CPU or GPU, the heat from that will go over the temperature sensors on the M2, heating it up.
In those notebook it doesnt matter what M2 SSD you use. Because they will all be heated up by the other hardware since the components are exposed. Best thing here is using a normal SSD with a casing around the components on the SSD

 

Samsung M2/Pcie drive hit 90s in sequential benches, so ~

 

The main thing with these SSD's is that you need to have them connected to heatsink's to dump a lot of the generated heat to keep them cool... It's doable with laptops like Clevo P650/670 SE/SG, P750ZM/770ZM,, If laptops which are designed to use M2 SSD's are designed to be able to do this, the problem will be remedied.. In the long term, the drive manufacturers need to redesign the SSD's and find more effective ways of cooling it..

 

Would put a couple of these on this M.2 SSD remedy any of the overheating?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/381139888482?_trksid=p2060778.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK:MEBIDX:IT

 

For effective cooling of any component you'd need not just a mere heatsink but a connection to the fan that would blow the heat out.

Once again, I wouldn't be bothered with fixing the design flaws on a product that I've paid for, but it's your SSD.

 

First try to measure the temps of the SSD when gaming or any other task than Crystaldiskmark and report back. Use HWInfo to measure temps

Most likely its not the SSD but the benchmark or the engineering of the notebook that put the SSD too close to the GPU/CPU

 

Here is the laptop: