In 2021, I bought a new system for Unraid. For the cache, I used a 256GB M.2 SSD and another 256GB SSD. I believe I bought a Teamgroup MP33 M.2 PCIe SSD, and I put a heat sink on it.

It, unfortunately, is always hot. It's at 46C right now, while the other SSD is 33C and the drives are 31-34C. This causes alarms and intermittent fan spikes.

The info for the motherboard lists this: M.2 Socket (M2_1) (Type 2230/2242/2260/2280)*

Can anyone recommend a replacement that isn't as hot? And should I put a heat sink on it?

Thank you.

I have very good experience with Samsung 980 Pro 2TB (or 1TB) with enabled ASPM it has very low idle power consumption and it produces no heat (or very low heat).

But I have also one newer model 990 Pro in my desktop and it is +10°C

Both are cooled passive in fanelss desktop PC

see: https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/samsung-980-pro-m-2-nvme-ssd-review/2#power-consumption-and-temperature

• 

• this is more comprehensive:

  • https://www.techpowerup.com/review/samsung-990-pro-2-tb/7.html

    • find 980 Pro there: 👇

      • 

Edited August 24, 2025Aug 24 by bagican

46C is not really hot for an SSD, and note that you can set specific thresholds for each device.

Thank you both. Well, I have another system using Kodi where the motherboard is going bad. I thought since I have to buy all that (motherboard, M.2 storage, processor...), I should consider fixing this issue, if it is one.

Huh...I do see I can set a warning and critical threshold. I did not know I could do that.

What is a high temperature for an SSD?

And, whoa, when I bought 256GB 4+ years ago, I thought that was big and costly. Now, 1TB versions really aren't that expensive.

Also, are you sure that it is actually that hot? For it may not be reporting the correct temperature.

I have a Leven JPR700 NVMe in my server that reports it is 48C all of the time, regardless of how much it is being accessed. There are 2 SSD drives that are almost always around 21-27C, and the spinning HDD mainly sit in the low 30C. The Leven has a nice heat sink on it, which was used for years on other drives successfully.

Looking at the drive's Attributes tab in Unraid, I have 3 sensors reported. When I stress the drive only the last one, which sits at a more expected 35C, rises in temp in a normally expected behavior.

temps under 50°C for m.2 SSDs are fine.

If you want to reduce temperature, I recommend some copper heat-sink, this one I have:

• https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005005432958676.html - very good - I managed to mount this cooler in such a way that it makes contact with the PC case (aluminum).

• https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005003190037927.html - if you have enough free space above the SSD

• https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005009212107726.html - I have also this one because the fanless case and heatpipes from the CPU:

  • 

    see another photo of my specific use case:

    

Or maybe:

• https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005006050863397.html

BTW Samsung "Pro" models are known that have good power management. You can find power states via this command:

sudo smartctl -a /dev/nvme0

• it will print:

  Supported Power States
  St Op     Max   Active     Idle   RL RT WL WT  Ent_Lat  Ex_Lat
   0 +     8.49W       -        -    0  0  0  0        0       0
   1 +     4.48W       -        -    1  1  1  1        0     200
   2 +     3.18W       -        -    2  2  2  2        0    1000
   3 -   0.0400W       -        -    3  3  3  3     2000    1200
   4 -   0.0050W       -        -    4  4  4  4      500    9500

• full output:

example of full output of smartctl -a

smartctl 7.3 2022-02-28 r5338 [x86_64-linux-6.1.0-38-amd64] (local build)
Copyright (C) 2002-22, Bruce Allen, Christian Franke, www.smartmontools.org

=== START OF INFORMATION SECTION ===
Model Number:                       Samsung SSD 980 PRO 1TB
Serial Number:                      S5GXNX0TA910XXX
Firmware Version:                   5B2QGXA7
PCI Vendor/Subsystem ID:            0x144d
IEEE OUI Identifier:                0x002538
Total NVM Capacity:                 1,000,204,886,016 [1.00 TB]
Unallocated NVM Capacity:           0
Controller ID:                      6
NVMe Version:                       1.3
Number of Namespaces:               1
Namespace 1 Size/Capacity:          1,000,204,886,016 [1.00 TB]
Namespace 1 Utilization:            26,918,481,920 [26.9 GB]
Namespace 1 Formatted LBA Size:     512
Namespace 1 IEEE EUI-64:            002538 ba21bf20ad
Local Time is:                      Mon Aug 25 14:06:37 2025 CEST
Firmware Updates (0x16):            3 Slots, no Reset required
Optional Admin Commands (0x0017):   Security Format Frmw_DL Self_Test
Optional NVM Commands (0x0057):     Comp Wr_Unc DS_Mngmt Sav/Sel_Feat Timestmp
Log Page Attributes (0x0f):         S/H_per_NS Cmd_Eff_Lg Ext_Get_Lg Telmtry_Lg
Maximum Data Transfer Size:         128 Pages
Warning  Comp. Temp. Threshold:     82 Celsius
Critical Comp. Temp. Threshold:     85 Celsius

Supported Power States
St Op     Max   Active     Idle   RL RT WL WT  Ent_Lat  Ex_Lat
 0 +     8.49W       -        -    0  0  0  0        0       0
 1 +     4.48W       -        -    1  1  1  1        0     200
 2 +     3.18W       -        -    2  2  2  2        0    1000
 3 -   0.0400W       -        -    3  3  3  3     2000    1200
 4 -   0.0050W       -        -    4  4  4  4      500    9500

Supported LBA Sizes (NSID 0x1)
Id Fmt  Data  Metadt  Rel_Perf
 0 +     512       0         0

=== START OF SMART DATA SECTION ===
SMART overall-health self-assessment test result: PASSED

SMART/Health Information (NVMe Log 0x02)
Critical Warning:                   0x00
Temperature:                        40 Celsius
Available Spare:                    100%
Available Spare Threshold:          10%
Percentage Used:                    0%
Data Units Read:                    18,133,944 [9.28 TB]
Data Units Written:                 6,393,520 [3.27 TB]
Host Read Commands:                 89,844,021
Host Write Commands:                48,186,617
Controller Busy Time:               233
Power Cycles:                       478
Power On Hours:                     80
Unsafe Shutdowns:                   337
Media and Data Integrity Errors:    0
Error Information Log Entries:      0
Warning  Comp. Temperature Time:    0
Critical Comp. Temperature Time:    0
Temperature Sensor 1:               40 Celsius
Temperature Sensor 2:               41 Celsius

Error Information (NVMe Log 0x01, 16 of 64 entries)
No Errors Logged

Edited August 26, 2025Aug 26 by bagican

I don't know that it's that hot. This is what I get:

I bought a "fancy" motherboard that allowed me to remote into it...until the password got corrupted somehow. If I could remote into it, I could access the temperature. I have figured out how to correct this, but I need to make a bootable USB, shut everything down, boot, change the password, etc. I haven't had time to do that.

I did buy a heat sink for this and put it on when I installed it. Can't remember what I bought though.

The system is in the basement, which is generally cool. It's right by my workout "room", and yesterday in the morning when I was working out, the fan was coming on, going off, coming on, going off....

I'll adjust the temperature and see if that helps. I also have to change out a hard drive, so I'll look into this again this weekend when I do that.