Upcoming SSDs with PCI-Express 5.0 could be significantly hotter than their counterparts with PCI-E 4.0.
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Upcoming SSDs with PCI Express 5.0 should generate significantly more heat.
© intel.com
If you install an NVMe SSD with PCI-E 4.0 in your computer, you should think about adequate cooling. Otherwise, the disk could throttle its speed after long write processes due to the excessive temperature. The Taiwanese manufacturer Phison assumes that this problem could worsen with the introduction of SSDs with the PCI-Express 5.0 standard. Company boss Sebastian Jean announced in a blog post that the increasing read and write speeds associated with PCI-E 5.0 are welcomed. Nevertheless, the developers of SSDs would be faced with new problems.
1 GB/s more means 1 watt more power consumption
Cooling solutions are already necessary for many SSDs with PCI-E 4.0. Adequate ventilation within the PC case is often sufficient. However, this would change with PCI-Express 5.0. Heatsinks attached to the SSD are then mandatory. The power consumption of the SSDs would increase by about one watt for each additional gigabyte per second. This heat would have to be dissipated reliably. Otherwise, the SSD throttles and the copying process is significantly slower.
Active cooling not yet necessary
Phison has therefore set itself the goal of keeping the power consumption of the SSDs the same. This is made possible by production optimizations, new manufacturing processes or the use of fewer NAND channels. Nevertheless, users should check the temperature of their SSD regularly. The installation slot is also crucial: there is better airflow near the graphics card. The maximum temperature should also not exceed 80 degrees Celsius. Active cooling of the SSD is currently not to be feared.
Retrofit cooler for M.2 SSDs
