My new SSD failed after 3 weeks and I think the heat sink was the problem

I put a Samsung 990 Pro in my gaming rig at home near Austin, and it started throwing read errors last Tuesday. I found out the aftermarket heat sink I installed was actually trapping heat instead of moving it, hitting 85C under load. Has anyone else seen a heatsink make things worse instead of better?

3 comments

3 Comments

the_claire1mo ago

Started googling after my kitchen blender overheated and died cuz I put a fancy silicone sleeve on the motor housing lol. Turns out people slap extra heatsinks on stuff without checking if the airflow actually works and sometimes you just make a little oven. Your Samsung 990 Pro is a hot running drive by default too, so blocking its built in cooling with a bad heatsink layout is basically asking for trouble. I see this with phone cases and laptop cooling pads too, people think more metal = better but physics doesnt work that way. Hope you got it replaced under warranty and can snag a proper airflow friendly heatsink this time.

the_wesley1mo agoMost Upvoted

Yeah that's a classic case of more metal just making a hot pocket instead of cooling. The 990 Pro already runs hot, and if the heatsink fins are pointed the wrong way or if there's no air moving over them you're just trapping the heat. I bet that thing was cooking itself to death before the errors even started.

the_diana1mo ago

Oh gosh, the blender thing is actually a pretty good comparison honestly... but I gotta say most laptop cooling pads do help if they have actual fans in them, it's the cheap foam ones that just trap heat. The 990 Pro is definitely a hot one though, I've seen people throw giant heatsinks on them in tight cases with zero airflow and wonder why it thermal throttles. Just gotta make sure the hot air has somewhere to go is all.