Running NVMe on a single motherboard can get quite warm.
Running NVMe on a single motherboard can get quite warm.
Hello, I installed a Yottamaster 1TB NVMe SSD in your son's PC and it performed well initially. However, after extended gaming sessions, his computer would unexpectedly shut down. I began checking temperatures and found the SSD overheating during boot, reaching over 70°C and spiking to around 82°C when idle. To evaluate the drive, I tested it in a Mac mini hub—it ran at about 40°C and peaked near 65°C during testing. This suggests the issue lies with his motherboard. His system specs include an Asus Z170i Pro Gaming board, Intel 6700K CPU, 1060 GPU, 16GB RAM, and 6GB SSD. The board is quite old but supports NVMe. It was last updated in BIOS around 2018. I searched various BIOS settings but didn’t find much to adjust for the M.2 connection. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Is the NVMe device equipped with a cooling component? Does it have a dedicated fan aimed specifically at that unit? (They're often small, so you might not notice them.) Have you experimented with another NVMe port on your computer? Would overheating the drive trigger a shutdown, and would you also check if your CPU or GPU temperatures are elevated?
I kept his system fully accessible for testing, allowing the SSD complete access. I omitted the heat sink due to insufficient space beneath it. Placing it on the motherboard might be risky. Using the Mac hub kept it upright without a fan, just an aluminum shield that didn’t contact the SSD. I used my Yottamaster 2TB model and observed comparable temperatures in his machine. It supports macOS but still shows SMART status. The random shutdowns happened when the PC powered off during a game. After restarting, it failed to boot into Windows without shutting down. In BIOS, it exited after roughly a minute. CPU temps stayed below 70°C and GPU remained cool during play. I checked his PSU with a tester—it delivered stable voltage and everything appeared normal. After removing the case covers and swapping the NVMe drive for an older M.2 SSD via a 2.5 SATA adapter, the PC started Windows smoothly and he played for about half an hour without any shutdowns.
Clearly visible when you just opened the top part or removed the motherboard from the case—there’s minimal ventilation on the back. Even with a high-speed Gen4 NVME drive, the front can still get quite warm, especially if there’s any airflow. I’m guessing it’s the Yottamaster Y7000 model, as that’s the only one listed on their site.
I've got two of these. They work really well. https://www.amazon.com/MHQJRH-heatsink-D...B07KDDKDNN
SSDs may become quite warm when they're idle because they don't enter a low-power mode, which also makes them run slower. Older models might not have this capability. When an operating system is running, it creates a steady, minor flow of read/write operations every few seconds. During gaming, where drive usage spikes, temperatures rise further. Using a heatsink or improving airflow would help. Insulation only works effectively if the gap between components is wide enough. A tiny gap (less than 2mm) can efficiently transfer heat away from the aluminum.
You can remove the bottom and top covers to use just the case structure. As shown in the attached photo, it's the third part. It's the Y7000 Pro 1TB model. The motherboard only supports Gen3, so the speeds aren't reaching their full potential. What's interesting is that it stays steady at around 75 or 76 degrees without dropping. After moving the OS to the msata drive and using it as a secondary drive, the temperatures remained high.
Thanks for the feedback. I'll conduct additional tests with other drives (m.2 SATA and a different NVMe) and share the results. Regarding the temperature readings, it's possible HWinfo is showing inaccurate values due to the motherboard's age. For monitoring alternatives, you might consider using tools like HWMonitor, Core Temp, or even built-in BIOS utilities.
It really stays in a higher idle or parked mode. Two older drives out of four reached temperatures between 72 and 68 before I turned on the fan. Then they settled around 45 degrees. This happened on an old system I disposed of, but it’s similar to what I see now. Since I can run a fan (and my setup does need it), I never faced hot drive problems. The HWInfo report shows the temperature reported by the drive in SMART data, which usually comes from the controller, not the flash or actual heat. That info alone isn’t very helpful. A thermal camera would give much clearer details, though it’s quite costly.