Samsung X5 Thunderbolt 3 SSD overheating

[VitoBotta]

I have a Samsung X5 connected to my M1 mini and I use it as the main drive since the internal SSD is small. I noticed inconsistent performance, sometimes super fast sometimes ridiculously slow, until I noticed that the case of the drive was getting very hot. I put it on a laptop stand as a big heatsink so the plastic case would touch this heatsink and the performance seems more stable now in comparison.

Is there a better way to cool this drive down? And does anyone else have the same issue?

Thanks.

 

[satcomer]

When you put in the NVME drive in he external did you put M.2 Termal Pads?

 

[VitoBotta]

When you put in the NVME drive in he external did you put M.2 Termal Pads?

What do you mean? The Samsung X5 comes reading with the drive already in the case etc, I did not assemble it

 

[Fishrrman]

NVME USB drives run hot.
NVME drives in a thunderbolt enclosure can run HOTTER (due to higher transfer speeds).
If you boot from it, it's probably going to run hotter much of the time, due to things like VM disk swapping, etc.

I've come to the conclusion that there's something about the nvme design that generates a lot of heat. Even CompactFlash cards for digital cameras can get hot under heavy usage.

I read a post here only a few days ago that said Samsung had discontinued the X5. I'm guessing that "heat" had something to do with it.

I believe when an nvme drive gets overheated, it will "throttle back" the speeds, sometimes drastically.

OP:
Your best course of action would to be to GO BACK TO BOOTING FROM THE INTERNAL SSD.
Yes, it's small.
You must keep larger items (libraries of movies, music, pics, etc.) on the external drive if necessary.

Do this, and things will still run fast, AND, the X5 will run much cooler.

 

[satcomer]

What do you mean? The Samsung X5 comes reading with the drive already in the case etc, I did not assemble it

So you don't know and ne er seemed to find out yourself! As look up on web site it has heatsink in its description that could of failed!