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    cost effective of ssd upgrading

    Discussion in '2015+ Alienware 13 / 15 / 17' started by paulga, Oct 15, 2017.

  1. paulga

    paulga Newbie

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    My Alienware 15 R3 has 1 NVME ssd 256G (THNSN5256GPUK NV) and 1 7200 rpm SATA (HGST). For better performance, I want to upgrade them to Samsung 960 Pro 512G and 850 Pro SSD (SATA) 1T. But what holds me is the temperature. Hwinfo64 reads the idling temperature of the THNSN5256GPUK is 41 (C), and the HGST is 30 (C). I'm not sure if my upgrading would cause heating issue.

    (1) HGST is slower than sSD but its temperature is very stable even under heavy usage, but 850 Pro SSD can get hotter in heavy writing
    (2) 960 Pro 512G is supposedly hotter than THNSN5256GPUK, though it is much faster

    Ppl who have upgraded the storage could you kindly let me know if you reach a lower or higher running temperature?
     
    paulga, Oct 15, 2017
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  2. gschneider

    gschneider Notebook Evangelist

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    I have 2x 960 evo's and also a 850 evo. temps all around 40c and never have an issue.
     
    gschneider, Oct 16, 2017
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  3. paulga

    paulga Newbie

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    Here is the readings from Hwinfo:
    [​IMG]

    the 1st SMART reading is the HGST 1T 7200rpm HDD, 2nd reading is NVMe 256G SSD.
    HDD is slower but cooler than SSD. if I swap it for a 850 SSD, the 850 is going to remain over 40 degree all the time, due to lack of air circulation in a laptop.

    it looks like the optimal strategy is to upgrade the Toshiba NVMe 256G to a 960 Pro 512G (if 960 stays below 45 degree) and leave the HDD where it is.
     
    paulga, Oct 16, 2017
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  4. Drinky

    Drinky Notebook Consultant

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    I don't know which laptop you have, but they are all going to get well over 40C when being used. The standard Toshiba gets up to 76C in my 13R3, whereas my Samsung 840 "only" gets to 61C under load.
     
    Drinky, Oct 19, 2017
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  5. Airizzo

    Airizzo Newbie

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    I replaced my 2nd HDD with a 850 Samsung evo. Haven’t had a heat issue. Let me find the records. Gimme a bit
     
    Airizzo, Oct 19, 2017
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  6. paulga

    paulga Newbie

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    The fact that you are saying is the reason im reluctant in upgrading hdd to ssd. my hdd stays below 30 at idle. but a samsung 850 (or any sata ssd) will stay above 40 at idle. so i decided to keep the hdd.
     
    paulga, Oct 19, 2017
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  7. Drinky

    Drinky Notebook Consultant

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    In all fairness though, it doesn't have an effect on the rest of the system. The system doesn't feel warmer and it's not like it's at those temps all the time either. The stuff is pretty well shielded from other parts so it shouldn't cause any issues.
     
    Drinky, Oct 19, 2017
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  8. paulga

    paulga Newbie

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    i would hope you are right. i once had a thinkpad t410 and exoerienced numerous sudden blue screens after upgrading a crucial ssd. that ssd is baking the laptop really hot.
     
    paulga, Oct 19, 2017
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  9. Pete Light

    Pete Light Notebook Deity

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    I have quite a bit of experience with this, the new Toshiba XG5 are much better than the old XG4s.

    Note there are two parts to temps in SSDs. The memory chip temps and the controller. All Toshiba SSDs only show the temps of the memory in hwinfo while some Samsung drives such as the 960 EVO can show both.

    The memory temps should never exceed 70, if they do I believe they will start throttling around 72C. Both the Samsung's and Toshiba XG5s never get this hot but the XG4s easily do and are rubbish. I've seen XG4s reach temps into the 90s (right before a BSOD)!

    Controller temps are normal to reach much higher temperatures. I've seen temps in Samsung's reach 109C (right before a BSOD) and over 100C on at least 3 separate drives, god knows what the Toshiba XG4 controller temps are hitting!
    Once the controller gets this hot your SSD will throttle also. Therefore I've done a custom heatsink mod to my Samsung 960 EVO and my Toshiba XG5 and now the controller on the Samsung never exceeds 71C on any load after any prolonged period of time, and the memory temps on both the Samsung and XG5 never exceeds mid 60s with the Samsung normally being cooler under the same load by about 5C

    HTH

    Sent from my SM-G935F using Tapatalk
     
    Pete Light, Oct 21, 2017
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  10. paulga

    paulga Newbie

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    Thanks for reply. Can you say more about the custom heatsink mod on the NVMe ssd? the options are limited by the space in a laptop
     
    paulga, Oct 21, 2017
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  11. Pete Light

    Pete Light Notebook Deity

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    Pete Light, Oct 21, 2017
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  12. paulga

    paulga Newbie

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    That's some really dedicated projects. even if I have the time and patience, mine is a 15 R3, which has even less clearance for a custom heatsink.
    I would opt for a copper plate seen in this tutorial:
    the problem is the nvme ssd is 256G and might not come with a copper plate, so i called dell support to find the part no: JV98R
     
    paulga, Oct 22, 2017
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  13. Pete Light

    Pete Light Notebook Deity

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    Thanks for the link. I agree that in the R3 there may not be enough room for a full sink

    Sent from my SM-G935F using Tapatalk
     
    Pete Light, Oct 22, 2017
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