Subj : Re: MSI H97 motherboard q
To   : Barry Martin
From : Ky Moffet
Date : Sat Sep 28 2024 09:17:00

BARRY MARTIN wrote:
> Hi Ky!
> 
> When I installed the NVMe in this computer I didn't add any extra
> cooling mechanisms.  Possibly came with its own heatsink - I don't
> recall.  Seems to be running sufficient cool: psensor saying 98øF.  I do
> try to get reasonable airflow inside my computers so that might help in
> the cooling.  Also, it generally sits there bored, its main function to
> supply storage for the Virtual Machines.

Silver has one for I don't know what (currently other-drive-is-busy 
let's-prevent-fragmentation storage) and one that does swapfile, temp 
and browser cache, and VMs (3 partitions).

Zombie (the "dead" gamer board) apparently can only support ONE NVMe, no 
matter where it is -- still haven't found one that the mainboard slot 
supports, but it'll boot off one in a PCIe card. But only ONE. Two on 
the card, or one on each of two cards, nope -- only one is seen. The 
joys of between-generation tech...

Silver is older, and doesn't natively support NVMe. But a driver exists, 
and the limit seems to be "how many can you stuff in here?"

  >   KM> But flat against a heat source doesn't strike me as optimal, no.
>   
> Maybe the simple blowing the air around is sufficient. As I recall the

I'd think so. I've developed the impression that NVMe heatsinks and 
other blather are mostly for gamers who are doing huge reads repeatedly, 
already have a system full of bling and overclocking heat, and that 
starts heat-tripping the drive. Had the 1TB NVMe (on a PCIe card, no 
heatsink) working for a while the other day and afterward it's barely 
warm enough to tell it was powered on. Case hanging open, but no case 
fan, just a CPU fan barely running and whatever the PSU has, also on 
low. Probably won't bother with a secondary case fan, doesn't seem very 
necessary. (Also won't have a bunch of hot spinning rust internal 
drives.... doors hang open on Silver's spinnies in hotswap bays).

> NVMe is not mounted over anything creating a lot of heat.  Sure, the
> electronics creates some heat, but the fractional-watt of heat is easily
> blown away, unlike the amount of heat produced by CPUs.

I sure have come to appreciate the heatpipe coolers. Even the most 
minimal model is miles better than the best solid-core type. I have 
cheap little HP salvage coolers on Silver (i7-4820k) and Fireball (Xeon 
about equivalent), and they idle just above ambient and work hard at 
about 45C. Zombie has a slightly faster Xeon, the first cheap heatpipe 
with a copper foot and a fan that came to hand, and is stable at 43C 
with the fan running about as low as it goes (and in the middle of the 
heatsink, so probably not as efficient).

The rather-slower i5 that came on Zombie had been heat-tripped (HSF 
wasn't even touching for the most part) and firmly believes it runs at 
99C all the time, even when it's barely warm. BUT... otherwise it still 
works.

> I sort of did heat experiments on my Raspberry Pi's over time.  Poor
> thing overheating: add the heat sinks: ahh!  ...Some time later after
> upgrades, more software being worked one, etc., "I'm starting to sweat
> again!"  Add a fan -- "thank you!".  Fan doesn't have to move the air
> all that quickly, just move it like a barely-perceptible breeze.

Yeah, it's mighty variable, but a good general rule is... Everything 
likes a fan!

> .. Chaos reigns within.
> Reflect, repent and reboot.
> Order shall return.

Some Haiku reflect
words of insight and beauty
but this one does not
 þ RNET 2.10U: ILink: Techware BBS þ Hollywood, Ca þ www.techware2k.com

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