Your motherboard's M.2 SSD heatsink might be slowing down your SSD — Only 6 of 20 tested boards made full contact
- ID
- 9404
- Status
- summarized
- Published
- 31 Jul 2026, 7:43 PM
- Fetched
- 31 Jul 2026, 7:45 PM
- Provider
- Tom's Hardware
- Category
- technology
- Original URL
- https://www.tomshardware.com/pc-components/motherboards/are-your-motherboards-m-2-heatsinks-making-good-contact-with-your-ssd-we-tested-20-modern-intel-and-amd-motherboards-to-verify
- Source URL
- https://www.tomshardware.com/feeds/all
Summary
- Score
- 6.0
- Created
- 31 Jul 2026, 7:47 PM
- Tags
- Audience
- developersvibe_coders
What happened
Tom's Hardware tested 20 modern Intel and AMD motherboards and found that only 6 made full contact between the built-in M.2 SSD heatsink and the SSD. Poor contact means the heatsink can actually trap heat and throttle SSD performance rather than cool it.
Why it matters
If you're building or buying a workstation or server with NVMe SSDs, don't assume the motherboard's stock M.2 heatsink is doing its job — check contact quality or use the SSD's own included heatsink, especially for PCIe 5.0 drives that run hot and throttle aggressively.
Discussion angle
For self-built dev machines: when does it make sense to ditch the motherboard's M.2 heatsink and use the SSD manufacturer's included one instead?