PCIe 5.0 SSDs may require a cooling fan

SSDs are becoming faster and faster and this also leads to the need to better dissipate the increased heat generated. Currently, especially on the higher-end models, it is easy to find aluminum heatsinks of varying sizes as standard, in order to prevent the units from overheating too much and ending up in Thermal Throttling, reducing performance. From this point of view, the situation can only worsen in the future with the arrival of the new PCIe 5.0 devices, capable of exploiting a doubled data transfer rate.



Recently , the well-known SSD controller manufacturer Phison has published an interesting article on its official blog in which it talks about the challenge of keeping the temperatures of solid state drives under control. In particular, Jean Sebastien (Phison's Chief Technical Officer) recommends keeping an SSD below 50 ° C, since NANDs must never exceed 80 ° C, while the controller and other components can withstand temperatures up to 125 °. C.




Looking to the future, as PCIe 5.0 drives will have an average TDP of around 14W and that value will double with the advent of PCIe 6.0, the M.2 connector could become a bottleneck and yes they are already developing new connectors that can greatly increase both signal integrity and heat dissipation capability through conduction to the motherboard. These features may avoid adding fans to SSDs.