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Despite the lack of moving parts, hence the name solid state drives, SSDs can get hot, really hot. If you don’t pay attention to high temperature readings from your SSD you could be speeding up it’s death – but more on that later. Let’s cut to the chase:
What’s A Safe Operating Temperature For SSDs?
Most SSDs are rated for running within a temperature range of 0ºC up to a max temp of 70ºC (32ºF to 158ºF). This range is about the same for every consumer SSD currently on the market, but can sometimes vary slightly based on the model and form factor of the SSD (2.5” SATA, M.2 or mSATA) – but a drive under 70ºC is generally within the operating parameters provided by SSD manufacturers.
However, studies like the one Facebook conducted in their own data centers found that the hotter your SSD runs, the quicker it wears out the flash memory inside of the drive. So while an SSD can technically operate at the higher ranges advertised my manufacturers, you’re going to get better data integrity and more life out of your SSD if you keep it cool.
Typical SSD Operating Temperatures
For reliability, most of the time you should see a temp range between 30ºC and 50ºC (86ºF to 122ºF) for SSDs under load in a standard desktop computer.
This varies based on a bunch of things like: where you’re located in the world, how hot it is outside and your current room temperature when taking the reading, what type of enclosure the SSD is located in or where your SSD is located inside of your computer case, as well as how much work your SSD is currently doing (reads/writes).
Temperatures at Idle vs Full Load
SSDs vary in temperature depending on what they’re doing. It’s quite normal for an SSD to jump 5, 10, 15 or more degrees celsius when going from idle (nothing happening on the drive) to a full workload of heavy reads & writes. If your SSD gets hot when you’re copying big files or using I/O intensive programs, but cools right back down once a transfer is complete or you close the disk intensive program – this is completely normal. Short bursts of higher temperatures for an SSD that’s doing heavy work is completely normal.
But: You should be concerned about your SSD if it shows consistently high temperatures (over 50ºC/122ºF) while your machine is idle. If you aren’t running any file transfers or heavy I/O programs and you don’t live in the middle of a desert, but your SSD is still running over 50ºC – you might have a bigger problem.
How To Check Your SSD Temps
To check your drive temperature in Windows 7/8/10 grab a copy of Open Hardware Monitor, it’s a completely free open source system resource monitor and will report back temperatures for your SSDs and hard drives.
If you have a Mac you can grab the free Hardware Monitor app.
SSD Running Slow? It Might Be Too Hot
Most SSDs implement thermal throttling as a safety feature if a drive gets too hot. The closer your drives gets to the 70ºC limit that most manufacturers have, the more likely it is that the drive will start slowing down to prevent itself from failing. The drive will slow down drastically until the temperatures come back to a reasonable range (around 50ºC or so), at which point you should get your speeds back.
If your SSD is hitting 70ºC or higher you are in the danger zone and will notice your machine grind to a halt as it waits for the drive to cool down.
Keeping Your SSD Cool
If the SSD inside of your desktop is running hot make sure that you have it mounted in a spot with sufficient airflow. A lot of cases have SSD mounts located in low airflow spots like behind the motherboard or between other warm components like hard drives. If you can, try to move your SSD to a spot in the case where it can breathe. Try to make sure that the drive has air blowing over it when your machine is running.
If your SSD is running hot inside of an external enclosure you may want to consider a different enclosure, such as one made of metal to better conduct heat away from the drive. You can also use a simple SATA to USB adapter which allows you to run your SSD completely naked (without a case), but I wouldn’t recommend going without an enclosure if you’re planning on tossing the drive in a bag to take with you.
If your SSD is getting hot inside your laptop you don’t have a lot you can do. Other nearby components such as the battery, ram or the CPU may be getting a bit too hot and heating up the entire system. If your laptop SSD is constantly running hot you probably want to call the support line for whoever makes your laptop and see if they have any suggestions about the high temps.
Some SSDs Run Hotter
M.2 and mSATA SSDs are known to run hotter than 2.5” SATA SSDs. Likely due to the exposed chips in these SSD models, lacking thermal pads or casing that can conduct heat away from the chips. If you have an M.2 or mSATA SSD inside of your machine, you want to make sure there’s air flowing over the drive.
If the drives are still running hot you should look into applying thermal pads to help dissipate heat. You can grab thermal conductive silicone pads on Amazon for less than $10 which you stick to drive to help draw heat away from the hot controller and NAND chips.
SSD Still Running Hot?
If your SSD heat problems persist after trying some of the remedies listed above it may be time to contact support. Most SSD makers offer between a 2 to 5 year warranty on their drives. If your drive is consistently running hot you should contact the manufacturer about possibly RMA’ing the drive and getting a replacement.
Make sure you backup all of your data and secure erasing the drive to prevent any prying eyes from getting their hands on your data.
Operating Temperatures For Different SSDs:
Samsung SSD Temps: 950, 960, 970, 750, 840, 850 and 860 EVO and PRO series are rated for operation between 0ºC and 70ºC.
Crucial SSD Temps: MX500, MX300, BX300 and almost all Crucial SSDs are rated for operation between 0ºC and 70ºC.
Sandisk SSD Temps: SSD PLUS, Extreme Pro, Ultra II and Ultra 3D SSDs are rated for operation between 0ºC and 70ºC.
Intel SSD Temps: 520, 530, 540 series and most Intel SSDs are rated for operation between 0ºC and 70ºC.
Kingston SSD Temps: A400, SSDNow UV400, V300, KC400, HyperX Savage and most other Kingston SSDs are rated for operation between 0ºC and 70ºC.
Western Digital SSD Temps: WD Blue SSDs are rated for operation between 0ºC and 70ºC.
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ADATA SSD Temps: SU650, SU700, SU800, SU900 and other ADATA SSDs are rated for operation between 0ºC and 70ºC.
DriveDx will protect you from data loss and downtime
With DriveDx you need not worry about losing your important data, music, and photographs.
You can know before your drive is going to fail, because DriveDx tracks more indicators of impending failure than any other product on the market for both SSDs and HDDs.
Early Warning System
You will have more chances to save your critical data before any data loss actually occurs.
Modern SSDs and HDDs support
When evaluating the state of various drives, DriveDx can use different heuristic algorithms depending on the drive model and even its firmware version.
Drive Self-tests
Will help to quickly identify if the drive is faulty.
Automatic Email Reports
User does not need to have physical access to a specific computer all the time, which is especially useful for all kinds of server rooms, data centers, etc.
This is one of the best investments you can make in your system. I recommend it highly.
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DriveDx just warned of pending drive failure - second time @binaryfruit app has avoided server crash.
Advanced Drive Health Diagnostics
Regular diagnostic tools simply check the built-in S.M.A.R.T. status of the drive, which provides the user with little information about the actual state of the physical drive. As opposed to such tools, DriveDx analyzes the current state of the drive using all the drive health indicators that are most likely to point to a potential drive issue (for instance, SSD wear out / write endurance, I/O errors, pending sectors, reallocated bad sectors, etc). See competitive analysis against several popular products hereDrive Failing (Pre-fail) State Detection
Unlike most other tools, DriveDx detects not only “OK/Verified” and “Failed” drive health states, but also the “Failing (Pre-fail)” drive state. Thanks to that, you will detect problems much earlier than when using any other SMART monitoring utilities. This means that you have more chances to save your critical data before any data loss actually occurs. Learn moreReal-time Drive Health Monitoring
DriveDx runs in the background and periodically performs checks to determine the health of your SSD or HDD. When any issue or problem is found, it alerts you immediately. DriveDx acts as an “early warning system” for pending drive problems. As a result, you have more chances to save your critical data before any data loss actually occurs.Early Warning System
DriveDx features a special multi-tier warning system that will inform the user about deviations from the normal state of drive attributes. It constantly monitors each S.M.A.R.T. attribute (and its change dynamics) and starts continuously warning the user as the drive degrades. On the initial stages of drive degradation, the user will receive notifications of the Warning type, then Failing (means that this drive parameter is in a pre-failure state) and only then Failed. Learn moreDrive Self-tests
DriveDx allows you to start and control diagnostic self-tests of SSD / HDD. The primary goal is to quickly identify if the drive is faulty. Usually self-tests consist of a collection of test routines like electrical and/or mechanical performance tests as well as the read performance test of the drive. Depending on self-test type it does read scan of a small area or the entire media. Learn moreModern SSDs and HDDs Support
When evaluating the state of various drives, DriveDx can use different heuristic algorithms depending on the drive model and even its firmware version. One of the key advantages of the software is that the state of HDD and SSD drives is assessed using different algorithms, since many state indicators of HDD drives are not applicable or make no sense for SSD drives.Ssd For My Mac
Automatic E-mail Reports
The user can get problem notifications and drive status reports to email. Reporting can be configured on the basis of various criteria. Thanks to this feature, the user does not need to have physical access to a specific computer all the time, which is especially useful for all kinds of server rooms, data centers, etc.A modern, good-looking and user-friendly interface
DriveDx is one of the first drive diagnostic tools created in the true Mac style. All interface elements are clear and intuitive, so it will only take you a few minutes to learn the basics and start using the program. When a problem is identified, you will see a notification on the desktop and the status bar will show the status of your drives. Learn moreDrive Key Metrics Evaluation
Smart Ssd Mac
DriveDx calculates various ratings of the current status of key drive characteristics (percent values):- SSD lifetime left indicator (in case of an SSD drive)