Source
r/sffpc•
centipeed

My motherboard's M2 slot is on the back. Should I be worried about heat?

I've got a Node 202 and an ASUS H170l-PLUS D3.

Here's the motherboard details: https://www.asus.com/us/Motherboards/H170I-PLUS-D3/

I've got two questions:

  • The M.2 slot is on the BACK of the motherboard, meaning virtually no cooling/moving air. Should I avoid getting an SSD there?
  • If I did get an M.2 SSD, and it was a PCI-E SSD, would that take PCI channels away from my graphics card? I read that the motherboard shares the 16 PCI-E channels between the graphics card and a PCI-E SSD, if you have one installed.

Posted May 26, 2017, 6:12 PM UTC

26
kidneystonejones•

One of the reasons M.2 sticks don't come with shrouds and heatsinks is because they generate very little heat.

PCIE Lanes are not an issue on most setups but that would be motherboard specific and I don't really know anything about the H170 chipset.

4
wutqq•

m.2 drives will throttle themselves before any damage is done. If you are doing major/frequent/long writes to the drive then you might notice throttling, but if you are using the drive as a normal OS/games drive then you do not have to worry.

A quick google search resulted in H170 having 16 pci-e lanes (while z170 has 20, which avoids any issue). Using an m.2 NVME drive will result in your GPU running at x8 not x16. This has been proven to have ZERO impact on performance. You will be fine running both.

2
Generic_power_user•

I have that exact board in a tiny case with an m.2. You're fine. No issues at all

2
selicos•

I can help with your first question.

Would the M.2 drive be sandwiched between the motherboard and metal on the case or is there a cutout behind the motherboard for access? Depending on the drive it may have a heatsink or not run as hot as others. I have a similar Asus board (B150I) with the M.2 drive on the back though not populated. Temps on the back of the motherboard and general motherboard temps are always fine when I check them in applications that help monitor system temps including drives.

1
BobThePCRigBuilder•
  • I used a H170N-WiFi and a 850 Evo M.2 on the back of the motherboard, inside a Node 202 case and the SSD never when above 50C, so its fine.
  • PCI-E SSD use the motherboard PCI-E lanes while the graphics card uses the CPU's PCI-E lanes. The GPU will always get PCI-E x16 no matter how much PCI-E peripheral you have connected since the PCI-E peripheral uses the motherboard chipset PCI-E lanes, not the CPU PCI-E lanes. The only way you get PCI-E x8 on the GPU is by plugging in a second GPU, which is not possible in Mini-ITX motherboard.
1
G_pea_eS•

No you should not be worried about heat...

1