Does a SATA SSD Heat Up?

[Alvin777]

Hello Mac friends. I'm deciding which 2.5" to 3.5" bracket I should buy for a Crucial SATA SSD to upgrade the Mac's hardisk to SSD. Do SATA SSD heat up like M.2 NVMEs (usually needs a heatsink)? There a 2.5" to 3.5" bracket where the SSD is raised and the SSD is screwed on the sides then there's a bracket that doesn't raise the SSD a little bit and is screwed at the bottom. The one that raises the SSD is more expensive (the bottom on in the photos) but both are made of metal. The black one is 8x cheaper than the bottom one (a Sandisk bracket) that has the option to raise the SSD from the base metal.

This is for the Late 2015 5K iMac w/ 2TB Fusion Drive.

Thank you. God bless, Rev. 21:4

 

[Alpha Centauri]

Aware you're asking about SSD temp in an iMac chassis, cannot help there. Perhaps as a ballpark figure, in an enclosed MBP, I run 30-35C whilst also charging. In a cooler location (CD bay), about 30C. Obviously 2.5".

 

[Juicy Box]

Do SATA SSD heat up like M.2 NVMEs (usually needs a heatsink)?

SATA SSDs run extremely cool relative to NVMe SSDs and HDDs.

Not right now, but later I can give you actual temps inside an iMac.

Unrelated to this thread, but today I touched an internal SATA SSD that was being used externally as a boot drive with a USB/SATA adapter cable, and it felt room temperature. It kind of felt cold compared to the warm body of the Mac it was connected to.

Inside an iMac, the SSD would probably be a little hotter, but I think it probably isn’t contributing much heat, and just absorbing heat from other components.

 

[Alvin777]

SATA SSDs run extremely cool relative to NVMe SSDs and HDDs.

Not right now, but later I can give you actual temps inside an iMac.

Unrelated to this thread, but today I touched an internal SATA SSD that was being used externally as a boot drive with a USB/SATA adapter cable, and it felt room temperature. It kind of felt cold compared to the warm body of the Mac it was connected to.

Inside an iMac, the SSD would probably be a little hotter, but I think it probably isn’t contributing much heat, and just absorbing heat from other components.

I should just buy the black one then (it's 8x cheaper) and will not have problems with overheating (coz' there's no space at the bottom like the silver one can give) but then won't the black one transfer it's heat onto the metal like a heatsink?

As a side note I did buy a heatsink for the NVME I bought to upgrade this iMac (w/ Sintech adapter- pray they all work with at least macOS Mojave or Big Sur and it'll be detected without any problems (usually sleep).

 

[Alvin777]

Hi. It seems it doesn't heat up like an NVME.

It's fine now I just bought the three (3) dual 2.5" to 3.5" bracket to prepare my two iMacs for the SSD upgrades. I figured if the branded ones like Sabrent have that kind of design, then that might be the better design (for airflow too). Deeply pray, fast & hope, macOS detect everything and it'll be all good.

Thank you.

 

[Fishrrman]

Every SATA SSD I've used runs cool and generates little heat (or none at all), even under heavy write loads.

 

[rpmurray]

I like the Fenlink. But if you feel you need a heatsink you could go with the Orico.

 

[Botts85]

There's enough internal airflow in those iMacs you should be okay with either.

Heatsinking to the iMac body would help cool the drive even further, but it shouldn't be an issue.