XPS 8940, is 48°C too hot? What do I do about it?

The standard SSD size is 80 mm long and 22 mm wide. Silicone SSD thermal pads can be cut to fit, only if necessary. Lots of youtubes about installing silicone or aluminum thermal pads.

The pads vary in thickness so that's a dimension that needs consideration, especially if you want to use a "wrap-around" style that goes both over and under the SSD.

Lifetime of an SSD is related, in part, to temps, so if you can lower it a just few degrees that should be helpful. Check out the temp profiles for several SSDs without/with thermal pads here. Notice how the pads slow the temp rise and reduce the top temp reached, using the same test for each SSD/pad combo. YRMV with a different combination of SSD+pad.

Some Dell Service Manuals (eg, Inspiron 5676) mention installing a thermal pad when installing an M.2 SSD. So they see an advantage...

The XPS 8940 is known for heat issues, and there are lots of threads about increasing cooling with better CPU heat sinks and more/bigger fans. So adding a thermal pad to the SSD, especially if the PC has an overclocked CPU (eg, i7K, i9K) is just additional protection.

Only you can decide to install one or not...

Well, frankly if I had known this before purchasing I would not have purchased. Acquiring a brand new and fairly pricey computer and then finding that I need to hire someone to install better cooling is really not what I had in mind. A competitive model I was looking at had all sorts of options for better cooling. This seems like Dell just decided to do the bare minimum necessary. That said, it is still not entirely clear to me what any of it means in terms of predicted lifespan.

I guess I'll look into it more. But a few days after getting the computer, I am in overload just now. Thanks for the tips.

@RoHe,

I read some of the reviews on Amazon for the links listed.

Some said the temperature drop was only 4C, hardly enough to worry about.

Others said that the 'wrap' type going under the SSD meant that when it was all around the SSD the screw to hold the SSD in 'warped' the SSD...

My thought though is the placement of the SSD on the motherboard with respect to airflow. It is basically behind the CPU and by the RAM and Video Card if you have one. All could obstruct airflow.

I'd like to do this, but I'm not sure it is needed either? I guess I'll wait until I *know* I need to explore this?

@monesqe  If you're that unhappy and you're within 30 days from Dell's invoice date (not actual delivery date) you could return it for a refund, but there may be a restocking fee if you bought directly from Dell because it's working "normally". Don't know what big box stores do about restocking fees. Or just keep an eye on temps...

@ispalten  - How do you know that "4º is hardly enough to worry about"? It all depends on the specific component and its heat tolerance, regardless of the difference. You can always check the manufacturer's specs for your specific component to see what limits they recommend. And it's your PC, so it's your decisions...

I am unhappy, but after spending a week setting up a computer, reinstalling everything and transferring years worth of data and programs, that is simply not a practical solution. I assume Dell isn't going to pay me for all that time right? Right. I will take it from here.

Then, btw, this morning I discovered that the Dell support assistant automatically turned itself on and wiped out what it considered to be unnecessary files. Since I was just setting up a new computer, I had lots of redundant files around that I wanted to keep until I made sure I didn't need them. That included my recycle bin. But the Dell support assistant went ahead and did what it felt was best for me anyway. I consider that to be malware at this point and I have uninstalled it.

Yes, overall I wish I just bought again from my prior manufacturer. They have become more expensive, but they produced no problems like this. Live and learn. Hopefully the hard drive doesn't fail in 3 years.

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@RoHe wrote:

@ispalten  - How do you know that "4º is hardly enough to worry about"? It all depends on the specific component and its heat tolerance, regardless of the difference. You can always check the manufacturer's specs for your specific component to see what limits they recommend. And it's your PC, so it's your decisions...

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Ron, I was just commenting on the minimal gain some types offer. The 'finned' ones do better than just the paste. Of course, in both cases, airflow has to be considered.

Most M2's are rated up to 70C as the operating environment. My WD is as well.

I'm sure that as the SSD is 'used' that temperature can fluctuate. However, in my case at least, I'm using the SSD as basically for the OS only. The 2nd HDD is for programs (that are not forced to the C: drive) and data, This minimizes the chance of constant read/writes to the SSD. Normally I'd even move the SWAPFILE off of C: as well. 

Knowing the location of the M.2 on the motherboard and the poor cooling off the 8940 I'd not look into doing anything until I know I hit the problem.

Since 'heating' is a system 'thing', and the close proximity to the CPU, I'd probably consider replacing the stock CPU cooling first. That is probably more of a heat generator that would increase the internal case temperature and have some possible cause to the temperature of the SSD even.

I'd also think that Dell is well aware of the limits of the devices and ensure that as shipped, there would be no problem (for the average user at least).

In our XPS8700 and XPS8500 'normal' 2.5in SSD's are installed, and in for many years. They have the same temp. ranges as well. Supposedly as the temperature rises above 70C throttling and even data loss can occur. I've not seen that on our older PC's, but the M.2's being smaller and possibly near other heat sources and with poor airflow it could be a different story.

So far in this forum, it is the CPU cooling that seems to be a bigger issue though.

The more GB or T's of memory on an SSD, the hotter it gets, both because there are more chips generating heat and because they're closer together so there's less air space/flow.

I found the same issue.I've had this XPS8940 since January. Lots of BSODs indicating update as one solution. Crashes when I'd plug in a new sound device. Nothing seemed to solve the issues.

I use Hard Disk Sentinel since I've had my 8920 overheat a 4TB WD Enterprise drive to 149°F [which is displayed in HD Sentinel's history] [I run mostly externals now]. The M.2 was getting up to 135°F.  I opted to migrate to a Samsung SSD as of last evening, and it seems that the issues are not popping up. It seems to be responding better all around. I saw fit to totally remove the M.2 [I've stored it in case the worst happens]. I didn't SC the old M.2 performance, but this standard SSD operates at 35-40°F LOWER than the M.2:

Maybe because the M.2 sits very close to the processor that it gets hotter than it should?

I hope this proves helpful.

Oh-I did mount a fan on the front interior. It sits on an angle in front of the new HD. This was before I did the M.2 switch. Didn't help.

.

I did a lot of testing requested privately by Dell's tech support. Since, they have never responded. I was helpfully advised in December that the case was still active, though.  

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@monesqe wrote:

So this is running pretty hot, around 35°C, that's one thing, which is where my 2nd drive winds up. But my C: drive hits near 50°C. Crystal Disk Info even suggest an alarm at 50°C. Is this safe? If not, how can I fix it? This just seems to run too hot.

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Personally, I think spinning-platter drives should be under 43c/110f . That is why Crystal is trying to warn you.

I suggest you get some better cooling, or replace drives with SSD. You can maybe put that old big/hot HDD in an external USB-3.0 enclosure . It will NOT decease-speed because spinning-HDD is much slower that SATA or USB-3.0 .

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@monesqe wrote:

Mine is in fact a a 2 TB M2 ssd

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Oh.

Well, I just installed a Samsung 2tb 970 EVO-Plus NVMe-SSD. It's running 45c at idle, and goes to 55c under load.

All around, a good 15c hotter than my (slightly slower and smaller) Samsung 512gb 960-EVO NVMe-SSD .

So, yes ... 50c is just fine. And yes, the larger and faster SSDs seem to run a little hotter than the smaller/slower ones.

There are heat sinks for NVME SSDs...

It IS a SSD.