A study of 20 modern Intel and AMD motherboards found that only six achieved full contact between M.2 SSD heatsinks and drives [1].
Poor contact between a heatsink and a solid-state drive can reduce cooling efficiency. This failure may lead to thermal throttling, which slows SSD performance during heavy workloads [1], [2].
The testing was conducted by the Tom's Hardware team in their laboratory [1]. The team examined a sample of current boards to verify if the integrated cooling solutions were effectively meeting the hardware they are designed to protect [1].
Of the 20 boards tested, 14 failed to make full contact [1]. The results indicate a widespread issue across both Intel and AMD platforms, suggesting that many consumers may be using cooling hardware that does not function as intended [1], [2].
Proper thermal interface contact is critical for high-speed NVMe drives, which generate significant heat. When a gap exists between the heatsink and the SSD, the thermal transfer is interrupted, effectively neutralizing the benefit of the built-in cooler [1].
While the study does not name every failing model, the data suggests that a majority of modern motherboards may not be cooling SSDs optimally [1].
“Only six of 20 tested boards made full contact”
This finding suggests a systemic quality control or design issue in the motherboard industry. If the majority of integrated heatsinks fail to make proper contact, users may experience degraded drive longevity and slower data speeds due to heat. It highlights a gap between the marketing of 'built-in cooling' and the actual physical implementation of these components.
