What is the expected temperature of Intel Optane P1600x at idle and underload?

[devemia]

I recently built a TrueNAS box in a not well-ventilated chassis and noticed the Optane P1600x is operating at an "unusually high" temperature, but still under 70-degree maximum operating temperature. I could not find discussions or reviews regarding this matter. That said, the temperature stays consistent even at idle or under load (if they are even used at all).

The following are their temperatures over a 1-day period (max/mean/min) in celsius.
SLOG (stripe x1): 60/60/58 (under heatsink, near CPU - might be bad installation?)
Meta VDEV (mirrored): 44/43/41 (near case fan, no heatsink), and 53/50/48 (on PCIE to NVME adapter, no heatsink, no airflow)

Meanwhile, here are the temperatures of my 4 SATA SSD over a 1-day period (max/mean/high) in celsius. I did try copying (for testing purposes) over 100 GB at once during this period, in other words, they were under load at some point.
SATA 1: 30/26/24
SATA 2: 33/27/26
SATA 3: 34/29/27
SATA 4: 35/29/27

I know Optane tends to be hotter than regular SSD, as shown in the picture below (HWINFO54: current/min/max/average, in celsius). In this case, the Optane is installed on a PCIE to NVME adapter on my main rig, with direct airflow to the stick (bottom PCIE slot, with bottom to top case fan installed). Note, I used the Optane solely for Linux duo-boot setup, so while in Windows, the Optane is not used at all.

Compared to a regular QLC SSD (used for OS installation, at another location, with worse airflow due to under the GPU).

With that said, is this a normal behavior of the Optane? When talking about such high temperatures as 60 degrees, is it something to be concerned about? This question is more about understanding the nature of Optane because I do have a workaround to reduce these temperatures. The NAS box is my playground for testing purposes only, so no worry about production downtime or anything along the line.

 

[Ericloewe]

(on PCIE to NVME adapte

NVMe is a protocol running on top of PCIe, not a physical form factor. It sounds like your disks are M.2, but it would be nice to have that confirmed.

in celsius

Degrees Celsius.

As for the general temperatures question... NVMe SSDs of all types have started to run into thermal limitations in the M.2 form factor. The data from the SATA SSDs is not very relevant because SATA has been effectively at a standstill for a decade now. The only options for development are:

• Larger SSDs -> Largely the domain of enterprise lines due to cost, and even then they're being outcompeted by NVMe SSDs.
• Lower power -> Nobody really cares enough about SATA SSDs anymore to work on this.
• Lower cost -> Low-end NVMe SSDs are pretty much at price parity with SATA and the cost is dominated by factors unlikely to see major improvements.

Now, 60 degrees Celsius is pretty hot, but probably not cause for concern if that's as hot as it gets. The reported temperature is going to be on the controller, which is likely to heat up more than the actual memory, so the primary concern is typically thermal throttling - but that's a thing closer to 80-90 degrees Celsius on the lower end of things.

 

[devemia]

NVMe is a protocol running on top of PCIe, not a physical form factor. It sounds like your disks are M.2, but it would be nice to have that confirmed.

Thanks for the correction. There are 4 NVME drives mentioned in this post: 1 for my Windows installation (Soldigim P41 Plus 2TB, from the formerly Intel consumer SSD division), 1 Optane P1600x 118GB for Linux installation, and 3 Optane P1600x 118GB for special VDEVs (and these gets hot). Meanwhile, the SATA SSDs are for the data pool in RAIDz1.

Now, 60 degrees Celsius is pretty hot, but probably not cause for concern if that's as hot as it gets. The reported temperature is going to be on the controller, which is likely to heat up more than the actual memory, so the primary concern is typically thermal throttling - but that's a thing closer to 80-90 degrees Celsius on the lower end of things.

I learned that 50 degrees or even 40-ish are considered hot for consumer SSDs (NAND based), and some may start to throttle after reaching this range. JEDEC recommends 40 degrees as an optimal ceiling IIRC. That said, is it the case for Intel Optane in general, and especially the P1600x model? The Optane is not NAND based so I'm not sure if this counts. I mean even at idle, it is 38 degrees for some reason. Maybe the way this P1600x model reports the temp is somewhat different compared to consumer SSDs?

 

[Ericloewe]

I can't really say much about Optane specifically, but temperature "limits" quoted sound like they're for the NAND itself. Fair enough, but the reported temperature is typically inside the controller and at that point the design of the SSD and its surroundings make a huge difference. Cheapo-style 2.5" plastic enclosure with PCB inside? The memory is going to suck up the heat from the controller. M.2 with the controller nicely thermally bonded to a heatsink that gets good airflow? The whole assembly is going to be pretty cool.