Why is the Samsung 970 Evo Plus giving only half sequential read/write speeds on my device?

[tanay_mayee]

I recently installed the Samsung 970 Evo Plus 500Gb on my device HP Pavilion 15-ck069tx. I cloned my C drive to it using Samsung's Data Migration software and currently, I'm using it as the boot drive. Strangely when I checked for the benchmarks on both Samsung's Magician and the Crystal Disk Mark it's giving me around 1800MB/s as sequential read /write speeds and sometimes even below that. I also checked the number of PCIe lanes that the drive is currently using in HWiNFO and there it says current link width x4. Also in Samsung's Magician, it says PCIe v 3.0 x4 under the Interface section, and also the firmware, BIOS, and Samsung's NVMe driver are at their latest versions. So I'm certainly not able to figure out any specific reasons for the low sequential read/write speeds. One thing I noticed that the drive temperatures reach pretty high at around 83 degrees even after running just one benchmark test and it's at around 45 to 55 degrees when the drive is idle. I don't know if that's normal and it may be a potential reason for the low speeds.
Thanks for any help, if you need any more info please let me know!

[Paul_Tikkanen · Accepted solution]

Hi:

I agree with you that the drive should be running at its advertised speeds based on the info you posted.

The operating temperature range for your drive is 0 - 70 C.

https://www.samsung.com/semiconductor/minisite/ssd/product/consumer/970evoplus/

When the temperature exceeds 70 C, an automatic throttling process kicks in and slows down the drive speeds so the temps come down.

How much clearance do you have between the drive and the case?

You may want to see if you an install a heat sink to the drive to keep it cooler.

I just installed a Crucial P5 NVMe SSD in a Dell Optiplex 7050 desktop PC and I had absolutely no clue that NVMe drives run hot and some models more than others.  The Crucial P5's in depth review (which I read after purchasing) indicated the drive runs very hot at idle (50 C or more).

Anyway, I tested my drive speeds and they were as expected, and the drive never went over 65 C.

But twice, in as many days, the PC would freeze, and I had to press and hold the power button to shut it down, and restart it.

I decided to buy a cheap strap on heatsink and what a difference that made in dropping the temps.

Idles at 41 - 43 C instead of 55 and the drive has never gone over 55 C under load.  It has not froze once after having this heat sink installed for well over a week now.

I checked the service manual for your notebook, and there were no additional parts such as thermal pads or shields listed for the NVMe drive.

The problem with adding a heatsink to your notebook would be restricted to the clearance you have.

But if your drive is running over 70 C, then that is definitely one of the reasons the drive speeds are not as advertised.

[tanay_mayee]

Thanks, @Paul_Tikkanen for your helpful response. I totally agree with you that this is potentially happening due to thermal throttling as the temperatures are huge in number. (Today it reached a shocking 87 C after I ran the benchmarks again, although the results were the same.) I hope that the drive is not defective or something like that.

About the clearance that you mentioned, then I don't think that I'll have much clearance but still I'll have to check as a passive heat sink might just slide in pretty easily. Also, I think that there is no adequate airflow inside, so it'll be better that I install a heat sink or these temperatures might also reduce the life of the drive.

Finally, after listening to your experience with the Crucial's P5, I think that a heat sink will definitely make a difference and I hope that the drive works just fine giving it's advertised sequential read/write speeds, although they will not cause any huge improvements in day to day tasks that I'll be performing.

Also, the freezing issue that you encountered, was there any other specific reason for that, or was it due to thermal throttling? Cause the P5 is currently a great drive in the market considering the price point at which it's being offered.

[Paul_Tikkanen]

You're very welcome.

Yes, I think the PC locking up was due to the overheating.  It would just stop and I was too impatient to see what would happen if I let it sit there for a minute or two.

Anyway, those things shouldn't be happening at all.   But it hasn't happened since I added the heatsink.

Amazon.in seems to offer a wide range of easy to install heatsinks, some of which seem pretty thin.

https://www.amazon.in/s?k=m.2+heatsink+nvme&crid=3C4PA23GH32P3&sprefix=M.2+heatsin%2Caps%2C241&ref=n...

The Crucial drives chips are all on one side of the board, so what I decided to do was to go ahead and remove the decorative label that covered the chips and put the thermal pad directly on the chips to facilitate better cooling.  Then the metal heatsink goes over the thermal pad and was secured by 3 silicone bands.

No doubt I have voided the warranty, but I didn't care.  The drive was no good to me the way it was, and I had begun to regret my decision to buy one.

Now I am very happy with it.

This was the one I decided to go with -- 4mm.  They also made one that was 2mm thick--better suited for notebooks.

https://www.amazon.com/icepc-DIY-Graphene-Heatsink-Performance-70x20x4mm/dp/B083FK9FN9/ref=sr_1_24?d...

Anyway, I hope you can find a way to cool down that drive.  If you can, your problem should be solved.

[tanay_mayee]

Hey, thanks again for the product links and the installation procedure. Actually, I checked many heatsinks on Amazon India but here in India we're not having many options to choose from, and I couldn't find a 2mm one which you mentioned in your previous reply that could fit into a laptop with restricted space. Later I found a copper heatsink which is 1mm thick, but I don't know whether it will be that effective in dropping the temperatures to some extent. Also, if I just put a silicone thermal pad on the drive then will it help in reducing the temperatures, cause I seriously need to cool down that drive anyhow.

[Paul_Tikkanen]

You're very welcome.

Anything is better than nothing.

Even the 1MM copper heatsink may help.  The copper heatsink should come with a thermal pad.

The thermal pad conforms to the small irregular surfaces for better heat transfer to the copper.

[tanay_mayee]

UPDATE: I guess thermal throttling might not be an issue in this case, yeah it's true that the drive is running hot but when I contacted Samsung regarding the issue they provided me with a list of troubleshooting steps and one of those was that AHCI must be enabled.

Later I found out that HP strangely doesn't have any options whatsoever to change the SATA mode to AHCI in the BIOS. Like seriously, I can't even change the SATA mode to AHCI in the BIOS even after paying that much for a laptop? 

Please if you have any idea how to change the SATA mode to AHCI then please let me know and also the reason for why there is no option in the BIOS for the same. I have done a lot of research on this and I feel that the reason for the SSD to not give its peak performance is because it is not running in AHCI mode.

Regards,

Tanay Mayee

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Hi:

I answered your other post at the link below.

Re: No option to change the SATA mode to AHCI in the BIOS. S... - HP Support Community - 7866908

[tanay_mayee]

Yeah, thanks a lot I checked your other reply and I guess the Samsung Team couldn't figure out the issue so they just sent me the troubleshooting steps. Well I am in continuous touch with the Samsung Team, I hope that they solve the low sequential read/write speed issues on my drive and I'll let you know what the issue was if they provide me with a solution for the same.

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Anytime.

I hope you can get it sorted out.  Try and get that drive cooled down somehow.