Max. thickness of heatsink that can be accommodated in Acer Nitro 5 AN515-31?

I am using a Silicon Power P34A80 M.2 NVMe SSD for over 2.5 years now and temps. have been problematic since the beginning. But it's much worse nowadays. In basic workloads, even in gaming it's fine but in case of sustained transfers even low bandwidth like over MTP which is limited to USB 2.0 it throttles hard after a few minutes or so. Reaches 80-85°C easily.
So I am thinking of investing in a heatsink. Those available on Aliexpress mention 2mm/4mm etc. thickness. Obviously the thicker ones would be better but I can't fathom how much the laptop can accommodate? Will even a 2mm thick heatsink fit?
Thanks.

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atonement

Anyone please?

batmalin

Usually it should have a heatsink mounted on the bottom cover, if not you can get a compatible one and 2mm would be ok, but just in case put something 2mm thick on top of the ssd and check if it touches the cover.

atonement

batmalin said:

Usually it should have a heatsink mounted on the bottom cover, if not you can get a compatible one and 2mm would be ok, but just in case put something 2mm thick on top of the ssd and check if it touches the cover.

There's no heatsink or thermal pad or anything similar in the mobo for the SSD slot. Heck the M.2 screw wasn't included. To remove the back cover in order to check the space afforded I have to pay labour charges which are more than the cost of the heatsink! Hence was looking for any confirmation or otherwise. The garbage battery needs to replaced soon so I will try to check it at that time.
Thanks.

batmalin

Well on my model AN515-43 there was only one attached to the cover and I have 2 M.2 slots. both screws were present thou. My HS is 1mm thick if that helps. BTW the cover is easy to remove and you can try for yourself.

atonement

batmalin said:

Well on my model AN515-43 there was only one attached to the cover and I have 2 M.2 slots. both screws were present thou. My HS is 1mm thick if that helps. BTW the cover is easy to remove and you can try for yourself.

I guess this particular model wasn't designed to handle a relatively high perf. SSD. Throttling is really bad despite being limited to only an x2 link. On Aliexpress min. thickness of the available HS seems to 2mm. While trying to remove the back cover I get stuck around the USB ports and touchpad. Afraid to break off something.

batmalin

In order to remove it you have to push the back side of the cover to free those clips first the rest is easy. Top side of the picture push to the bottom side ofthe pic.

atonement

batmalin said:

In order to remove it you have to push the back side of the cover to free those clips first the rest is easy. Top side of the picture push to the bottom side ofthe pic.

I was able to remove the back cover on my own successfully. Thanks. I guess since it had been opened a few times by the service center folks in the last few months to diagnose a battery charging issue it had become a little less tight which probably helped.
I have another query. To check if thermal throttling in the SSD was any better I had flashed an unofficial, generic firmware which ultimately resulted in it becoming non-functional. The nearest service center is a fair few hours away and it's merely a collection point. I want to take the laptop with me to check the replacement SSD as they don't provide any testing facilities. To make it easier can I just have the back cover attached with a few screws? I will be removing the HDD assembly completely.

batmalin

If you are under warranty then leave all scews attached, if you have to pay for it you can take it even without cover.

atonement

batmalin said:

If you are under warranty then leave all scews attached, if you have to pay for it you can take it even without cover.

Warranty is expired.

atonement

Received the replacement SSD a few days ago and so far the thermals are vastly better. It looks like the original SSD was a bad one as far thermal throttling was concerned and the laptop wasn't to blame. Now I am kinda glad that I gave a try with the unofficial firmware otherwise I would have been stuck with a defective SSD. Don't think I will need to buy a heatsink anymore.

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