M.2 NVMe Heatsink (Thermal Throttle Prevention)

Integrated M.2 heatsinks are aluminium covers with compliant thermal interface pads that clamp over the SSD to wick heat away before the controller reaches its 70–75°C thermal throttling threshold. PCIe 5.0 NVMe drives using controllers like the Phison E26 generate considerably more heat than PCIe 4.0 predecessors, making M.2 heatsinks essential rather than optional. High-end motherboards from ASUS ROG Maximus/Strix, MSI MEG/ACE, Gigabyte AORUS Master, and ASRock Taichi include multi-slot M.2 heatsinks and thermal armour on every M.2 slot.