"Extra" temperature sensor on Samsung 960 Pro SSD?

R

RobertR

Well-Known Member
Hi, until recently, my Samsung 960 Pro NVME SSD showed two temperature sensors in HWiNFO's S.M.A.R.T. info node, reasonably enough displaying as "Drive Temperature" and "Drive Temperature 2".

Further, I had read somewhere that the 1st corresponded to the "storage cells", while the 2nd was displaying the temperature in the on-board "controller" - and these interpretations seemed reasonable, with a) #1 being less volatile (and lower), and b) #2 being more volatile (changing more often) and hotter.

Sometime in the recent versions of HWiNFO, two things happened: a new sensor "Drive Temperature 3" appeared, which seems to have "taken over" for the previous "Drive Temperature 2", while the original "Drive Temperature 2" started tracking "Drive Temperature" exactly.

If I can ask, Martin, what's the story here? IS "Drive Temperature 2" now meaningless, given that it just tracks "Drive Temperature"? IS "Drive Temperature 3" the new "Drive Temperature 2"? Or are things even weirder than they seem? :eek:

If it matters, I am always running your latest release or beta version on my Windows 11 Pro system, where I use the Samsung-supplied "Storage Controller" secnvme.sys (last updated almost 3 years ago).

Please let me know if I neglected to supply some needed data - thanks! :)
 
Well, the story is following :) Each NVMe drive can report several temperatures, one "main" Composite Temperature (NAND) and then a set of up-to 8 "other" temperatures.
However the meaning of other temperatures wasn't standardized so each vendor can use its own way of reporting and there's no universal method to tell their exact meaning.
In most cases the "main" NAND temperature was always same as the first temperature in the "other" set. So to avoid duplicity HWiNFO was ignoring that first other value and reported:
Drive Temperature = Composite Temperature (NAND)
Drive Temperature 2 = The second "other" temperature, usually the ASIC Controller

But it was found that some drives don't use this representation and the first "other" temperature is different from NAND and comes probably from a different sensor. So HWiNFO was updated to report this value too, hence the new list is following:
Drive Temperature = Composite Temperature (NAND)
Drive Temperature 2 = The first "other" temperature. For most drives this will be same as "Drive Temperature", but for some others this might be a different sensor.
Drive Temperature 3 = The second "other" temperature, usually the ASIC Controller
 
Thanks, Martin, for your usual informative (and quick) reply. :)

I just knew there had to be something like this behind drive temps #1 and #2 always being the same [when they didn't used to do this].

I will likely soon be getting one of the new 990 Pro models (really wish they had gone to PCIe 5, as my system supports it)... if it displays different behavior on these sensors yet again, I will report here with the messy details.
 
Martin said:
Well, the story is following :) Each NVMe drive can report several temperatures, one "main" Composite Temperature (NAND) and then a set of up-to 8 "other" temperatures.
However the meaning of other temperatures wasn't standardized so each vendor can use its own way of reporting and there's no universal method to tell their exact meaning.
In most cases the "main" NAND temperature was always same as the first temperature in the "other" set. So to avoid duplicity HWiNFO was ignoring that first other value and reported:
Drive Temperature = Composite Temperature (NAND)
Drive Temperature 2 = The second "other" temperature, usually the ASIC Controller

But it was found that some drives don't use this representation and the first "other" temperature is different from NAND and comes probably from a different sensor. So HWiNFO was updated to report this value too, hence the new list is following:
Drive Temperature = Composite Temperature (NAND)
Drive Temperature 2 = The first "other" temperature. For most drives this will be same as "Drive Temperature", but for some others this might be a different sensor.
Drive Temperature 3 = The second "other" temperature, usually the ASIC Controller
Click to expand...
Hello
The temperature of Drive Temperature 3 on S.M.A.R.T.: Samsung SSD 970 EVO Plus 500GB How normal is it?
 
Martin said:
That seems quite normal.
Click to expand...
Saw this thread so didnt want to make a new one since i almsot have the same problem. Could you check mine too?
I now have;
Temp
Temp 1
Temp 2:

Im abit concenred about the 73 Degree one, but when i look at the Crystal info it says the temps are fine.
What should i do? @Martin :(

PS: I just want to clarify that i took this picture while i was playing modded skyrim lmao XD
1685040471736.png1685040575632.png
 
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