Should you peel stickers off NVMe drives

Here I'm testing to see if removing stickers from NVMe SSDs makes any difference to performance or thermal transfer. It makes some sense that removing the top sticker might be logical. After all we know that keeping parts cool in your PC can help with performance and if devices get too hot then they can thermally throttle which can reduce performance and mean you are not getting the most out of your system.
Also, on most modern motherboards you'll find large heatshields on there and those have thermal pads on them with stickers on, you need to remove the sticker from those pads, so surely you need to remove the sticker from your drive too if you want maximum performance?

So I took two WD_Black SN850 drives and put them into two different systems to see how they got on. In one system I left the sticker on and in one I took it off. I then ran several passes of Crystal Diskmark and kept hardware monitor open and task manager to monitor performance. The results were unsurprising.

I crafted a video previously on the mistakes to avoid when installing an NVMe SSD, but here I wanted to show why removing the sticker might be a bad idea.

Watch the other video on NVMe SSD performance:

NVMe installation is easy in theory but it's important to keep these things in mind:
- Use the top spot where possible to ensure x4 PCIe lanes
- Remove any plastic stickers from heatsinks and shields
- Use thermal pads to disperse heat
- If you install multiple drives this may reduce PCIe lanes available for your GPU
- You may need to change settings in your BIOS
- When installing in Windows use the Disk Management/Create a partition settings to set the drive up
- Always benchmark to make sure it's running as it should be.

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[mb-electricalservices]

I expected to see maybe 1 degree difference by the way you were explaining it but to see 5 degrees is very significant indeed.

[playerone]

"There was very little difference."

Shows a significant difference.

[mranderson]

5200MB/s compared to 4000MB/s is a massive improvement in write speed. 5 degrees celcius is a great improvement.

[CoreyPL]

Remember that some companies, like Samsung, use copper stickers to help heat dissipation. There is no need to peel those stickers.
And also it's nice to have warranty :)

[EchoYankee]

I would consider 5 degrees to be a big difference. Maybe not on Fahrenheit, but in Celsius it is. Five degrees drop in Celsius on a processor would be amazing so why not on storage.

[kimuranaito]

The brand companies sure are very happy to see you peel of the stickers😆

[DjRavix]

It really depends … a lot of Times this sticker are also serving as heat spreaders … I also seen people test this and the drive with the sticker still on it had a lower temperature …
Also note that you are not testing in the same system so there might be other variables (I assume you used the same drive as that could also result in a variable while testing)

[mrvang]

A few degree drop is good versus none at all. I might just do that too without the sticker. Very usefull info!

[totalljhitzemek]

As someone that recently replaced the SSD on the Steam Deck and removed the sticker to be told I shouldn’t, I then put it back on and installed it. I’m glad to know hope isn’t lost 😂

[peterl]

Nah, I won't peel mine just to honor the warranty.

[kidsalex]

Samsung nvme drives stickers have copper in them, and I use their drives so I've always left them on

[caseyfutral]

This video has been made several times before, but your by far has best voice actor.

[thekennethofoz]

I really wish there was more of this. Instead of just arguing about things, just test them!

[littlemeg]

Seeing this, I immediately thought of the experiment in physics class where we demonstrated that peeling tape off things generates a huge electrostatic charge.

[Berfs]

It depends on the SSD. For some, like the 970 Pro, they have a thin copper sticker on the backside, that one you do not want to take off. Then again, if your SSDs are overheating due to the sticker… you either have a bunch of heat that’s getting dumped on it or you are using it A LOT, in that case you should be getting enterprise drives to begin with.

[johnm]

theres a lot of times where they will have a copper slug on the bottom of the higher-end drives

both of my samsung drives have this little 1mm thick copper rectangle, underneath of a sticker, to help with absorbing some extra heat

[Calixen]

I always peel them, glad to see it's as I expected, worth it

[adriancoanda]

In order to push them to the limmit download 4 blue ray disks from 4 diffrent networks vut not through windows explorer, use total comander or even the command line

[ShinyMooTank]

Some companies use copper base stickers. Just depends.

[catalinb]

The test should be done with the same SSD with the sticker on and then after with the sticker off. If one SSD is a brand and the other one is different, the test it self is moot!