[OC] Statistical Analysis of SSD Thermal Performance: Before/After Heatsink Installation

[u/Description_Capable]

TL;DR: Comprehensive statistical analysis of Samsung 980 Pro thermal performance with/without passive cooling. Includes confidence intervals, effect size analysis, and thermal zone distribution visualization.

Data Source: AIDA64 CSV thermal logging during controlled CrystalDiskMark benchmarking Tools: Python (pandas, matplotlib, scipy.stats, seaborn) Sample Size: 2,266 pre-installation measurements, 3,089 post-installation measurements

Methodology:

• Automated test phase detection using temperature gradient analysis
• Thermal zone classification (Safe: <50°C, Warm: 50-65°C, Hot: 65-75°C, Critical: >75°C)
• Statistical significance testing with bootstrap confidence intervals
• Effect size calculation using Cohen's d

Key Visualizations:

1. Thermal Zone Distribution: Pie charts showing dramatic shift from 53.5% time in dangerous zones to 100% time in safe/warm zones
2. Statistical Confidence Analysis: Box plots with 95% confidence intervals demonstrating highly significant improvement (p<0.000001)
3. Before/After Timeline Comparison: Direct overlay showing consistent 20+ degree temperature reduction
4. Effect Size Visualization: Cohen's d = 1.813 indicates large practical significance beyond statistical significance

Notable Technical Details:

• Thermal recovery analysis reveals different cooling characteristics due to heatsink thermal mass
• Bootstrap distribution analysis confirms robust improvement across all measured parameters
• Automated cycle detection identified individual benchmark phases for granular analysis

Data Quality: All measurements taken under identical conditions with 1-second resolution. Raw CSV data and analysis scripts available on GitHub.

The visualization demonstrates how a $15 hardware modification can produce measurable, statistically significant performance improvements with proper data collection and analysis methodology.

[u/midgaze]

I don't see any performance metrics.

[u/71-HourAhmed]

I think the real information people would want to know is what is the data throughput performance with and without the heatsink. Does the SSD write 50 GB in less time with a heatsink? If so, how much time is saved?

I recently purchased a passively cooled thunderbolt 4 enclosure but quickly discovered it was useless. The drive would copy at amazing speeds for a few minutes and then drop to 0 MB/s for a couple of minutes followed by a rapid burst and 0 again. It was more effective to use the SSD in a USB 3 enclosure where the write speed was reduced by 2/3rds because it would write the whole time without overheating. I returned the USB 4 enclosure. It was a waste of money.

[u/Nozymetric]

Good work. It would be more usable if you used CrystalDiskMark as well to perform a series of standardized benchmark testing so that we know what the performance gain is.

My hypothesis is that for every day normal usage, a heatsink will provide negligible to zero benefits and will have no statistical significance.

The question becomes when does it become statistical significant? At how much read? At how much write? And how much data transfer does it matter?

[u/Noobfire2]

Is any percent of this post (including all text, descriptions, plots and scripts that may have been used for this) not as-is copied from ChatGPT?

This entire post just as well could have been a SINGLE timeseries plot of the temperature (instead of 3 dozen plots just showing the same information in redundant ways), but even some actual performance metrics are missing (so the only stuff that really matters).