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I found an USB-based M.2 SSD adapter:

enter image description here

They are providing also some "thermal pads":

enter image description here

Marketed as

to dissipate heat

As far as I know, thermal pads are conducting heat, and not dissipating.

Am I wrong?

(So basically, it needs something else like a fan, or a metal case to "dissipate" heat, no?)

Another "demo" image:

enter image description here

Update:

if only the controller of the SSD (small part) is hot, can this thermal pad homogenize the heat on its surface?

Like when only the red area is hot underneath:

enter image description here

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  • Regarding the update: The thermal pad basically converts the rest of the PCB into a singular cooling fin. It won't do THAT much, but most (not high-end) SSDs run quite cold anyway and only struggle with thermals on their controller
    – Hobbamok
    Commented May 8, 2023 at 9:30
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    The installation instructions (at the end of the gallery) show the pad being placed between the SSD and adapter, not on top of it which would allow using the adapters PCB as a heat spreader. I suspect the image the OP has embedded has been erroneously created by marketing.
    – Dan Is Fiddling By Firelight
    Commented May 8, 2023 at 14:35

2 Answers 2

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You conduct heat to places such as the enclosure.

The result is that heat is removed, or dissipated from the heat generating source.

If the pad is connected to a metal plate or larger surface you have given the heat source a larger surface area by which heat can be transferred to the air and therefore increased the ability of the entire unit to dissipate heat.

Fans help bring in cool air, meaning that you push away hot air and bring in air that is capable of absorbing more heat. The fan is effectively a multiplier of surface area and achieves higher dissipation with forced air.

If the pad is not connected to anything at all then you are still potentially spreading the heat and increasing the surface area, but they function best when connected to another surface to allow heat to be conducted away. What this means is that you are potentially taking a small focused heat source and spreading it out across a larger area of the pad. It may well only double or quadruple the area (it won't be able to spread the heat across the whole pad) but in these things even relatively small increases in surface area can be the difference between 80C and 60C.

At the very least the pad gives a much better surface for you to stick a heatsink to than the plastic of the chips on the SSD. The pad will stick to the chips better than metal would. Almost any flat piece of metal would provide a good thermal reservoir for heat to be dumped in to.

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    Please see my update with a slightly more detail I'd need, and then I'm more than happy to accept your answer. Thank you
    – Daniel
    Commented May 7, 2023 at 15:14
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    @Daniel one of my comments was "If the pad is not connected to anything at all then you are still potentially spreading the heat and increasing the surface area" it means that you are still potentially taking a small focused heat source and spreading it out across a larger area of the pad. it may well only double or quadruple the area (it won't use the whole spreader) but in these things even relatively small increases can be the difference between 80C and 60C.
    – Mokubai ♦
    Commented May 7, 2023 at 15:24
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    "and spreading it out across a larger area", just like radiator fins...
    – RonJohn
    Commented May 8, 2023 at 6:58
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    So for a device dissipating a handful of watts the thermal pads are absolutely great for getting that heat to another surface. Sure you would prefer that second surface to be a big metal mass, but the heat pad will be far better than nothing at all as the heat will be spreading out across the pad rather than being focused in a small area of plastic in the chip that is the SSD controller. The pad being at least 100 times better than air means that it will have some improvement and better heat spreading ability.
    – Mokubai ♦
    Commented May 8, 2023 at 11:58
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    My point is you do not make a heatsink out of thermal pad material. You use it to stick the hot thing onto the actual heatsink
    – Stack Exchange Supports Israel
    Commented May 8, 2023 at 12:26
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The other answer does a good job of explaining proper thermal pad usage so I'm not going to touch that aspect of your question.

Quite frankly, a USB-A connection is not fast enough to allow an M.2 SSD to reach speeds which would cause overheating issues.

It's more hassle than it's worth to apply and remove a thermal pad every time you swap out the SSD.

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    Isn't overheating a concern for the SSD as well as the controller? (For comparison, I've had a couple of cheap, traditional USB2 flash sticks suddenly die from overheating after writing large amounts of data. Obviously modern SSDs are more sophisticated and more likely to include thermal protection etc., but isn't it still an issue?)
    – gidds
    Commented May 8, 2023 at 16:47

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