Dont peel it bro, just dont

Most of those labels are also heat spreaders that have a metal foil in them. Don’t remove it,

If you already have a heatsink purchased for that SSD, then carefully peel the sticker and secure the heatsink. It will cool the SSD much better than the aluminum foil that has next to zero thermally conductive area.

As for the warranty, in most parts of the world, that warning is inconsequential. "Warranty void if removed" sticker is not actually legally binding in either US or EU jurisdictions, see Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act:
https://legalclarity.org/are-warranty-void-if-removed-stickers-legal-2/

It is a scare tactic that companies use, nothing more, nothing less.

Even if heat dissipation is limited, it's better than nothing and I don't expect this SSD to run that hot, NVs are usually running cold.
Put it, test it, report, think, act.

Originally posted by BlueBangkok:

As for the warranty, in most parts of the world, that warning is inconsequential. "Warranty void if removed" sticker is not actually legally binding in either US or EU jurisdictions, see Magnuson-Moss Warranty

Also this is true about EU.

dont remove it
the sticker is thermally conductive and works as a heat spreader

why would they put a sticker that insulates heat, when they know the drives produce heat and will slow when over temp?

Originally posted by _I_:

dont remove it
the sticker is thermally conductive and works as a heat spreader

why would they put a sticker that insulates heat, when they know the drives produce heat and will slow when over temp?

That was my first though. I never though they would use any sort in "insulating material" but want to figure out if the performance of the heatsink is better or worse without the sticker (or the same for that matter).

I found some online "testing" and the conclusion was that, overall, the sticker does hinder heat dissipation when using a heatsink on a WD Black SN750. And can be as much as about 2ºc.

https://www.hwcooling.net/en/should-you-remove-an-ssd-sticker-before-mounting-a-heatsink/

As for the heating in general, I have the heatsink and 4 new fans (and controller) arriving today to cool things down.

I got through to Kingston and I'm waiting for them to reply about the sticker.
Kingston at least seem interested in analysing the temperature issue. First thing they asked was how long did I use the drive before it started heating up. Actually, since ever, but since this is my first m.2 on this machine. But I did peak at 90ºc this weekend (and the drive slowed down as designed, I guess).

It's not an ordinary sticker, they're usually a thermally conductive foil and not some cheap dollar general sticker

For my 2 TB Kingston KC3000 even the default motherboard heatsink improved the temperatures from 90+ to 65 Celsius (and it's right above the GPU).

Originally posted by BlueBangkok:

For my 2 TB Kingston KC3000 even the default motherboard heatsink improved the temperatures from 90+ to 65 Celsius (and it's right above the GPU).

I don't have a stock heatsink.

I got this:

https://thermalright.com/product/tr-m-2-2280-type-a-b/

I will post the results once I have all installed. Although I don't think I have the patience to install just the heatsink without getting the fans in.

Originally posted by x:

Originally posted by BlueBangkok:

For my 2 TB Kingston KC3000 even the default motherboard heatsink improved the temperatures from 90+ to 65 Celsius (and it's right above the GPU).

I don't have a stock heatsink.

I got this:

https://thermalright.com/product/tr-m-2-2280-type-a-b/

I will post the results once I have all installed. Although I don't think I have the patience to install just the heatsink without getting the fans in.

I would personally put it on top of the sticker. Even if the heat sink could perform a tiny bit better without the sticker I don't think it's worth removing it and exposing fragile chips. There is even a small risk of damaging the drive be removing that thin metal heat spreader glued with an adhesive that was meant to be permanent.

Originally posted by C1REX:

Originally posted by x:

I don't have a stock heatsink.

I got this:

https://thermalright.com/product/tr-m-2-2280-type-a-b/

I will post the results once I have all installed. Although I don't think I have the patience to install just the heatsink without getting the fans in.

I would personally put it on top of the sticker. Even if the heat sink could perform a tiny bit better without the sticker I don't think it's worth removing it and exposing fragile chips. There is even a small risk of damaging the drive be removing that thin metal heat spreader glued with an adhesive that was meant to be permanent.

Exactly. I'm actually afraid I might "peel" more than the sticker itself.
Conversely, I recently bought an AOC monitor and it came with a stick saying "Do not remove the monitor film". For them to put that, some just might have done it... jeeeezzzuuuuzzz
Me and the kiddo found the stick too funny to throw away and we left it on top of the monitor for that little extra laugh here and there.

I would not pull the sticker since I would absolutely confuse them all once i start building spare part rigs over the years...

The sticker is fine, leave it alone.

But you could take off that sticker and adhere it to the other side or take a picture of it but I might put it on the other side anyways after looking at this thing and why is the sticker on the M.2 like that is beyond me.

Seems as though Kingston has issues because why would anyone want a sticker on those components.

And monitor film? I know AOC has pick up points for their monitors but I never seen the film sticker saying "Do Not Remove".

I dislike these stickers. The M.2 should have the sticker on the back like this WD Black. Once you stick the heatsink on that M.2, the sticker may prohibit the heatsink to work, but we are only talking up to 5°C (some will claim 10°C) drop in temperature with a heatsink on the M.2

My GPU got in the way so I could not use the heatsink on the M.2

Anyways, I would try the heatsink with the sticker on as it might be too thin to do anything bad but I am still confused on why Kingston put it there in the first place from a safety stance.

I have never seen anything like this, never.

If the M.2 was cheap, I would not care about any "warrantee". If the drive was expensive, chances are you will never need to enact that warrantee.

For what it is, do not use heat to remove the sticker, simply peel it off if you do anything. The only thing that could happen is if they ♥♥♥♥♥♥ up on the soldering of components. This is when you could possibly rip something off the chip if the soldering is bad, not secure.

I cannot fathom why they put the sticker on the working side of the M.2, perhaps cause Kingston is not that good anymore or these are their low-grade (tier) M.2 SSD line and they just do not care about the line at all.

I don't know where this obsession with leaving the sticker on comes from. Did Linus Tech Tips say people should leave it on?

At best, it's a thin aluminum foil and won't make much of a difference. Can be removed and replaced by the heatsink. Logically, heatsink pads contacting the SSD directly will always be better than SSD + sticker + pads + heatsink. Maybe not massively, but it will be, because physics. I don't need an online test to tell me that.

At worst, it has a piece of paper on top of it, which is an actual thermal insulator. If nothing else, I would peel that off.

I pull the stickers off every time, why, because i live life on the edge!