Fixing Samsung 9100 PRO 2TB storage lag in Silent Hill 2
That immersive flow through the foggy city is finally back, but before this, walking through complex areas felt glitchy and stuttery. The Samsung 9100 PRO 2TB is a PCIe 5.0 monster, but the heat is insane; during heavy asset streaming, core temps hit 82-88℃, triggering aggressive thermal throttling. My first instinct was to cap the PCIe slot to 4.0 in BIOS, which dropped temps to 60℃ but killed my read/write speeds by 40%—totally unacceptable. I ended up ripping off the stock heatsink, applying 0.75mm high-conductivity thermal pads to fill the gaps, and adding a dedicated fan blowing directly onto the M.2 slot. HWInfo now shows peaks between 65-72℃, and speeds stay above 9000MB/s. I actually wired the fan backward at first, which did nothing until I flipped the connector. Now it's rock steady with zero throttling. Frame time monitoring confirms the stutters are gone, and RAM temps are sitting at 58-63℃.
