u/menoy456

... this might be the problem. My NUC had been occasionally struggling recently, until finally my SSD threw a SMART warning, so I freaked out, bought a replacement SSD / external HDD to back everything up and switch over. Whilst it was still running hot later on (>70C), the warning never came back again. Took the thing apart to find this. Temps are significantly lower now, after cleaning out.

Appreciate this might be obvious to some (most?) here, but posting in case someone less experienced has similar issues and comes looking for answers.

PS. NUC is 2.5 years old, daily use for work.