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Open Source Hardware Technology

Raspberry Pi Foundation Releases Case Fan To Prevent Overheating (techcrunch.com) 118

The Raspberry Pi Foundation has released a tiny $5 fan combined with a small heatsink for the Raspberry Pi 4. TechCrunch reports: It works with the official case, below the top cover. That accessory should prevent the Raspberry Pi from overheating. According to the foundation, the tiny fan should be enough to prevent throttling. "It draws air in over the USB and Ethernet connectors, passes it over a small finned heatsink attached to the processor, and exhausts it through the SD card slot," the Raspberry Pi Foundation says. It's a cheap stopgap solution, but I hope the Foundation will prioritize heat dissipation for the next iteration of the Raspberry Pi.
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Raspberry Pi Foundation Releases Case Fan To Prevent Overheating

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  • by SciCom Luke ( 2739317 ) on Monday November 30, 2020 @09:20PM (#60780812)
    ...unless you like 'WH [insert a hundred 'I's that do not pass the Slashdot posting filter).
  • Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)

    by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Monday November 30, 2020 @09:21PM (#60780814)
    Comment removed based on user account deletion
    • Their C=64 replacement has a big heatsink instead IIRC.

      I'm probably skipping the 4 in the normal form factor, but some people like them for HTPC with 4K.

      • On prior raspis just adding a really long-finned but small heat sink has been enough to solve the heat problems. You can get stick-on heat sinks meant for RAM very cheaply that have often been popular for this purpose. It's not a raspi, but it worked for me on my mk908 stick. I just put one on every big chip since a set meant for just one stick of DRAM would cover them all, and more. But probably only the SoC really needs one.

    • Just use the fanless armor case. Problem solved.
      • Yeah... I don’t have throttling issues with either my heatsink brick case, or my Flirc case, but it all depends on what you are doing with them.
      • It still overheats if you use the USB, especially in USB3 mode. I had to retrofit a fan on the armor case on my Pi4 to use the USB on it.

        While this defeats the purpose of using P4i for most classic applications, it opens some new ones. It is actually a passable media player and can do hardware decode on most modern codecs. Old ones like MPEG1 are in software, but it's fast enough to be used.

        If you want to do any Pi things the classic Pi way, the right choice is not Pi4, it is the new model A. It runs at

        • Well, I actually happen to have the version with a fan, but even when I turned it off it seemed to work just fine for me. Presumably a heavy USB load is something I should try.
    • People want a level of performance that is still above the pi offering, which is why its having heat issues as the designers press the performance envelope.

      I think its approaching the level of performance that people want, but its not there yet, so expect a future with heat problems too.
      • Not really, no.
        I use a RPi4 for my 3D printer, using OctoPi and OctoPrint on it, never overclocked it, yet the CPU was in the 80s (Celsius) even while idle.
        I solved the problem first by getting a small fan to blow over the SoC, but it was too noisy so I bought an Akasa Pi-4 Thermal Solution case, which works very well. The SoC never exceeds 45 degrees Celsius now.

      • Re:Bad joke (Score:4, Informative)

        by CastrTroy ( 595695 ) on Tuesday December 01, 2020 @08:54AM (#60781948)

        People buying a Pi4 who aren't getting the needed performance should really still be sticking to x86 at this point in time. If you just want a simple media player machine that can play a few games you can get a basic miniPC with a Celeron chip that will outperform a Pi4 by a mile. You'll spend a little more on the small x86 machine, but you'll get a lot more out of it and you won't feel like you want to replace it every iteration.

        The Raspberry Pi has always been an odd product from my point of view. Too weak to be a desktop or media center device. Yet too power hungry and a little too overpowered for embedded projects that you might want to run off batteries. It's pretty good as a headless server, but not a lot of people need a headless server and there's a lot of situations where it even is questionable to use it for that because it doesn't support SATA which would be a much better solution over SD cards or booting from USB devices.

    • The era of fanless computing is upon us so long as you don't trap it in a small unbreathable plastic white and red box.

      • Re: Bad joke (Score:4, Interesting)

        by BAReFO0t ( 6240524 ) on Tuesday December 01, 2020 @02:38AM (#60781338)

        Speaking as somebody who still remembers fanless and even heatsinkless CPUs in beige desktop cases... Oh kids....

        (*Cries in i8088*)

        • Although the chassis at that time tended to have the throughput and noise of a good vacuum cleaner.

        • by Pascoea ( 968200 )
          Yep. My first computer had a heatsink (486SX) but would run without it. I distinctly remember my first Athlon build, where the processor came with a big "Turning this on without a heatsink will result in instant bad things" warning label.
    • A Raspberry Pi that requires a case fan defeats the purpose of having a Raspberry Pi in the first place.

      It defeats your purpose maybe. I don't really give a shit if there is a tiny fan on my Raspberry Pi or not, and would rather have one if it keeps the temps under control.

      • by Wolfrider ( 856 )

        --I just hope it's a ball-bearing fan, the one that came with the Pi 4 I ordered off Amazon back in July is already making noise for a month now :-(

      • I would prefer not choosing a SBP over a regular PC board because those make noise and are expensive, just to have a constant WRRRR in my bedroom as if I had a PC on anyway! And pay almost as much too

        Hell, my old laptop doesn't even turn on its fan if I use it for RPi loads.

        You were never the the target group. The target group are tinkerers (includes education) and custom gadget builders.

        • I would prefer not choosing a SBP over a regular PC board because those make noise and are expensive, just to have a constant WRRRR in my bedroom as if I had a PC on anyway!

          They are multiple way to solve this problem, the first and most obvious being not enclose the damn thing in a tiny plastic box (I never understood the interested of those boxes).
          - Just mount it with risers on an acrylic plate, it anyway looks way cooler this way (and easier to add extra daugther boards).
          - Some poeple mount them side ways on their project and apparently get better convection cooling.
          - Add one of the old RAM heatsink that you have laying around at the bottom of a drawer.
          - For RasPi4: also coo

          • by cusco ( 717999 )

            I never understood the interested of those boxes

            Cat hair will clog the best heat sink if left exposed, especially short-haired cats. They shed more and their fur drifts with the slightest draft.

            Places like Florida have roaches that like to nibble on PCB boards and wiring.

            Small children like to touch interesting textures, like finned heat sinks. They'll only do it once but the screaming when they burn their finger will make you wish you'd put the thing in a bank safe.

            I'm sure there are other reasons, those are ones that I've seen.

    • The 3B+ thermal throttled badly without a fan (I have stacks of them, and initial testing in free air showed that a fan was required not to thermal throttle after only a few minutes of usage) and it appears the RPi4 does too.

      SoCs and SBCs may commonly be engineered to work without a fan, but the newer RPi lines are demonstrably not.

    • Re:Bad joke (Score:5, Informative)

      by war4peace ( 1628283 ) on Tuesday December 01, 2020 @12:48AM (#60781208)

      I got one of these and it does the job very well.
      http://www.akasa.com.tw/update... [akasa.com.tw]

    • For some applications I agree. I’ve temporarily switched to using a Pi4-8GB for my desktop computer (I use an iPad Pro for 95% of what I do now). It does the job; the two java apps I have to run work, and I can browse the internet. Watching a Youtube video full screen though is hopeless (content is 1080p, but screen is 4k), which surprised me. I would switch to using one of my Nuc’s... but they are currently used for other things, and they are a little on the expensive side for my use-case.
    • Idiots kept wanting a faster model instead of just buying a faster board from another company. The Pi was never meant to be fast or open. The primary goal was price.

      • Re:Bad joke (Score:4, Insightful)

        by CastrTroy ( 595695 ) on Tuesday December 01, 2020 @09:15AM (#60781984)

        Once you buy all the needed accessories it isn't even really that cheap. Sure the barebones 2GB Pi4 is only $35. But you still have to buy storage, and a power adapter at a minimum. The power adapter is especially an issue because the power consumption is now high enough that the random power supply you have left over from an old phone likely isn't powerful enough. Most people then want a case as well. Most of the kits the come with everything you need are up around $100 and include a 4GB or 8GB model. For $200 you can have an x86 mini PC with a Celeron which includes everything you need.

        All the people who are trying to use it as a media center or emulation machine who will never use the GPIO or run it off batteries or care that much about extremely small footprint would be much better off with a mini computer that is much more suited to the task.

        • There is still a substantial gap between $100 and $200. And despite the need for a thermal solution for new Raspberry Pi models, they will still consume less power than that Celeron mini PC. So I think there is a use case there.
      • If you don't really need fast, might as well get Zero or Zero W. But 4 is supposed to be for applications where perf is more important.

    • It does nothing of the sort, it just makes it unsuitable for a specific low power application you just have in mind.
      It remains a very capable very small and very cheap computer usable for an incredibly wide range of purposes, and if you have the kind of application that specifically need to not have a fan, then guess what, you can run the thing fanless anyway since the CPU only throttles under a sustained heavy load.

    • by drnb ( 2434720 ) on Tuesday December 01, 2020 @03:30AM (#60781426)

      A Raspberry Pi that requires a case fan defeats the purpose of having a Raspberry Pi in the first place.

      It does not require a fan. Throttling the CPU and running a little slower, when getting too hot, is a perfectly good solution for a $35 hobbyist computer.

      Heat sinks and more open cases are also possible noiseless alternatives.

    • It doesn't require a fan. It does though if you want to overclock it. Although a big enough heatsink has been shown to just as well if not better than a small heatsink with a fan.

    • by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

      People are using them for more demanding applications now that versions with more RAM are available. Where else can you get a 15W max server for cheap like that? It also has the advantage of being a popular platform so is well supported by the community and every possible issue you might have has been discovered and documented.

      For example you can run Home Assistant and a bunch of other services in Docker containers. Automate your home, add a load of sensors, smart doorbell etc, all under your local control.

    • by Gonoff ( 88518 )

      A Raspberry Pi that requires a case fan defeats the purpose of having a Raspberry Pi in the first place.

      It all defeats your "purpose" not everyone else's

      Cheap? - OK
      Small? - OK
      Know what's in it? - OK
      Runs OSS? - OK
      Lots of training material and documentation? - OK

      What is your purpose?

    • I disagree. Even with the fan it doesn't defeat any purpose, its still small and cheap. The small $5 fan doesnt consume much energy and is quite small and quiet. I have a small fan in the RPI4 and heatsinks on the two main chips and I have no throttling. Technically you don't need a fan but you can get better performance with one. There are other RPIs that have lower price points and less power as well. The idea you need a fan is not true but if you want the most performance, its a good idea to spend the $5

    • It does not *require* one, it's just to be sure of not throttling if you thrash it

  • by Wolfier ( 94144 ) on Monday November 30, 2020 @09:38PM (#60780846)

    1) Wait for Pi 5
    2) Buy Pi 5
    3) Underclock Pi 5 to Pi 4 performance level

    Voila, Pi 4 no fan

    • by ichthus ( 72442 )
      Yeah, but what if, after buying the 5, you decide you want the Pi 5 performance. Maybe you should just wait for the Pi 6.
    • Buy a board from a different company. There are dozens of ARM boards both faster and slower to fill your needs.

      • Raspberry itself has a range of models, from slower to faster. I have been very happy with my RPI4s. The RPI4 is on the high end. For a small project where you dont need to play video or whatever, and you just need to control a motor or whatever, then a zero or one of the cheaper models would be fine. RPI4 is basically more of a desktop replacement. You dont absolutely need a fan. I have two RPI4s and I did spend the $5-$7 on a fan and heat sinks, the fan is small and quiet and does not use much energy, and

    • by thegarbz ( 1787294 ) on Tuesday December 01, 2020 @03:15AM (#60781404)

      Or you could just use a Pi 4 let it throttle and be amazed that it's still faster than a 3. Honestly people here are talking as if the thing *needs* a fan. It doesn't need one for 99% of the use cases a Raspberry Pi is intended for.

    • by Gonoff ( 88518 )

      1) Buy Raspberry Pi400

      It has a huge passive heat sink and testers have found that if you overclock, it does not overheat. The only drawback I have found is that it does not work fully with my KVM. I press the button and use the main mouse and KB but the RPi one is still there at the back of the desk... I can live with that.

    • I have an RPI4 and I have no overheating on heavy loads, not even close. I have two heatsinks and a fan (probably worth about $5) but those are not really required., but it may throttle. Spend the $5 if you want the best performance. I think the driver bug which caused lockups which was mistaken for overheating. RPI4 has no overheating problem whatsoever.

  • by CaptainStumpy ( 1132145 ) on Monday November 30, 2020 @09:42PM (#60780862)
    "The device is powered by an external AC adapter, and consumes a little under 1W at full load." -raspberrypi.org May 2011
    • "The device is powered by an external AC adapter, and consumes a little under 1W at full load." -raspberrypi.org May 2011

      Yes and? It's not like the version 1 isn't still in production. You want one, then buy one.

  • Blunder (Score:3, Insightful)

    by backslashdot ( 95548 ) on Monday November 30, 2020 @10:00PM (#60780906)

    So the cheapest usable computer is still about $160 when you add up all the stuff ..the cheapest new HD monitor (lower resolution than that is criminal) is about $90. Add to that SD card, power supply, fan, keyboard, mouse at an avg of $7 each.

    Anyway, my question is really why havent the price of displays dropped? Shouldn't the raspberry pi foundation take a look at that? Not including access to electricity, it seems to me that the display is currently the most expensive component and therefore barrier to poor people getting computers. We need to get the total cost of ownership below $100.

    • So the cheapest usable computer is still about $160 when you add up all the stuff ..the cheapest new HD monitor (lower resolution than that is criminal) is about $90. Add to that SD card, power supply, fan, keyboard, mouse at an avg of $7 each.

      Anyway, my question is really why havent the price of displays dropped? Shouldn't the raspberry pi foundation take a look at that? Not including access to electricity, it seems to me that the display is currently the most expensive component and therefore barrier to poor people getting computers. We need to get the total cost of ownership below $100.

      Why would poor people even consider a Raspberry Pi? It would make far more sense to buy a Chomebook or other cheap laptop, not a Pi that, as you say requires all that other crap that adds up.

      • Why would poor people even consider a Raspberry Pi?

        More specifically, why would poor people that dont have a television consider a Pi, because most poor people have better than this thing the grandparent poster called a monitor, they have a device that is a combination of both a monitor and a digital tuner, a combo we call a television.

        • What planet do you live on?

          I'm a poor person and:
          1. Who the fuck still wastes money on a TV?
          I bought a good monitor for a good price, and was done with it.
          2. Of course poor people buy SBCs! A PC for $20! Duh! (Yes, I'm clueful enough to ue it like a full PC. But I currently run it as my home server. Does ALL the things. Because I got the cheapest Ryzen in my PC box, and so far, everything is butter-smooth and plenty fast.

          In case you haven't noticed: Your TV is also just a monitor with a SBC in it. Except th

      • OK .. yes .. what do Chromebooks go for these days? Aren't they around $300? I am not against them, in fact I agree they are preferable. But they might be unaffordable for some.

        • They are not preferable or adavnatageous in ANY way whatsoever.
          I get a full Ryzen PC for cheaper, and save a lot of money by being able to re-use old cases, monitors, PSUs, and so on. Hell, my old PC was 80% off the side of the street / bulk garbage.

          You people are like students who only eat $1 ramen packets all week and wonder why they are only ever hungry or without money. (That ramen shit is ridiculously overpriced.) Learn to cook! You can get a whole kilo of dry beans for that price! Makes 3-4 kilos of b

          • You people are like students who only eat $1 ramen packets all week and wonder why they are only ever hungry or without money. (That ramen shit is ridiculously overpriced.) Learn to cook! You can get a whole kilo of dry beans for that price! Makes 3-4 kilos of beans! Enough to buy tasty ingredients with the rest of the money.

            $1 per meal isn't awful as expenditures go. Even if you can save that full $1 (100% saving!) that's going to be a drop in the bucket compared to outgoing expenses like rent and universi

      • I think that the 400 being a raspberry pi in a keyboard is quite a cool basic computer if you already have a tv. My kids are too young, but otherwise I wouldn’t mind buying one to introduce them to Scratch etc, more creative and stimulating computer use than a game console.
    • Re: Blunder (Score:4, Insightful)

      by AvitarX ( 172628 ) <me AT brandywinehundred DOT org> on Monday November 30, 2020 @10:24PM (#60780966) Journal
      Is the pi meant to be a low cost computer? That seems like a side effect to me.

      I always thought of it as an affordable tinkering device (the io pins lead me to believe this).

      Even if the purpose was to be a cheap computer, I'm not sure shaving the price of a $60 19" TV is really worth it for the pi foundation, I'm not sure where the price cutting could be based on the price of cheap bare screens.
      • Yeah, the Pi fills a special niche for me: cheap, trivial access to hardware pins. It occupies a role *like* a multimeter or a function generator on steroids (not that it *is* one), in that it allows me to easily probe and prod complex bits of arbitrary electronic equipment.

      • Wasn't it always between 20 and 30 dollars? Wasn't their original goal like $5?
        Why would I pay more for a SBC? It misses the point!

    • So the cheapest usable computer is still about $160 when you add up all the stuff ..the cheapest new HD monitor (lower resolution than that is criminal) is about $90. Add to that SD card, power supply, fan, keyboard, mouse at an avg of $7 each.

      Anyway, my question is really why havent the price of displays dropped? Shouldn't the raspberry pi foundation take a look at that? Not including access to electricity, it seems to me that the display is currently the most expensive component and therefore barrier to poor people getting computers. We need to get the total cost of ownership below $100.

      A $100 TCO goal? You're claiming the cheapest "usable" computer is still around $160, so can you imagine what kind of complaining you would be doing with only $100 worth of hardware? Step #1 in the new owner guide would read "Heat up soldering iron."

      If this pandemic hasn't highlighted the digital divide, I don't know what will. Seriously. It's been months since kids have been forced out of schools. And when the social media giants rake in billions quarterly, I don't see any reason "we" need to figure

    • Anyway, my question is really why havent the price of displays dropped?

      Not everything magically trends to zero. There are fixed costs you can't get away from.

    • by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

      Depends what you consider to be a computer. Do you need a monitor? You can just use it headless, lots of people do. The base model, PSU (a decent USB charger) and cheap case and SD card don't come to anywhere near $160. Starter kits on Amazon start from about $65.

      Realistically though you probably can get most of what you need for free, like many kids did back in the day. Don't need a monitor, every TV has HDMI and TVs are literally free around here. People can't give them away.

    • why havent the price of displays dropped

      What do you mean, "haven't"? $90 is already absurdly cheap for a 21" display. It wasn't long ago that these were $500.

      I did find one odd thing when shopping for displays recently: you can't get small displays any more. Minimum size is 21".

    • Anyway, my question is really why havent the price of displays dropped? Shouldn't the raspberry pi foundation take a look at that? Not including access to electricity, it seems to me that the display is currently the most expensive component and therefore barrier to poor people getting computers. We need to get the total cost of ownership below $100.

      You're supposed to plug it into a TV, not a custom LCD panel.

    • How many poor people are going to know what to do with a Raspberry Pi? And then complain that it doesn't run Fortnite? There's an easy answer to cost of ownership - it's called 'second hand'. I bought my first new television last year, after owning several sets costing around £20 each, I've had second hand laptops, cars, toasters, sofas. Usable computers get thrown in the bin around here - just post a wanted ad if you really need one to run Chrome and the occasional typed CV.
  • Dust (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Rick Schumann ( 4662797 ) on Monday November 30, 2020 @10:19PM (#60780958) Journal

    "It draws air in over the USB and Ethernet connectors

    So your ethernet and USB connectors get all full of dust? Great.

    • Fortunately, both have pretty wide tolerances, and heavily sprung contacts (contrast mini/micro-USB, micro HDMI, etc.) - i've seen them clogged on plenty of machines, but only rarely have i had a dust clot get stuck in a way that both interferes with operation and can't be dislodge with minimal effort (blowing or roll/fold a paper towel). Still sucks (hyuk!), but better than nothing. Airflow through the connectors themselves *should* be quite low, especially if cables are plugged in.
      • FWIW speaking as a long-time tech the only thing you should shove into an RJ45 jack or a USB jack is the plug designed for it, you could bend the contacts and ruin the connector. Use compressed air only.
        • Since both are being mentioned, I must relate an unfortunate anecdote - if one is careless, they can force a USB connector into the RJ45 jack, possibly bending its pins... I accidentally did this to my laptop, which fortunately has the jack mounted on a separate board. Definitely agree, compressed air is the way to go.
          • Heh, even I have done that and wondered for a couple seconds why the USB device I plugged in wasn't registering. Never damaged the jack though, just rolled my eyes at myself. xD
            • Precisely what happened in my case - USB thumb drive not showing up... must not be plugged in all the way, because I can feel a gap... I think what really did it in was applying a rocking motion to it (as the thumb drive had an annoyingly tight connector to begin with). In my defense, it is a Dell Latitude E5430 - on the back right, USB and Ethernet are extremely close (and out of sight), and the corner is angled in a way that makes it hard to position the connector (for either) correctly.
    • If dust is a problem buy a heatsink or one of the literally hundreds of alternative cooling systems on the market. Seriously when did the Pi have to be universally applicable to every frigging use case out of the box?

      When did we just start pretending that the reason for it's success stopped being the community and highly customisable ecosystem around it?

      If you want a one size fits all solution that only works in a limited set of circumstances then put a damn iPhone in a plastic case and call it an Apple Pie

  • It'd be nice to have a case and a fan that somehow allow room to let the GPIO pins stick out. The "Argon fan hat" blocks GPIO access. I suppose the Pi Foundation's design does as well..? Some of us use GPIO boards for hobby stuff.

  • if there's an overheating problem that means they did ZERO work to look at the heating of the unit.

    even the most minimal effort would have uncovered this problem before hand.

    it's just not that hard. makes you what else they're not looking at...

    • if there's an overheating problem that means they did ZERO work to look at the heating of the unit.

      Yeah, or it means hobbyists, are being hobbyists.

      even the most minimal effort would have uncovered this problem before hand.

      Even a minimal amount of Google searching would reveal this problem didn't fall off the back of the assembly line yesterday.

      it's just not that hard. makes you what else they're not looking at...

      Perhaps the only hard thing here, is reducing people's expectations. It's a piece of hardware that practically prides itself on not merely being cheap, but dirt cheap. You get what you pay for. If you're blowing all of your lunch money on a $35 computer, spring for the $5 fan. Same solution that's been around for years.

      The Pi foun

  • Might aswell just use an old regular PC board with some GPIO PCIe card at that point.

    • Good luck finding one that will run at 7W...

    • I have two RPI4s 4GB . I have a $5-$7 fan and heatsink set on them. It is still far cheaper than ANY PC. A new PC can run $300+ for this I got the power supply, fans, heatsinks, case, HDMI cable, for about $80-$90, not bad for the 4GB version. It doesnt even come close to overheating and the fan is quiet and uses almost no energy. Ive tested it under high loads and never hits a throttle point. Technically, you don't need a fan. All devices such as phones that use these chip probably do throttling, its just

      • by Bert64 ( 520050 )

        A used PC can be obtained for free from an individual or business throwing it out, and may still outperform a pi. It will however use more power and generate more noise.

  • Pi 4 B 8G USD$65 (on sale at MicroCenter)
    Micro Connectors case, with fan and switch-equipped PSU USD$20
    32G micro SDHC USD$15
    Micro HDMI DVI cable USD$13 OR
    Micro HDMI to HDMI 4K USD$8

    Under USD$120, if you use a spare port on your TV and whatever keyboard/mouse you have lying around.

    The only thing that annoyed me was the A/V jack configuration: I have a collection of those 3-signal cables from various devices, but they all have the shield as the ring farthest from the tip.

  • So it took them more than a year to find out that the Raspherry Pi 4 throttled performance inside the default case. That doesn't give me much confidence in the product. It surely means the developers themselves don't actually use the product in the default setup, or they have no understanding how it's performance is in the real world. I would have thought it should be obvious you needed at least an aluminum case with extended heatsinks or a case with a fan.

    • by ledow ( 319597 )

      They knew, they just never gave you a fan by default, because many of the people buying them (e.g. me) would rather have a fanless thing that throttled down while keeping all the other advantages of a Pi.

      Currently have one in an arcade cabinet build, one running my TV (via tvHeadEnd) in a NESPi case, two older models that I don't really use (one is on my work desk today running a christmas tree light), and I've got another Pi4 to replace the TV one in a NESPi4 case.

      Apart from the arcade cabinet, I don't wan

  • by Eravnrekaree ( 467752 ) on Tuesday December 01, 2020 @08:10AM (#60781864)

    I have two RPI4s. I have seen no overheating. Not even close. With heavy loads such as compiling and video, I have $5 two heatsinks and a fan. The fan makes no noise and consumes very little energy. Technically you dont need a fan but if you want best performance spend the $5. There was a driver bug a while back that caused RPI4 to crash. This bug has been fixed. I think people were mistaking this bug for overheating. The idea that RPI4 has overheating issues, or that a fan is a big problem (I have a very small $5 fan that uses almost no energy), or that you must use a fan is a myth.

  • You want to get hella adoption? Make a damn POE addon that works with ANY solid state cooler. Yes, I'm aware of both the POE with the cheap ass fan and the fanless one that blocks any ability to use any cooler with it. But you do that thing in particular... make the ability to have a solid state PI that stays cool in a WORK environment like a restaurant and I'll PERSONALLY use 1000 of them in the next 3 years and I know lots of other people who would jump on board for the same usage model.

  • The aluminum Flirc case has a slug that rests on top of the rpi4 cpu (thermal pad in between), effectively making the entire enclosure a large heatsink. That keeps my units (pihole and a plex media server) comfortably in the 45C range even when they're pretty busy. Highly effective, silent, and pretty inexpensive.

    https://flirc.tv/more/raspberr... [flirc.tv]

    Best,

  • I'm worried that the Pi project will morph into a desktop replacement project. This current generation requires a new power supply, new case and a fan - yes, moving parts! I know that this is just offering more choice but I'd be interested to know how many folks think that buying one with 8GB of memory is good value for money?
  • So first things first, the article, yes, the stock Pi4, with the official foundation case, simply runs too hot, period, it's been like this since launch, it shouldn't have shipped this hot OR it should've shipped with an adequate, if hot, passive heat sink.
    I know they target a low price, so increase that target $5 with inflation to keep it cool.
    Alternatively, in my case, I have to run mine in a quite expensive, allumnium milled 'flirc' case. It's a nice case but again, not cheap.

    Secondly, revision 1 and

  • ... has nobody with a 3D printer tried making a case with a cooling chimney built in? Utilize the rising heat to create a draft; purely passive air circulation?

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