Best case to keep raspberry pie 3 cool?
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@riverstorm I have been using AS5 with a small aluminum sink on my Pi3 CPU for over a year without it moving at all, and my cabinet is a "semi" portable roadcase that have been moved around fair amount. Also, my Pi is mounted upside-down behind the LCD and the sink shows no sign of wiggling loose.
I read somewhere that Arctic Silver will thicken a bit as it goes through hot and cool cycles (power, no power). I expect the moisture starts to break down a bit and it dries out somewhat, though nothing permanent like a 2-part thermal epoxy.
I can see that if I added too much it would really slide around, but with just the right amount you get a good vacuum and the stuff is pretty sticky. Because my sink is cut perfectly to size, there is really nowhere for it to slide, as doing so would slide it off the CPU and that would expose the thermal paste which tends to want to stick to the sink, not release from it.
I just shudder every time I hear someone talk about tape, especially when the instructions for thermal paste have you avoiding even a single air bubble if possible.
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@caver01 said in Best case to keep raspberry pie 3 cool?:
I just shudder every time I hear someone talk about tape, especially when the instructions for thermal paste have you avoiding even a single air bubble if possible.
That sounds pretty solid to me. Next time I have the heatsink off I am going try it that way. As you "power cycle" it supposedly cures and improves over time. Maybe a few degrees Celcius.
I think the biggest mistake is using to much thermal grease. To much grease is like driving around city streets in a bumper car. It works and protects you well but it's not optimal for the CPU or temps. I usually just shoot for at least covering the portion of the CPU cover plate that in turn comes in direct contact with the CPU die. I heard of people that de-lid the cover plate to get direct contact with the CPU.
Comparing the Pi to a CPU is like apples to oranges for me a bit. You can run fine most of the time without a heatsink/fan on a Pi. In contrast a modern PC will get you about 8 seconds (bull ride) and a shutdown. Hopefully the mobo did it quickly enough to save the CPU.
Also the Broadcom chip on the Pi (is acrylic?) I would assume whatever the material composition it has a much higher thermal resistance vs. any type of metal. Hopefully any tape between the chip and heatsink has some thermal conductive properties as to not be a complete insulator.
I agree just grease between heatsink and die is definitely better but if all you have handy is tape or it comes as a package deal I don't know if I would drop the extra money for grease. I usually have several syringes of it laying around. The Shin-Etsu has a nasty viscosity that require a little heating to make it workable. AS5 on the other hand is very forgiving and easy to apply.
Yeah air bubbles, fingerprint oil, hair, dust pretty much anything creates an issue. You figure the main purpose of the thermal grease is to fill fill in micro pits, etc. that are probably not visible to the naked eye but people like to goop that stuff on. I think the Pi was designed to run without anything but I know for sure it does run cooler with a heatsink or heatsink/fan combo if your going to push it a little.
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How about watercooling a Raspberry? Anyone did this yet? 😊
Ok, it sounds like a calculator with a SSD Harddisk - but wouldnt that be "cool"? ☺ -
Ok, i just realized that this allready happened!
One step further: anyone vapochilled his pi to freeze the cpu allready? 😊 -
@sirhenrythe5th said in Best case to keep raspberry pie 3 cool?:
One step further: anyone vapochilled his pi to freeze the cpu allready
Wow! That looks really quite neat but I don't think I'll be doing it anytime soon! :) Amazing what some people do!
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@caver01
you can't use thermal paste unless the heatsink is mounted by screws or something thats why they use thermal tape most of the time. Does the Flirc case have the heatsink pressed so i can use thermal paste? -
ya i ordered my case came with heatsinks and the tape was not cut perfect i emailed them and they sent other one's still the same problem. Can someone link me a ebay seller that sells the good thermal tape so i can cut it perfect.
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I gutted my nes. Has plenty of room and then some! Run a fan on the pi and it keeps it cool.
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Thermal glue is the answer to hold the heatsinks in place instead of just the paste. No one has yet designed a heatsink, that could be screwed to the RPi, but when that happens, then the thermal paste is the best solution.
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@deltax5 said in Best case to keep raspberry pie 3 cool?:
Can someone link me a ebay seller that sells the good thermal tape so i can cut it perfect.
I just searched for thermal tape or heatsink thermal tape on Amazon and several types and styles (sheets or rolls) came up. I chose one that had a few decent reviews and went with it. I preferred the sheets.
I suppose you could do a bit more research on the manufacturer's website (you would probably have to go with a name brand if searching for specs) about the thermal impedance or resistance measurements. Applying it to two clean surfaces it should be pretty close to what they advertise.
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I found a couple this search today. I don't know why it didn't search last time. the 3m one got a bad review. sorry I am from canada and the us site don't deliver hear.
https://www.amazon.ca/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_2?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=Thermal+tape&rh=i%3Aaps%2Ck%3AThermal+tape
should i put the tape on the bottom to? -
@deltax5 said in Best case to keep raspberry pie 3 cool?:
should i put the tape on the bottom to?
Bottom? I'm not quite sure what you're asking.
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@riverstorm said in Best case to keep raspberry pie 3 cool?:
@deltax5 said in Best case to keep raspberry pie 3 cool?:
should i put the tape on the bottom to?
Bottom? I'm not quite sure what you're asking.
THere is a black sqare underneeth the pie. SHould i put it there.
Also I posted a link help me pick one out from the canadian amazon. -
@deltax5 said in Best case to keep raspberry pie 3 cool?:
THere is a black sqare underneeth the pie. SHould i put it there.
Also I posted a link help me pick one out from the canadian amazon.I don't see the link. The large chip on top is the Broadcom chip. The one on the underside is the memory chip. If you're attaching a heatsink then I suppose it makes sense (make sure it still fits in the case) or possibly a case that comes in contact with the chip directly and the case is the heatsink so to speak. You might need to remove any paint or clear coat to make better thermal conductivity. It will work through paint and the tape will probably stick just fine but less resistance is better. It sound like you know what your doing. It's really pretty common sense stuff. You can always do some temp testing and make adjustments as the tape is fairly easy to remove.
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Yesterday, I cracked open my arcade cabinet and checked my heat sink. It's on there good and solid. It is NOT sliding around. I have a very basic aluminum heat sink with tiny fingers/fin. Mine is one that I cut perfectly to size from an old Pentium heat sink to cover the Pi CPU. It is "attached" with Arctic Silver heatsink compound.
Initially, this stuff goes on smooth, like a thick paste. I wondered if my sink would slide around, but it hasn't. Applying the right amount results in good vacuum adhesion. It has been more than a year with the Pi mounted upside-down, and the sink has not moved at all. Today when I checked it, it is solid. I am sure I could pry it off, but touching it does not cause it to move. The heat sink compound has effectively hardened as expected through the hot/cold cycles.
I wanted to mention all of this to folks that are worried about using the right thermal conducting material. If you don't overdo it, good thermal compound does work without the need to strap anything down. A 2-part CPU adhesive might be more secure (and permanent), but at this point, I am convinced enough to use regular thermal compound again on my next project. Of course, your mileage may vary. A much larger heat sink may not stay put like mine does, but after a year of no overheat/throttling, this works well.
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@caver01 said in Best case to keep raspberry pie 3 cool?:
I cracked open my arcade cabinet and checked my heat sink. It's on there good and solid. It is NOT sliding around. I have a very basic aluminum heat sink with tiny fingers/fin.
Thanks for the update Caver my plan is try straight up thermal grease the next time I peel my heatsink off. The tape pulls up from the chip fine but from the heatsink itself it takes a bit of scraping with a soft-edged tool to avoid gouging the heatsink.
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An Akasa alumnium case is the one I have been using over the last couple months. It comes with a thermal kit that turns the case into one big heat sink. I have not tried to overclock but have set the cpu governor to performance and have had no problems keeping the pi3 cool. The only place in the US I have been able to get the case from is Performance PC's online the model number is ARA03M1B and I think its around 26$
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I ended up getting the first one
https://www.amazon.ca/Excellent-Cooling-System-Heatsink-Raspberry/dp/B072ZZ423F/ref=sr_1_41?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1505945213&sr=1-41&keywords=raspberry+pi+case
this is almost the same as the one you showed me. I think this one is better. COmes with better heatsinks with 3m tape pritty much perfect ilined. Just doesn't come with instructions. I may just put in a shoe box when not in use or something so no dust or filf gets to it.
I got a new 128 laxer sd card and loading it up as we speek. it's been on for like 6-7 hours now and it's at 41.c.
I had some truble taking off the old heatsinks and some of the tape was still there. I took most of it off just stuck the other heatsink on. Shouldn't be a issue. Wish this thing came with instuctions but with the images on amazon i figered it out. Also had to look at youtube where to put the wires for the fan.Should I bother overclocking it for n64? I don't want to damage my pi if it's not worth it. that's the only emulater that im interested in that has issue's. Maybe satern with panzar dragoon 2.
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@deltax5 said in Best case to keep raspberry pie 3 cool?:
Should I bother overclocking it for n64? I don't want to damage my pi if it's not worth it. that's the only emulater that im interested in that has issue's. Maybe satern with panzar dragoon 2.
You can potentially get some small gains, but they'll be minimal. It's nothing that's going to take the game from unplayable to playable. I managed an extra 50 mhz out of mine...
But, the Flirc case does keep it mighty cool even under load. I cannot make it throttle, even running the CPU at 100%. Just make sure you get the gen 2 if you're looking for one. -
Just thought I'd add to this thread. I have used the Flirc case for my rpi2b for a long time and was never really bothered about temps. I just bought a rpi3 and Flirc gen2 case to use with retropie and decided to do some stress testing at stock clock. Temperature at stock with a room temp of 21c was around 35c but at full stress, 85c after 10 minutes and still climbing, it had also clocked itself down to 800mhz. I went to touch the case thinking that maybe the CPU wasn't making proper contact with the case and it was severely hot so I'm guessing that's not a problem! I've just sat a 120mm fan over the whole thing and temps have dropped to 65.5c and have been stable for 20 mins. So unfortunately, passive cooling alone is not good enough for my particular board :(.
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