RaspPi - Cooling and Speed
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Not really needing "help" so figured post in the general discussion area...
Finally getting started on my arcade cabinet project that I designed almost a year ago. Debated between PC or Pi based, and finally figured anything that needs the speed and cpu of a full PC to run, usually needs game pads anyways so play it on my PC not the arcade cab.
I do have a few fans gathered up. Couple of 120mm and a pair of giant venting fans for range hood microwaves. I work in an appliance shop, they had minor cosmetic damage to the housing and got them free. For the PC it woulda been great, on the Pi I think overkill.
Anyways... going to mount the Pi off the ground a few inches for air flow, and probably float a 120mm above the Pi itself. Pi has heatsinks. If the fan isn't directly on the board, is it still better to suck the heat off the surface? or because an inch or two away from the board, blow the fresh air down on top?
Also... I have a Pi3B now, which I can use for another project... is there a noticeable difference playing games with a Pi3B vs the newer Pi3B+? Talking old arcade games, NES, TurboGraffix16, etc... I'll probably be leaving N64 games off and anything else that really needs a controller. I just want am arcade game with a stick and 6 buttons, nothing that requires thumb controls and pads etc. So, because older games... would the Pi3B+ make a difference?
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@throbinson said in RaspPi - Cooling and Speed:
So, because older games... would the Pi3B+ make a difference?
Not noticeably much, older systems are already running full speed on the 3B. But you can still get the new model for the better Wifi/BT/Lan and because it should run cooler than the previous model.
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I read that the new Pi3B+ takes more power though...
But if no known improvement, I'll probably pass on it. I can't see the WiFi or BT being used much. Well BT not at all... WiFi wise, the cab will be about 10 feet from the router so not an issue there.
I think I'm finally good to go... fan direction can be changed, I'll probably aim it at the board, to me that makes the most sense.
Only thing now is building, and designing the graphics. I'm very stumped on what to do for those... went to school for Graphic Design, so I have the skill, but, brain if overthinking it and now have too many possibilities to narrow down. :D
This was the original idea for the cab... I changed the bottom doors to a single door so doesn't look like a medicine cabinet. Also speakers are now gutted Logitech 2.1 speakers so a few mods there but overall, hat's what I came up with. 6'2" tall, shallow, bottom storage. I have a pair of Samsung 4:3 monitors (not 5:4) that I upgraded the capacitors for and now work and look like new.
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@throbinson said in RaspPi - Cooling and Speed:
Pi has heatsinks.
Are they glued to the chips by real thermal pads? One thing that is often overlooked/unknown is that many cheap Pi "cooling sets" have sinks with cheap pads that rather isolate the chips than cool them.
Just mentioned in case you don't know that already.
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@clyde Been so long since stuck them on I honestly can't recall. :D
Though looking online... been a few nice fan options that came out since I bought my Pi about 1.5yrs ago.
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@clyde said in RaspPi - Cooling and Speed:
@throbinson said in RaspPi - Cooling and Speed:
Pi has heatsinks.
Are they glued to the chips by real thermal pads? One thing that is often overlooked/unknown is that many cheap Pi "cooling sets" have sinks with cheap pads that rather isolate the chips than cool them.
Just mentioned in case you don't know that already.
Thanks for mentioning this. A lot of the heatsinks that come with Pi kits have tissue tape, which is an insulator. For tape you need something conductive, like the 3M 8810 thermal tape. (I think that is the right number.)
With that said, I noticed my Pi with the "right thermal tape" and aluminum heatsink hit its limit when Kodi was creating its library. Haven't seen it top out with RetroPie, yet.
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Hmm... I think I'll add some 3M tape to my next Amazon order... RaspPi was a Canakit, not sure what they use... since no height restrictions I have a couple of sinks from an old board at work that are a bit wider, and about 1.25" tall. I think I'll carefully remove what I have, put the 3M tape on and stick the bigger sinks on.
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The pi3b+'s extra speed comes in handy when you have to juggle between the arcade emulators. A mini pc could've saved you some headache in sorting games due to it's power to run latest mame but it's a lot more expensive too.
FBA is slower, but has more accurate emulation. I want to run as many games as I can on it so I overclock to 1.5ghz and cool the pi with a flirc gen2 case. If a game runs too slow or not supported at all, then I use Mame2003Plus. The Plus version is actively being worked on backporting and fixing what they can. New games are now working/fixed over the old 2003.
Example: With Ninja Baseball Bat Man, FBA runs it at 45fps even at 1.5Ghz but it has accurate audio. Mame2003 runs it fullspeed most of the time, but has audio problems. Mame2003Plus has the fixed audio so I use that.
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I bought a dual micro fan setup on Amazon. Works great and very quiet. I was getting constant temp warnings when playing anything SNES graphic level and higher with just heat sinks ... now it's very stable and no warnings.
This was the kit I used.. not a plug for the product..
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@jamrom2 Did your kit have thermal tape? I'm asking because many reviewers critisize that the tape included in the kit wasn't thermal.
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No idea... ordered some 3M. No use pulling the sinks off now until I have something to reattach them with. :D
I do like that dual fan... was debating it. I ended up deciding, rather than making something needlessly complicated, what I'll do is attach the new heat sinks I have from a dead control board... good aluminum sinks with really tall spikes... attach them to the pi with the 3M tape to be sure that it's thermal tape not insulating. Then the fan, just going to glue gun it to the wood.
I bought some nylon stands for pcb boards, about 1.25" tall with adhesive backing. Will attach those to the cabinet and the pi to it, giving about 1.5" space underneath for airflow. The fan I'll glue standing up and aimed at the board. I'll have it right at the edge where the door shuts, and have an air hole in the door. Should suck in fresh air and blow across the board with the bigger sinks. Inside volume of the arcade cab is pretty big and board pretty small so probably just air holes at the top, not even a fan.
My image for the Pi is getting cut down... don't want any games that need axis controllers so basically N64/PSOne games and up are getting wiped out. Same as a lot of the DOS and really old stuff. I'm not looking for as many games as will fit, rather, games that can be played with cab controllers. So nothing too new and CPU heavy.
My friend wants one too, not a cab but same thing in one of those NES looking cases, so, may let him have this one and get the 3B+ for myself.
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@throbinson said in RaspPi - Cooling and Speed:
No idea... ordered some 3M. No use pulling the sinks off now until I have something to reattach them with. :D
Whom did you answer with this? Just curious, because my question right before was meant for @jamrom2. 😉
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