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    Good cases for the Pi4?

    Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved General Discussion and Gaming
    coolingcasescase
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    • ClydeC
      Clyde @barbudreadmon
      last edited by

      @barbudreadmon One big advantage of the Pi series always was not sheer processing power, but its immense user base and the benefits that came with it: many people and websites you can get help from, many projects you can use and learn from, many third-party supplements etc. Competitors with better hardware specs often lacked in those „soft“ areas.

      How is the N2 doing in these aspects? (honest curiosity) And can it run Crysis Retropie?

      B 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
      • DarksaviorD
        Darksavior @barbudreadmon
        last edited by Darksavior

        @barbudreadmon The black screen is not related to this. It will do that even when idling on my frontend. It's probably a hardware defect. I left cpuburn on for around an hour after my pi4 decided to work again and no black screen with that test.

        Yes, I am disappointed with the gpu drivers and I would've probably waited if I knew the pi foundation had the nerve to release a product with broken drivers.

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        • B
          barbudreadmon @Clyde
          last edited by

          @Clyde said in Good cases for the Pi4?:

          How is the N2 doing in these aspects? (honest curiosity)

          No idea, tbh i only used it as a test platform when i was debugging yabasanshiro on aarch64 linux platform, and was kinda impressed with the performances on emulation

          @Clyde said in Good cases for the Pi4?:

          And can it run Crysis Retropie?

          Lately i've been thinking of reinstalling something on it, but i don't think retropie has aarch64 in its build scripts ? Anyway, i would probably go with a tailor-made system again.

          FBNeo developer - github - forum

          ClydeC 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
          • ClydeC
            Clyde @barbudreadmon
            last edited by

            @barbudreadmon Ah okay, and you also answered my pending question if not Retropie, then which other retro distribution you're using for the N2. 🙂 Feel free to share any future experiences.

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            • B
              barbudreadmon @Clyde
              last edited by

              @Clyde said in Good cases for the Pi4?:

              which other retro distribution you're using for the N2

              It's still using the plain old ubuntu beta for odroid n2 i got at the time, lately i noticed the board got support from the official linux kernel and some progress was made on the open-source mesa driver (not that the proprietary closed-source driver was actually bad) so i have been thinking of giving a try to a gentoo-based setup with that open-source driver.

              Adding support in retropie shouldn't be a huge ordeal tbh, since the emulators are already compatible (minor the few ones that run only on arm 32bits)

              FBNeo developer - github - forum

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              • B
                Brunnis
                last edited by

                @Ecks said in Good cases for the Pi4?:

                @Brunnis 71c is a little too toasty for my taste i usually like staying within the 40c and yes also for my actual computers as well which with the ice tower when playing a PSP game the max temps i get is 36c note i have not overclocked but pretty sure when i do i would be getting around 45c at most.

                I can understand that way of thinking, but it’s mostly in your head. The Pi is functionally verified to work at 120C. At 85C it’s far from any damage. It would be able to run constantly at that temp for years.

                Besides, I think few emulation use cases will cause the Pi to reach as high as sysbench with 4 core load. It’s been a while since I tested, but I think N64 temps are 60-65C.

                EcksE B 2 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 0
                • pojrP
                  pojr
                  last edited by

                  i only have the default one that comes with canakit, but ive been looking for something that looks sleak. the argon ones looks pretty legit. i wish they had more cases that resembles retro consoles like they do with the older raspberry pi models

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                  • EcksE
                    Ecks @Brunnis
                    last edited by

                    @Brunnis said in Good cases for the Pi4?:

                    @Ecks said in Good cases for the Pi4?:

                    @Brunnis 71c is a little too toasty for my taste i usually like staying within the 40c and yes also for my actual computers as well which with the ice tower when playing a PSP game the max temps i get is 36c note i have not overclocked but pretty sure when i do i would be getting around 45c at most.

                    I can understand that way of thinking, but it’s mostly in your head. The Pi is functionally verified to work at 120C. At 85C it’s far from any damage. It would be able to run constantly at that temp for years.

                    Besides, I think few emulation use cases will cause the Pi to reach as high as sysbench with 4 core load. It’s been a while since I tested, but I think N64 temps are 60-65C.

                    Just because the Pi can get that hot doesn't mean to make it hot and besides just like with any computer it is best to keep it as cool as possible which is why there is so many of these options and also if people does use a case with a fan or just uses a heatsink with a fan connected like the one i am using you can opt out for the fan to use lower voltage (3.3v) which can get temps to the high 40's low 50's and the reason why it is better to have it cooler than 60c to 65c is so the CPU doesn't lower in performance over time from getting too hot this is why the majority of people that would buy a passive cooled case is they don't tend to overclock it by much or not at all which they can get that constant 38c to 50c.

                    Another good thing for the cooling solution i went for is for projects because i would be able to have it in a enclosed area like a bartop arcade system and have the unit next to like 2 little holes to exhaust the hot air out while keeping the rest of the unit cooled enough and if for some reason it gets hot i can always replace the fan for something a little bigger and a little more powerful while having a heatsink on the unit and the other thing i might try out soon because i can do it with this cooler is use non conductive thermal paste which i could maybe go down to the low 20's when on idle and maybe high 20's low 30's when playing a game.

                    Lastly wouldn't it be in your head thinking that making a system get that hot considered a good thing because just like every other computer out there the goal is making it as cool as possible and just yesterday i got in the mail the Pi 4 2gb for my cousin with this case https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07VPQP15T/ which makes it look sleek and small and also cools very well which on idle was getting 36c and playing games almost 50c and yes N64 as well and the unit is overclocked at 1.75GHz (because i wont be able to maintain and/or troubleshoot it for my cousin because of what is going on when i mail it to him).

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                    • B
                      barbudreadmon @Brunnis
                      last edited by barbudreadmon

                      @Brunnis said in Good cases for the Pi4?:

                      I think N64 temps are 60-65C

                      Again, i don't think it's a good reference, iirc, even on pi2, the bottleneck of n64 emulation wasn't the cpu, which means the charge must be pretty low on pi4. There are emulators that'll stress the cpu a lot more.

                      FBNeo developer - github - forum

                      B 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                      • W
                        Weatherby @barbudreadmon
                        last edited by

                        @barbudreadmon My Pi3 has started having heating issues, and is generally a bit wonky at this point. Since 4.6 is now supported as a beta on the Pi4, I figured it's time to throw in on a new build. Mostly I want to play up to PSX games without worrying too much about heating issues (that's where I really start to have a problem on my 3, though it depends on the game.) Dreamcast games are definitely interesting, though, so I might end up overclocking.

                        In any case, I went with the Argon One case. Seems like it's pretty solid on cooling all around. Unfortunately it's shipping from china so who knows when the hell it'll get here.

                        ClydeC 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                        • ClydeC
                          Clyde @Weatherby
                          last edited by

                          @Weatherby said in Good cases for the Pi4?:

                          In any case, I went with the Argon One case. Seems like it's pretty solid on cooling all around. Unfortunately it's shipping from china so who knows when the hell it'll get here.

                          Did you order there for a low price or are there no domestic sources in your area? I'm asking because German online stores do have the Argon cases in stock.

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                          • B
                            Brunnis @barbudreadmon
                            last edited by

                            @barbudreadmon said in Good cases for the Pi4?:

                            @Brunnis said in Good cases for the Pi4?:

                            I think N64 temps are 60-65C

                            Again, i don't think it's a good reference, iirc, even on pi2, the bottleneck of n64 emulation wasn't the cpu, which means the charge must be pretty low on pi4. There are emulators that'll stress the cpu a lot more.

                            Yeah, I know. Just giving the figure as a reference. The sysbench 4 core load is probably much closer to a real world worst case for emulation, in terms of temps. Most emulators won’t put that kind of load on the SoC though.

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                            • JirynJ
                              Jiryn
                              last edited by

                              I'm using the Flirc case, as was suggested to me last year
                              https://flirc.tv/more/raspberry-pi-4-case

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                              • W
                                Weatherby @Clyde
                                last edited by

                                @Clyde No domestic source, from what I could tell. The price was comparable everywhere I was looking too.

                                1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                                • pojrP
                                  pojr
                                  last edited by

                                  IMG_20200513_140807.jpg

                                  JirynJ 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                  • JirynJ
                                    Jiryn @pojr
                                    last edited by

                                    @pojr Exactly what I am using!

                                    pojrP 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                    • KaK
                                      Ka
                                      last edited by

                                      Thinking about getting an Argon One case for my Pi 4. Stupid question - I’ve already got some stick-on heatsinks on my Pi board. Would I need to remove these for the Argon case to fit? It looks like it’s a tight fit.

                                      jandalf81J EcksE 2 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                      • pojrP
                                        pojr @Jiryn
                                        last edited by

                                        @Jiryn
                                        i absolutely love the case. it provides the bulk that i need. i had to remove the fan though. did you? not that it has been an issue without the fan.

                                        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                        • jandalf81J
                                          jandalf81 @Ka
                                          last edited by jandalf81

                                          @Ka Yes, you will need to remove the heatsinks, as there are two protusions inside the case which directly touch the CPU and GPU for optimal heat flow. See here for reference at 2:10:

                                          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                                          • pojrP
                                            pojr
                                            last edited by

                                            The argon one case is probably the best one ever made for the pi 4 right now, but sadly its sold out...and places like ebay are selling it for too much. its really only a $25 case, shouldn't be sold for $40. the flirc case is probably the next best thing.

                                            EcksE 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
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