How are you cooling your Pi 3?

Concat · 1 Sept 2016, 13:58

I bought a case with 5v fan and heatsinks off ebay for like 8 bucks.

backstander · 9 Jan 2016, 15:59

@obsidianspider
I originally purchases a kit that came with a Raspberry Pi 3, a 2.5A power supply, a black case (with a top that will pop off) and 2 heat sinks but when I had it overclocked and played alot of MAME games, I stated getting those yellow/orange/red box indicators on the top/right of the screen. I already had a small USB powered fan that I picked up at Walmart last year in the Fall on discount so just for fun, I plugged it into my Pi 3 and I was surprised that the fan actually works without a powered USB hub. I just took the top off the case and had the fan blow over the heat sinks and I never saw the yellow/red boxes again. I have since got a powered USB hub and the fan is plugged into that now but I haven't used it after re-flashing to RetroPie 4.0 (and without any overclocking).

From my experience, as long as it's not really, really hot in my house, the 2 heat sinks will suffice unless I overclock my Pi, then I need that USB fan.

My only complaint about this kit I purchased is that it's really hard to get the microSD card out without having to pop open the case a little bit. Putting the microSD card in is very easy.

edmaul69 · 1 Sept 2016, 15:48

@backstander i only use a heatsink on all of mine. One is in an intellivision flashback with no ventilation. I use it daily with no heat issues.

backstander · 9 Jan 2016, 17:27

@edmaul69
When I had mine overclocked, I think it was maxed out in every area I could find in the forums including the SD card reader with "dtoverlay=sdhost,overclock_50=100\n" and it only happened when playing MAME games for extended times. Now with the new updates to the N64 emulator in RetroPie 4.0.x, the Pi 3 handles this pretty well without any overclocking so I haven't used a fan since but I have the fan handy if I ever need to use it :)

Thegodfather · 3 Sept 2016, 17:38

Do you guys recommend using heatsinks and/or cases with fans, with a non overclocked pi?
Just want to know if I need to spend a little bit more money or not.
Btw, I'm thinkin of housing my pi in my old sega genesis, do you guys think it will overheat being closed on the shell of the genesis?

bazmonkey · 3 Sept 2016, 17:43

@Thegodfather
You should be fine without any heating unless it's really cramped in there.

UberJay · 5 Sept 2016, 20:28

The only cooling which really works (based on benchmark tests on youtube) is water cooling (overkill obviously) & a large heat sink which means you wont get the top of a case on. Everything else outside of that is a waste of time. I run a pi2 not over clocked and it runs everything.

caver01 · 5 Sept 2016, 20:49

@UberJay said in How are you cooling your Pi 3?:

The only cooling which really works (based on benchmark tests on youtube) is water cooling (overkill obviously) & a large heat sink which means you wont get the top of a case on. Everything else outside of that is a waste of time. I run a pi2 not over clocked and it runs everything.

Well, come on now. Just about any sink properly attached will help cool the CPU. I have not seen a single overheat indicator since I added a sink to my Pi3 and before that I was able to easily and consistently trigger temperature throttling by running newer arcade games.

UberJay · 9 May 2016, 23:05

@caver01 I think if your examination was more scientific ie. A before / after with stats on temp. You would find that no significant improvements are made unless you go above and beyond what fits in a standard case.

dankcushions · 5 Sept 2016, 22:13

@UberJay

standard-size case that helps temps a lot.

there are also loads of other temperature experiments done with pi3s. these guys will throttle no problem without heatsinks, and often with.

anecdotally, my pi3 + heatsink (bigger than the 'ebay' one in that video) in my alu case keeps my temps down pretty low, but i'll still get throttling when i attempt a mame recompile, and that's with no overclock.

caver01 · 5 Sept 2016, 22:44

@UberJay said in How are you cooling your Pi 3?:

@caver01 I think if your examination was more scientific ie. A before / after with stats on temp. You would find that no significant improvements are made unless you go above and beyond what fits in a standard case.

I'm not sure I need to be more scientific. We could get into test data and define what you mean by significant, but we are merely after sufficient cooling. All I know is that I bought a Pi3 when they came out and saw throttling (red box appears, games stuttering, sound dropping etc.). I slapped on a heatsink (cut from an old Pentium sink) using thermal paste and viola--no throttling. In fact, I haven't seen a single instance of throttling since. Is it significant cooling? Depends on how you define it. Do I know how many degrees it has changed? No. I don't remember the temperature delta. Is it sufficient for a better gaming experience? Absolutely.

I don't want to sound overenthusiastic about it, but I think it's important to counter the argument that the only cooling that works is water cooling. That's simply not true. There may be people reading this that are seeing the red box and wondering what they can do about it. Everyone's mileage will vary as we all use different cases and what not, but you don't have to go crazy to see results. A properly applied sink can make an impact and can improve your gaming experience if you are seeing issues.

caver01 · 5 Sept 2016, 22:49

Here's my heatsink for sake of argument. It really doesn't take much to help an overheating problem. Also, I think you'd agree that this is a sink that will fit it practically every case made, although I don't use a case (mounted inside my arcade cabinet). That probably makes a difference too.

caver01 · 9 Jun 2016, 00:02

@UberJay said in How are you cooling your Pi 3?:

I run a pi2 not over clocked and it runs everything.

Interestingly, when I was running a Pi2 I didn't see any heat issues either, but when I upgraded to the Pi3, everything ran faster (and hotter). It may be apples and orange between the two.

UberJay · 6 Sept 2016, 03:08

I think this would be a better solution than your little heat sink.

caver01 · 6 Sept 2016, 08:33

@UberJay LOL! That's fantastic. I know it's an extreme example to prove the point, but it's not a contest to get the lowest temp--we just need enough cooling to stop the throttling. Besides, that one blocks access to gpio pins.

UberJay · 6 Sept 2016, 08:43

@caver01 I think we agree to be honest. I'm sure you are getting some benefits from your heat Sync and if it meets your requirements then it's obviously the right solution. Like you said it's not a competition but if it was this guy has won :)

caver01 · 6 Sept 2016, 15:46

@UberJay I do like the creative use of plastic to insulate and secure the sink. Mine is literally just sticking with the thermal paste, but I'd feel better if I had a method to hold it on there.

Concat · 6 Sept 2016, 19:55

I think he did a follow-up video with a fan put on that thing as well... lol.

Anyway, from what I have seen, a heatsink only drops temps by a little bit (the normal ones you see for the RPi, not the beast above). Adding a fan is when it drops considerably.

Ekstreme · 13 Sept 2016, 10:56

I put 2 small copper heat sinks in my pi3 today. Total waste of time. I have to run the thing with the case cover off or it starts to throttle

obsidianspider · 13 Sept 2016, 11:20

@Ekstreme How small? Were they finned, or just slabs of copper?