How are you cooling your Pi 3?
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I've only had my Pi 3 for a few days, but I've been running this 15mm x 15mm x 15mm aluminum heatsink from Adafruit (not an affiliate link) with a little thermal grease and my temps haven't gone over 57 C even with N64 games while overclocked to 1.4GHz. I've been getting the lightning bolt so I have a 3.5A power supply on order, but back at "not overlocked" (no lightning bolt) I'm hovering around 51 C with Mario 64's demo "Press Start" screen running for a few hours.
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@caver01 I took a look at that, but didn't seem to suite the style I'm hoping to get. I found the following which looks perfect, but I can't seem to get it in my local.
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I use the old heat sinks from my RPi1 and it works fine,I didn't know you could overclock it,when I goto the raspi config it say it can't be overclocked..??
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I bought a case with 3 small thermal dissipators. I never had problem before, but I needed a case...
BUT, yesterday I did re-install MAME2010 "by the source" and I got the thermometer icon for the 1st time. (no O/C)
A LOT of heat, extremely hot dissipators. I had to blow on the PI, and it tooks forever to reinstall. I have a copper dissipator I simply put on the small one, it helped a bit, but not enough. So I'm going to use a fan and bigger dissipators, and maybe make my own case. -
@nanar
I've had that same issue compiling MAME2010 from source and I have a RPi3 with those thermal heat sinks. I happen to have a cheap USB fan that I got from Walmart that I keep near my RPi. I rarely need it but when I do it's nice and cools my RPi quickly when it starts getting too hot. My power supply has enough power to push all this (including RPi, my controllers, USB mouse & keyboard) and that fan has a little on/off switch so I just turn it on when needed. Also that fan folds down flat so I can easily put it away and it can run off batteries but I've never tried this. I actually ended up getting a 2nd one that I keep next to my desktop PC because that thing can be like a little space heater and I needed something to keep me cool. -
@backstander
Hey thank you, I didn't knew this kind of fan, cool stuff. I'll rethink about making my own case, a fan should be enough without overclocking (I saw people managed to control the fan with GPIO, PWM fan) Pretty abnormal it get that hot when compiling.. -
Pretty abnormal it get that hot when compiling
It is pretty rare except maybe when I'm compiling something large like MAME.
(I saw people managed to control the fan with GPIO, PWM fan)
I haven't thought about that. Sound like a good idea!
I have several old fans from out of old PC cases but I doubt any of them are PWM fans. -
At what point do you need to cool your Pi/Retropie? Is that the only way to play certain emulators that come pre-installed? I was under the impression that stuff like the N64 or Dreamcast emulators would run "out the box", minus the ROMS of course
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@garrettendi said in How are you cooling your Pi 3?:
At what point do you need to cool your Pi/Retropie? Is that the only way to play certain emulators that come pre-installed? I was under the impression that stuff like the N64 or Dreamcast emulators would run "out the box", minus the ROMS of course
it depends on your case, room temperature, model of pi, overclock, etc.
ultimately pis downlock when they overheat, so they're able to operate safely regardless.
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I see, so regardless of overclocking or not, it will still run safely because of the temperature checks (just read the Wiki!).
But what emulators would require overclocking? I'm hesitant to overclock until needed, having no experience at all in this field.
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@garrettendi said in How are you cooling your Pi 3?:
I see, so regardless of overclocking or not, it will still run safely because of the temperature checks (just read the Wiki!).
But what emulators would require overclocking? I'm hesitant to overclock until needed, having no experience at all in this field.
on a pi3, none, really. there's a small number of mame games that benefit from a cpu overclock, and GPU-limited emulators (PPSSPP, reicast, *n64) should benefit from GPU overclocks, but it's not like they're not working before, but work perfectly after, so i don't see it as a requirement.
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Thanks! I'll go with the stock settings then for as long as possible!
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I'm running a mild OC @ 1350 MHz and 500 MHZ Core/GPU. It seems to run okay for most stuff other than maybe PSP. If I want to play PSP or Dreamcast games, I pop the top of the Official RPi case and put a fan over it.
I have used a small house fan, but recently gutted a dead PC power supply and wired it up to an old 12V power brick. I could really use a lower CFM fan as this one is really loud out in the open. The plus side is that even with the Pi going full out on PSP games, it tends to stay under 50 degrees.
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So by small house fan you mean a simple desktop fan? The kind I might use in the office to keep myself cool in the summer? How did that work for that level of OC?
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I know the Flirc case is popular. Is anyone here running an OC with the Flirc case?
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@garrettendi Yes. I hat the Official RPi case, so the top just pops off. Put the pi on it's side and aimed the fan at it. Not the prettiest setup, but it was moving plenty of air even on low to keep the Pi under 60 degrees. It just looked really dumb. (https://www.amazon.com/Honeywell-HT-900-TurboForce-Circulator-Black/dp/B001R1RXUG
Passive heatsinks have never really been my favorite thing unless you are using a really good thermal paste. Airflow is almost always going to help because room temperature is so much cooler than the chip.
The desk fan approach isn't pretty, but it's not needed a lot of the time, so it could work in a pinch or just for testing OC settings to see if the RAM can even handle it.
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I saw some benchmarks and a case that was partially open-air was better than every other case. People on this forum doubted it and said a Flirc case must be superior to any solution that is more open-air, but I find it odd that many people find removing the top to their cases and opening their system to more air provides huge benefits.
https://www.pretzellogix.net/2015/09/02/the-best-raspberry-pi-2-cases-compared-and-reviewed/
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Sorry to hi-jack the thread a little, but what amperage plug are you using for your small OC? I might try the same setup. The plug I plan to get is the official EU/UK adapter: 5.1V 2.5A, but I hear that some overclockers use a greater amperage.
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@garrettendi That PSU should be fine. I looked at my PSU when I set up my first OC and it's only listed as 1000 mAh on the supply. I pushed up to 1400 MHz with 500 MHz Core/GPU but it locked up after playing PSP for a while. Couldn't find anything in the logs, but I think it was heat related, not a voltage dip.
My guess with the PSUs are that most cheap 2A units are simply rated higher than they are really capable of producing. The official PSU would be good. would be comfortable with a Windows/Android tablet charger. My son's HP stream 7 win tablet and my Mother In Law's HP Android tablet will eat through low quality or low output PSUs
Also, my Pi isn't up at the moment because I had to steal it's network connection for an Xbox one to download updated, so I can confirm the Overvolt I'm currently at. It's either 4 or 5. Frankly, that 1400 MHz and even 1350 don't make much difference over stock. There was a noticeable difference going from 1000 MHz in a Pi2 to the Pi 3. 1400 MHz is a bit smoother in PSP and Dreamcast, but it's still got some issues, so for me it was safer to back down the OC and deal with framerate issues at some points (I guess I'm used to it from the old school N64 and PSX days).
So short story, go with the official PSU: You can probably find cheaper ones, but if you go through a couple to find a good one, you aren't saving any $. I think the higher voltage/amperage comes into play if you are trying to really overvolt to push core frequency beyond 500 MHz and pushing above a 1400 MHZ clock frequency.
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