NOOB, RPI3+ case/cooling options

Alginonuk

Hi everyone

I know this topic has been covered a lot, but as I'm a NOOB and the RPI3+ is brand new I wanted to check before buying a case/fans/heatsink, etc.

Plans
Use - retro gaming & Kodi streaming. play Atari 2600 - PS1 (and Mario Kart 64, but no other N64 games).

Case - want to use official case, with themed retro gaming stickers and ideally no modding.

Recommendations
Case - would it be better to go for a Flirc? Prefer to have a retro theme instead of a metal box. Not keen on 3D printed poor looking cases. But open to good quality looking retro case.

Modding - does the official case need modding with fan or heat sinks. I've seen Blogs showing how to add a fan externally, but it doesn't look great.

Any other advice for optimum use of the RPI3+ would be much appreciated.

Thanks very much James

kikinaak

Unless theres a new flirc case for the 3 b+ board, it wont work. That case is designed to make contact with the cpu, and the heat spreader on the 3b+ makes that too tall to fit.

The official case will fit the new board. While no heat sink is "required", one isnt required for the old model either. But it still gives better cooling which will be important once you start getting into the PS1 games. The cpu is the only chip with the new heat spreader, the lan chip and the ram where people also add heat sinks still dont have one. Adding a sink to the heat spreader would probably still help dissipation especially if you will be adding a fan.

Darksavior

@kikinaak The flirc gen2 seems to work fine on the pi3+. Simply Austin verified it working. Etaprime was wrong...again. Or whoever you heard that from. At least in his latest vid he admits he made a mistake. I'll be getting my pi3+ on friday.

dirthurts

@kikinaak I have my pi3+ working just fine in the Flirc Gen2 case. The contact lines up perfectly. The default head pad is a little thick for it, but you can cut it down or use some other thermal tape or even compound and it works great.

Using I'm overclocked at 1.5 Ghz with no throttling. It works great.

@Alginonuk I wouldn't use the official case. I constantly found even my pi 3 original throttling from heat in that furnace of a case.

piratefish

@dirthurts said in NOOB, RPI3+ case/cooling options:

@kikinaak I have my pi3+ working just fine in the Flirc Gen2 case. The contact lines up perfectly. The default head pad is a little thick for it, but you can cut it down or use some other thermal tape or even compound and it works great.

Using I'm overclocked at 1.5 Ghz with no throttling. It works great.

Hey! I'm totaly new to that whole Raspberry Pi stuff and trying to piece together my first setup right now.

Just to be sure that I got it correct, by pi3+ you mean the Raspberry Pi 3 Model B+ that came out this month, right? Can you tell me a little bit more how you got it to fit into the Flirc Gen2 case? How complicated and how much work is it?

I just want to make sure that I'm buying the right components for my new Pi. :)

Thanks in abvance!

piratefish

@piratefish For anyones info: I contacted the manufacturer and he assured me that the gen2 case is 100% compatible with the new Paspberry Pi 3 Model B+. It ony needs a thinner thermal pad which will be available (and I think from then on included in shipping) as of next week.

Alginonuk

@piratefish thanks very much for all the info. I'll be getting the Flirc case then, cheers

piratefish

@alginonuk You're welcome!

I'll be getting one, too. The design is just great, concerning both functionality and look.

Darksavior

My pi3 b+ came in today. The flirc cases fits fine. I'm using a thermal pad I had lying around from a pc gpu.