Good cases for the Pi4?
-
@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).
-
@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.
-
@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.
-
@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.
-
@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.
-
I'm using the Flirc case, as was suggested to me last year
https://flirc.tv/more/raspberry-pi-4-case -
@Clyde No domestic source, from what I could tell. The price was comparable everywhere I was looking too.
-
-
@pojr Exactly what I am using!
-
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.
-
@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. -
@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:
-
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.
-
I just got my Argon NEO. Its overall quality is superb, except that one of its two magnets was loose and I had to glue it back on with metal glue.
Alas, I don't have that much time for setting up Retropie 4.6 and transfer my old installation from my Pi 3 at the moment, so it may be some weeks before I can say something about the performance and thermal effects of the Pi 4 in the NEO case. But I will post them here eventually.
-
@Ka said in Good cases for the Pi4?:
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.
Yes you would have to since the case is it's own heatsink as well.
-
@pojr said in Good cases for the Pi4?:
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.
the low profile ice tower is great as well cause it does include an acrylic plate for under the Pi and you could also make your own case if you wanted for the Pi since it does include the stand offs under it and heck since we have all the time in the world right now cause of what is going on we could even make something like this as an example for the Pi.
-
I wanted an Argon ONE but since I'm a 12-year-old that would really break the bank for me. I eventually settled on one on Amazon by a company called Pastall. It is aluminum and has a fan. It's only $16 USD.
-
@barbudreadmon said in Good cases for the Pi4?:
@Darksavior said in Good cases for the Pi4?:
I keep mine at 1950Mhz
You can now push it to that freq with a fanless flirc case ? No throttling ? That wasn't possible until recently, right ?
Yeah. I have a Flirc too and I'm overclocked to 1900 arm core and 750 gpu core. Thermals cap around 60~65º after an hour or so of gaming.
-
I've had good luck with the Argon One / Pi 4. The best part is having all the ports rear facing making cable management a breeze and easy to hide. No more infamous Pi cable spiders! ;) The fan can be slightly loud at 100% in a quiet room when working next to it.
@barbudreadmon - I did some testing with the link provided using the settings below. The first test completed in 919s (but it keeps running) leveled off around 57-58C (fan at 10%).
over_voltage=6 arm_freq=2000 gpu_freq=750CPUBurn pushed it a little harder and it leveled off around 64-66C (fan was jumping between 50-100%) . The fan is set to run at 55% below 65C and 100% at and above 65C. The fan speed could be tweaked for a more consistent temp as it was right on the boundary.
I did the latest firmware update before testing. It seems 2GHz is solid on this board. I'm going to do a few more tests over the weekend for stability before trying to go above 2 GHz. Ambient was around 73F/22.7C.
-
@Riverstorm Thanks for the detailed results. As for the cable spiders, it depends on the application of the Pi. In my upright arcade cabinet, having the cables not on only one side actually helps to spread them out between the different components. 😊 That's why I usually prefer cases that don' t change the socket layout.
Contributions to the project are always appreciated, so if you would like to support us with a donation you can do so here.
Hosting provided by Mythic-Beasts. See the Hosting Information page for more information.