Re:The Raspberry Pi 4 needs a fan
by geerlingguy on Wednesday July 17, 2019 @11:37AM
(#20460600)
True, I worded it a bit wrong. But the metal case is a huge improvement over the plastic die package on the Pi 3 B and earlier—a heat sink helps a little but you don't yet _need_ one if you use a fan, since the metal is much better at dispersing the heat.
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Indeed - there is enough aluminum/copper in the SoC's metal lid and PCB's inner (ground/power) layers, that the whole thing is effectively a 2-3 square-inch heat-sink. Eben himself has been talking about this technique around the time RPi3+ was released.
And your point here is completely understandable too - there is a kinda-heatsink there already. Just add a fan, and we're good.
My point is - seeing a large black hole where SoC goes (color corresponding to +20-ish degrees C by the chart) is utterly confusing, since SoC is the hottest point actually.
How does it radiate enough heat with so little surface area (in comparison to an extruded aluminum heat sink with fins?)