Re:Way to keep your cool running a Raspberry Pi 4 (2019)
by washadjeffmad on Thursday June 11, 2020 @09:56AM
(#23488905)
He doesn't have much of a methodology and seems to have missed a key point of the heatsink: orientation.
If he'd mounted his Pis' GPIO parallel to the ground, heatsink fans perpendicular to it, he would have found his missing convection with or without a heatsink.
This is what I do, and mine haven't reported >45`F ambient under peak load in a passively ventilated area. There is no issue with heat removal with enough air space.
> Heatsinks will generally shave 5-10°C off the highest temperatures you encounter, which is significant, but you still need to have air moving across the heatsink for it to do anything. This means either a fully open Pi (great for testing or tinkering, not so great for a semi-permanent installation), a well-ventilated case (with slots or holes in the bottom and top to allow natural convection), or a fan. So not a bad choice, and they're so cheap you should probably stick them on any Pi you can... but heatsinks alone won't solve Pi cooling problems.