Pi 4 Cooling Case + Better Thermal Tape

Afternoon, Well my pi 4 (4GB RAM) has been getting little attention seeing as Libreelec is not 100% stable for it but for work I was able to use it for a product that we sell (product needs a vm to run a java app to scan files and this is usually a VM)

I was using a hacked pi 3 case as I had plenty around but as everyone knows (unless you are in bunker planning on Nuking Mars) the new Raspberry Pi 4 runs *Very* Warm. I tried a little fan with the hacked base but i hate the noise from the fans 🙂

so thinking back to my boring afternoon when I run some tests on cooling my Pi 3 I decided to do the same with the Pi 4 with a passive case, results are below, in a nutshell, get the case and some good tape (3mm thick) and your sorted, the case on its own with supplied tape (1mm think) is rubbish as the pads are too thin and doesn’t make contact with metal.

Parts Needed

1x Raspberry Pi 4B Protective Box CNC Aluminum Alloy Case Cover Enclosure (£6.89 from eBay)

1x AAB Cooling Thermopad 20x130x3 – 6W/mK (£4.79 from Amazon)

 

Commands Run

  • To check temp
    vcgencmd measure_temp
  • To run stress test for 2 mins
    stress –cpu 8 –io 4 –vm 2 –vm-bytes 128M –timeout 120s

Stuff I cannot control

Temp outside = 27.0c
The case was cool when installed
Brexit = what is the UK thinking

Results 

Idel temp 2 mins load temp after 1 mins rest
Stock 57.0c 70.0c 63.0c
heatsink case 48.0c 57.0c 53.0c
heatsink case + better tape 40.0c 50.0c 45.0c
heatsink case + better tape + bottom 39.0c 47.0c 44.0c
heatsink case + better tape + bottom + power corner 38.0c 46.0c 43.0c

Set Ups

Stock

heatsink case

heatsink case + better tape

heatsink case + better tape + bottom

heatsink case + better tape + bottom + power corner

Comment below with your thoughts or similar experiences.

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