Raspberry Pi 4 Case + Fan

[monkeypet]

I noticed that the Raspberry Pi 4 B was running sightly over 80C. Throttle temp is around 85C, but i didn't observe it throttling yet. Anyways, this case i bought from ebay for around $8 included a small fan, aluminum case, and screws also. When i activated the fan the temperature dropped to around 55C (from 80C). I think I could have operated it without the fan, but with the fan, I think i can try to overclock it even more. The included screws were too long and I had to drill in new holes because the screws were too large.

RaspPiFan2.jpg (27.95 KiB) Viewed 4592 times

RaspPiFan.jpg (36.81 KiB) Viewed 4592 times

[diyhouse]

I had similar problems with my Pi4 feeling a little on the 'hot' side,..

I didn't like the horrible little 5v fans that were supplied so I decided to re-vamp the the cooling and power supply.

So I mounted a larger 12v fan topside of a piece of perspex,.. with a small variable power supply,. Ok so its only a small pot,.. but it allows me to tweak the fan speed. ( 9v volts seems ok so far and you struggle to hear it!! )
And I also included a small 5volt regulating smps,.. that will do 5v at 3amps... to supply the Pi

I feed in 15v unregulated DC to the system,.. then step down accordingly,.. using the output air flow of the Pi to cool any excess heat from the 5v smps..
The fan only draws about 40mA.. so no worries there...

OK its not exactly pretty,.. but it sits nicely behind the TV ,.. out of sight,.. so the wife is none the wiser
BTW,.. And the floating black wire is for the dual coloured LED,.. which I have yet to connect up.. so still a slight WIP..

[rodr]

I'm very pleased with my aluminum passive heatsink case. On a stress test temperature never got over 67C.

[monkeypet]

I'm very pleased with my aluminum passive heatsink case. On a stress test temperature never got over 67C.

Thanks for sharing, did you try overclocking?

[rodr]

I'm very pleased with my aluminum passive heatsink case. On a stress test temperature never got over 67C.

Thanks for sharing, did you try overclocking?

No, didn't do that.

[kzembower]

I'm very disappointed in the CanaKit case fan (the premium glassy black plastic one). At first, I was a big fan (pun intended), but after about a week of solid and quiet running, the bearings seemed to fail and I got all kinds of rumbles and squeals and noises.

Anyone know of a 5 or 3.3v fan that fits the tabs of the CanaKit case and has good, long-lasting bearings?

-Kevin

[gedakc]

One option other than replacing the fan is to consider replacing the case with a passive cooling one (no fan). Such cases are often made of aluminum and make contact with high heat points like the CPU.

I've had good experience with this RPi3 Aluminum case and more recently with this CanaKit RPi4 aluminum case.

[jfabernathy]

if you search on Youtube.com you will find a bunch of Raspberry Pi 4 cooling solutions and they usually test them with stress tests and overclocking. I have had fans get loud due to bearings failing. I bought a bunch of them for $10 and they worked but did not cool as good as the ones I originally had.

I saw a video with the Raspberry Pi foundation guys who should know and they say that they could have moved the throttling limit from 85C to 100C or higher. 85 was picked for safety to the users and to make the lawyers happy. They say you could run it a 80C all the time without issues. The silicon is designed to the mil spec 125C standard.

If I was using my RPI4 as a combo 24/7, I'd pick a passive aluminum case that also had a place for the SSD.

I like this one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LLc4pF3jZQg
IR receiver, M2.2 sata support, full side HDMI, etc.

[keef256]

If I was using my RPI4 as a combo 24/7, I'd pick a passive aluminum case that also had a place for the SSD.

I like this one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LLc4pF3jZQg
IR receiver, M2.2 sata support, full side HDMI, etc.

I've just setup my backend with one of these. Nice case. Not done much testing yet but I think with just passive cooling it will stabilise somewhere in the 50-59 deg C range (got my fan set to come on at 60).

[Edit] Just had a look. The higest temperature it has reached is 65DegC the majority of the time it is mid 40's and it's overclocked and lives in my loft so not the coldest part of my house.

[kc2cbd]

I'm very disappointed in the CanaKit case fan (the premium glassy black plastic one). At first, I was a big fan (pun intended), but after about a week of solid and quiet running, the bearings seemed to fail and I got all kinds of rumbles and squeals and noises.

Anyone know of a 5 or 3.3v fan that fits the tabs of the CanaKit case and has good, long-lasting bearings?

-Kevin

You might check Marlin P Jones.
https://www.mpja.com/DC-Axial-Fans/products/48/

Dale