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UPDATED ✅ Want to install a good heat sink on a Raspberry Pi? ⭐ ENTER HERE ⭐ Meet The Best On The Market ⭐
Electronic devices like computers or boards always run the risk of overheatespecially when your processor temperature is at maximum load.
And it is that one high temperature on these teams can cause different failures in the operation of the samebut when it exceeds the limit damage can result irreparable.
One way to try to counteract this is through a heat sink or CPU fan, since they provide a essential cooling for the plate. That is why here we are going to show you the best heatsinks you can install on your Raspberry Pi.
What are heat sinks and what are they for on a Raspberry Pi?
Heat sinks are a metal device that they lead and dissipate or disperse excess heat that is generated by an electronic component or a power source. Therefore, they are in charge of promoting a method of conductivity cooling thermal and these can be used in any electronic device and can mostly be seen in CPUsalso known as processors or microprocessorsas well as in Arduino or Raspberry Pi boards.
They are highly important because The high temperatures reached by the components of this equipment can burn them completely. In this way the main function of a heat sink is to absorb it and extract it by dissipation of the computer case or casing. To guarantee its correct operation it is important that it has a good thermal contact with electronic components.
Mainly these heat sinks are accompanied by a fan in order to increase airflow and use a type of adhesive or thermal paste, which will facilitate the transfer of heat from the electronic component to the outside. In the case of raspberry pi its two main components must be ensured, such as the CPU and chip.
Although it should be mentioned that heat sinks are mostly not essential, in the case of raspberry pi If they are used for basic use, they will not generate much heat, so the components will not be affected, which is why the basic version of these boards come without heatsink because they don’t think it’s necessary. But despite not being completely necessary, it is not bad or else that you want to install one on it.
Please note that the heatsinks can be of anodized aluminum or copperIn this case, the former are usually much cheaper and less heavy, while the copper ones are quite the opposite. Finally, we are going to show you an example of all the components of the board and where the most heat is concentrated in it, this was seen through a thermal camera which allows to highlight hottest spots. Red dots are high temperatures and blue dots are low.
According to what is shown in these images, you can see which are the two areas most affected by overheating on the plate, so they are the two points or areas that must be protected. This is the processor that is in the center of the board and is the most visible and the Chip Lan located on the right and you can see that it also produces a lot of heat.
List of the best heat sinks that you can use in your Raspberry Pi single board computer
As already mentioned above raspberry pi comes from the factory without a heat dissipatorbut currently you can find several of them that work very well with this board and that you could use if you want to have greater security or mainly if you spend a lot of time working on the plate.
That is why we are going to show you a list of the best heat sinks that you can buy today:
GeekPi Raspberry Pi 3 B+
This heat sink has been created for use with the model Pi3B+, which will offer a box with fan and heat sinkit will prevent the components of this model from reaching suffer from overheating while you are using it.
In this way you will have access to all the ports of the Raspberry Pi board, it is transparent acrylic of very good quality and with blue ABS materials and has a 2-pin cooling fan and heat sinks to achieve a better dissipation of it towards the outside.
Geekpi Armor Case
It is only available for the version of Raspberry Pi 3B+, so it offers a heatsink case that uses CNC machining manufacturing technology to deliver a aluminium alloy. In the same way, it has three (3) small terminals that offer better heat dissipation from the board.
Have USB port, HDMI, GPIO, Ethernet interface, Power jack, A/V port, Display interface, Camera interface and Micro SD card slot, All of these components are accessible right out of the box. Lastly, it should be mentioned that this ventilation casing It is created by aluminum alloy, 3x heat tape, 1 sets of screws and a manual of facility to make this job easier for users.
For Raspberry Transparent Box
It is a box with a 5V / 2.5A charger + 3 x heatsink + fan + micro USB cable with connector of off and on. It should be mentioned that this case has a better transition design than the one already mentioned and said case consists of 9 individual layers of high quality and 4 nylon screws to mount it without the need for tools.
Some of the main features include the following:
- It is a perfect combination to be used for Raspberry Pi 3 model b+ b.
- It is very easy to use thanks to the 9 individual layers what’s wrong with it.
- Thanks to the fan it has, you can quickly reduce the temperature of the CPU chip without overheating.
- By having three heat sinks for the raspberry pi allows to improve the ventilation of the CPU/ LAN/ RAM, where it just removes the stickiness from the back of the heat sink.
- It is only available for Pi 3 B+ plates
- It has different ports such as those of the micro SD card easy access, HDMI cables, push/pull cables.
Geekpi for Raspberry Pi
This is the latest version of 9 layer acrylic box and which has a very good appearance. It has a fan, charger 5V/ 2.5 A with on/off connector. This heatsink offers greater compatibility with these boards, this is how it is available for 2B/ 3B/ 3B+ models.
Some of its most important features are the following:
- This box allows access to all the ports of the raspberry pi board as they are USB, GPIO, HDMI ports and the slots of the micro SD card.
- Their cooling fan and heat sinks They are of very good quality so they can dissipate heat from the board very easily.
- Its power supply is 5V 2.5 A with a TUV and CE certification. Cable length with on/off switch is 100cm and offers a micro USB plug.
- All this package is going to include 1 x 9 Layer Acrylic Case, 1 x Cooling Fan, 3 x Heatsinks, Screws and Screwdrivers.
For Raspberry Pi 3B+
This box has a better classic design so it offers a fan with 3 heatsinks for pi case that will allow you to reduce the temperature quickly no matter how high it is. It is compatible with Pi 3 2 model B+ models.
Some of the most outstanding features are the following:
- It is an updated version so it has a almost perfect box that you will be able to assemble it without the need for tools.
- It offers a double cooling system with a fan and 3 heatsinks for Pi case.
- offers a great speed to lower the temperature.
- Offers multiple ports, easy access to SD card and insert and remove the breakout cable and HDMI cable.
- It has a USB cable with ON/OFF connector.
- It has protection for overload and short circuits.
for Raspberry Modular
This box has 3 heatsinks for Pi 3 Y a fanwhich have the ability to reduce any overheating of the board quickly and significantly improves the ventilation of Ian/ ram chips and CPU.
Some of its most important features include the following:
- It offers an updated version that is perfect for models of the Raspberry Pi 3 2 Model B+.
- Your box is made up of 9 individual layers and uses 4 metal screws to be able to mount it without the need for tools.
- It has a double cooling system with a fan and 3 heatsinks for raspberry pi 3 kit, allowing the temperature to drop quickly.
- This case features multiple ports and easy access to micro card SDas well as for the HDMI cable.
- It has a 1.5 m charger cable with a off and on.
- It has short circuit protection and overload protection.
Iuniker Raspberry Pi 4
This fan heat sink for raspberry pi boards it is available for several versions as it is the Pi 3 B+, Pi 3b, Pi 2 and Pi 4 and for many other single board computers. Therefore, it will help you maintain the optimal temperature of your microcomputer every time you work on it.
It has the following characteristics:
- It offers a cheaper price than those heatsinks it has two fans and a fan.
- It is compatible with a large number of single board computersso it offers many possibilities of use.
- Thanks to the heat sink, it is possible to maintain a efficient temperature.
- The custom 3M heat strips they are able to ensure your board works stably.
- The updates of fan bearing not only guarantees that there is wind blown, but it is also very quiet so you will not have a noise problem.
Seed Studio
It is a heatsink developed by Seed Studiowhich is characterized by being very simple and is composed of a copper heat pipe and a 40mm fan, which is in charge of pushing the air through its cooling fins. In addition, it should be noted that it has a very simple anchoring system.
uses four data carriers, which are very similar to those used by desktop computers to ensure the motherboard to the box. All this allows, through the Raspberry Pi 4 PCB, a fairly secure connection can be created. In this way it can be said that it is a anchoring the heatsink to the processor and PCB. If you have some experience, being able to mount this heat sink on your board will not be a problem.
Adafruit Miniature 5V Cooling fan for Raspberry Pi
Is about a 5V mini cooling fan, it is ideal for those users who work for long hours in their raspberrypi, so they can prevent these from overheating. In addition, it offers great compatibility with different equipment, making it ideal for any microcomputer or any other device that needs cooling.
For this case you will have to directly connect the fan in the pins of 5V + GND GPIO power from your board, with which you will get an immediate cooling. You can place it either in its case or if you want on top of your Pi’s CPU to give it extra airflow. This is how this heat sink is compatible with all versions of raspberrypi, but only the Pi 3 is the one that produces the most overheating.
Metal case and heatsink for Raspberry Pi 4
This is one of the most sought after models today, it consists of a metal casing for the Pi 4 Model B and which in turn acts as a Dual Fan Thermal Adhesive Heatsinkthus avoiding any kind of overheating on the plate.
It has some important features that we are going to show you here:
- It uses a technology Last generation In order to be able to cut accurately, where each interface can be connected to the motherboard.
- It has a very innovative design, it has two fans ultra silent so the noise will not be a problem and they are also high speed, allowing them to provide a better cooling effect for your RaspberryPi.
- It is very easy to install, it has a built-in thermal column, faster heat dissipation and its open design will not block the signal from Bluetooth or Wi-Fi.
- It has three thermal tapes for LAN, CPU and RAM.
- It is made of aluminum and has a very good thermal conductivity, maintaining your raspberry running and away from overheating.
- It acts as a protective armor role for the plate, which is quite durable and wear resistant, so your Pi 4 it will be safe enough.
So that you can have a little idea about the operation of this heatsink, it will act as follows: The cooling system of new LAN, CPU and RAM design will pass through the copper column by the 3 thermal tapes already mentioned and later the copper column will transfer heat to the Raspberry Pi caseso heat dissipation is accelerated by the fan providing a better heat dissipation for the Raspberry Pi.
Learn step by step how to install a heat sink on a Raspberry Pi from scratch
Fortunately, the procedure for installing a heatsink on a raspberry pi it is quite simple and quick to do. Also, the procedure is practically the same no matter what heat sink type you want to use. It is important to keep in mind that in the case of these boards it is important to install it in two main components, the reasons we already explained to you earlier in the post.
In this case it is the processor which is located in the center of the plate and in the lan chip which it is near USB ports. These being the two main places where you should place your heatsink in order to avoid possible overheating of your RaspberryPi. It is important that the largest heatsink goes in the CPU and the other to the LAN chip. In this case the orientation of the heatsink is not going to matter, but you can try to center it so that the heat can flow smoothly over the entire surface.
Taking all this into account, below we show you each of the steps you must take to carry out this installation:
- The first thing you should do is take the first sinkmake sure it is the largest and you remove the adhesive pad which is below.
- Then you have to put it in the processor.
- lightly press so that you can make sure that it has been well secured.
- Now you will have to repeat these same steps with the second sink, but this time you will have to place it in the LANChip.
After this you will have finished, if you want you can take the plate with your hands and slightly tighten the heatsinks to make sure they are well placed. If your heatsink has installation screws, then you will have to go through that process. When it’s all over your raspberry should look like this:
As you can see It is a fairly simple and quick process to perform. so you won’t have any problem with it.
Hardware