How to fix the excessive heat of the raspberry pi 3

In recent times, there has been a lot of debate about whether or not to mount heat sinks in the latest version of Raspberry Pi 3. With a higher performance processor, this board produces more heat on certain occasions.

But is this heat ok, or do you need to buy a heatsink? Or maybe you should replace it with a fan? Or use both? Let's find out in this article the mysteries on this much-discussed topic.

How to fix the excessive heat of the Raspberry Pi 3

The Raspberry Pi 3 has a new quad-core Cortex-A53 processor with 64-bit architecture, and outperforms most previous versions when it comes to balancing performance and clock speed.

The new Raspberry Pi 3 monoblock computer is the same size and price as the Pi 2. But the new model has an updated processor that offers a 60% performance boost over the previous model.

But all is not well. A number of criticisms raise concerns that the new Pi 3 processor runs extremely hot when running at full CPU load.

The life of the P3 under overheating

6SigmaET has developed a detailed thermal simulation model based on the available data from the Raspberry Pi 3. This would allow the company to investigate component temperatures in different environmental and coating scenarios. This simulation was then compared to measurements from a thermal imaging camera. Both the measurements and the final simulation showed that the Pi 3 CPU works naturally at a temperature of approximately 110 ° C. Although this is not hot enough for the CPU to be damaged, it is likely to shorten its life by running continuously at this temperature.

The problem is exacerbated when the Raspberry board is mounted in a standard Raspberry Pi plastic case, which can lead to an increase in processor temperature to 120 ° C, which is excessive for long-term use.

BCM2837 processor overheating

On the net you will find many photos that show the thermal distribution of a Raspberry board when the processor is under stress. These photographs show that some points of the processor can reach 87 ° C. In other elements, the temperature never exceeds 60 ° C.

The difference between these measured temperatures could certainly depend on the type of operations and the type of voltage to which the processor is subjected. As some say, in these cases the processor doesn't really run at full speed.

The processor in question is the BCM2837, which is mounted on the Raspberry Pi 3. The technical specifications indicate that the operating temperature limit is 85 ° C. In fact, the CPU could present various problems when exceeding 80 ° C. So, if there are cases where the processor remains active for long periods of time at 87 ° C, the situation could be dramatic for the life of the Raspberry board, and then it would be necessary to mount a cooling system with heat sinks heat and fans.

In the same way, if the configuration of the 1200 MHz it works at is changed, or an overclock is performed, it would be necessary to add a cooling system with a heat sink and fan.

In fact, the addition of just the heat sink is practically useless if it is not accompanied by a fan that allows the air to flow back. It has already been experienced that this solution, if applied to the Raspberry Pi 3 (the Raspberry Pi 2 never exceeds 65 ° C), it keeps the CPU speed at 1200MHz and the temperature around 60 ° C, even after several 100% CPU activity minutes. Therefore, you will see no decrease in performance.

In these cases, users already have a simple and inexpensive solution.

EEEKit Starter Kit

There are complete kits that incorporate both heatsinks, a fan, and a clear case built specifically to secure the fan. One of these is the EEEKit Starter Kit.

LoveRPi

A company called LoveRPi has developed a set of 5 euro heatsinks for the Raspberry Pi 3 board. Simply put the tiny aluminum heatsinks onto the CPU and LAN chip using the thermal adhesive, and these will dissipate the heat generated by your tiny plate without the need for fans.

The company says that the heatsink can reduce temperatures by more than 20 degrees Celsius.

LoveRPi also notes that the Broadcom BCM2837's temperature sensor is inaccurate at high temperatures, preventing the firmware from acting and allowing the system to cool itself. So installing a heatsink can help prevent the small computer from getting hot enough to cause problems.

eeekit 2 in1 Starter Kit for Raspberry Pi Model B, Raspberry Pi Pan 9 3 Layers Case Box, Cooling Fan, eeekit Accessory Bag This kit meets your needs more for your Raspberry Pi 3 in daily use.; They buy from eeekit sellers or Amazon to guarantee authenticity and better service.

Haiworld Kit

The Haiworld kit is slightly more expensive than the previous one, but it also offers an effective solution to overheating.

Haiworld Screen KIT For Raspberry Pi 3 b / 2b, 3.5 "touch screen TFT + 9 layer case + heatsinks (3 items)

Final words and conclusion

At the end of all this, it can be deduced from the facts that if you have to work intensively with the processor, and / or the board is enclosed within a box, you should definitely add a cooling system by adding a heat sink on the CPU and a cooling fan.

A heatsink is clearly the optimal route, providing much better cooling than the more complex option of adding a fan or allowing additional ventilation inside the Pi case.

Why does this matter? Although a Raspberry Pi 3 motherboard is unlikely to run hot enough to cause permanent hardware damage, in some situations it could get hot enough to cause stability issues until the system cools down.