Are there any methods to cool a Raspberry Pi 3B?

[Nic06]

I use my Raspberry Pi 3B for Pi-hole, and I notices that my Pi went from about 40 Degrees C to 68 Degrees C within 10-15 minutes.
The temperature would keep rising, so I turned it off. I do have heatsinks and the Raspberry Pi is in a case which left me wondering,
is there an easy way to cool down my Raspberry Pi? If you could help me that would be brilliant!

[fruitoftheloom]

I use my Raspberry Pi 3B for Pi-hole, and I notices that my Pi went from about 40 Degrees C to 68 Degrees C within 10-15 minutes.
The temperature would keep rising, so I turned it off. I do have heatsinks and the Raspberry Pi is in a case which left me wondering,
is there an easy way to cool down my Raspberry Pi? If you could help me that would be brilliant!

The Raspberry Pi SBC will throttle when it reaches 80°C, see:

https://www.raspberrypi.org/documentati ... g-icons.md

[B.Goode]

I use my Raspberry Pi 3B for Pi-hole, and I notices that my Pi went from about 40 Degrees C to 68 Degrees C within 10-15 minutes.
The temperature would keep rising, so I turned it off. I do have heatsinks and the Raspberry Pi is in a case which left me wondering,
is there an easy way to cool down my Raspberry Pi? If you could help me that would be brilliant!

This post from a Raspberry Pi Engineer, made only a few days prior to your question, seems to contain relevant information:
https://www.raspberrypi.org/forums/view ... 4#p1526394

A Pi (any model) without any sort of cooling will not fail through 'overheating'. It will simple throttle itself to cool itself down if it get too hot. This mean that cooling solutions are not 'critical'.

If you want to proceed anyway, the options (after heat dissipation via a heatsink, which you have done) are -
'Natural' airflow via convection and ventilation;
Forced airflow, via a fan.

[Nic06]

Thank you for the help! fruitoftheloom and B.Goode!

[hippy]

I use my Raspberry Pi 3B for Pi-hole, and I notices that my Pi went from about 40 Degrees C to 68 Degrees C within 10-15 minutes.
The temperature would keep rising, so I turned it off.

Is this the same PI you had problems with when you fitted a HAT previously ?

One of the signs of a damaged Pi is over-heating so it would probably be a good idea to boot a new SD Card with Raspbian, leave it to idle, and monitor what the temperature does.

[HawaiianPi]

Most of my Pi 3B(+) computers are in Flirc cases. The aluminum alloy Flirc case acts as a huge heatsink, keeping the Pi3 cool without the additional power requirements, noise or dust associated with fans.

And the Flirc looks cool too.


Unlike some other aluminum cases that completely enclose the Pi3 in a metal box, the Flirc is plastic on the bottom and part of the side near the wireless antenna, so it has a negligible effect on wireless performance.

The Flirc Gen2 is made specifically for the Pi 3B and 3B+ models, and it has an internal post to transfer heat away from the SoC.


It has 2 thermal interface pads, a thin one for the 3B+ model (and newer 3B with 2837B0 SoC), and a thicker one for the older 3B.

There is a slot on the bottom of the Flirc case to pass wires out, but if you need frequent access to the GPIO pins, the Flirc is inconvenient (you need to remove the Pi from the case to make changes to GPIO connections). The Flirc also won't allow the use of a HAT.


My test bench Pi 3B is in one of those 2 layer acrylic cases with no sides, using a Pimoroni Fan Shim for cooling. And my 4B2 is in a similar case with a 40x10mm Noctua 5V fan for cooling. Even without heatsinks, temperatures are well controlled.


My 4GB Pi 4B is in the Pi4 version of the Flirc.

So those are my cooling solutions. For something like a PiHole, I'd recommend a Flirc case.

[Nic06]

I use my Raspberry Pi 3B for Pi-hole, and I notices that my Pi went from about 40 Degrees C to 68 Degrees C within 10-15 minutes.
The temperature would keep rising, so I turned it off.

Is this the same PI you had problems with when you fitted a HAT previously ?

One of the signs of a damaged Pi is over-heating so it would probably be a good idea to boot a new SD Card with Raspbian, leave it to idle, and monitor what the temperature does.

Yes, it is the same Pi that I had issues with before. I'll see if I can get a new sd card and leave it to idle, though earlier I removed the Pi from the case and it cooled down a lot. But I will try that, if the Pi is still overheating, what do you suggest I do?

Most of my Pi 3B(+) computers are in Flirc cases. The aluminum alloy Flirc case acts as a huge heatsink, keeping the Pi3 cool without the additional power requirements, noise or dust associated with fans.

So those are my cooling solutions. For something like a PiHole, I'd recommend a Flirc case.

I will have a look at Flirc cases when I get the opportunity to as they look pretty good!

[Nic06]

With my Raspberry Pi 3B running a new installation of raspbian, I ran two tests. One without the official case and one with it. Keep in mind that I have a heatsink in both of the tests.

Test one (without a case): To start it was 36 Degrees C, the average was 40.8 Degrees C, and the highest was 41.3 Degrees C.

Test two (with the official case): To start it was 37 Degrees C, the average was 44.0 Degrees C, the highest was 45.1 Degrees C.

So I don't think the Pi is damaged, mainly because I was running the pi-hole with the Raspberry Pi in the case, and the heat had nowhere to go.

[pfletch101]

The Flirc Gen2 is made specifically for the Pi 3B and 3B+ models, and it has an internal post to transfer heat away from the SoC.

It has 2 thermal interface pads, a thin one for the 3B+ model (and newer 3B with 2837B0 SoC), and a thicker one for the older 3B.

There is a slot on the bottom of the Flirc case to pass wires out, but if you need frequent access to the GPIO pins, the Flirc is inconvenient (you need to remove the Pi from the case to make changes to GPIO connections). The Flirc also won't allow the use of a HAT.

If you want convenient access to all the GPIO connections in a Pi 3 or 4 kept in a Flirc case, you can use a 40-connector flat cable permanently plugged in to the GPIO connector and threaded out through the long thin space provided in the base of the case. A couple of cautions are in order:
1) The usual connector on one of these cables is wide enough to foul the mounting pillars in the case as you put it together, making it impossible to do so. You have to use a cable with unusually narrow connectors - see, for example, https://octopart.com/search?q=IDSD-20-D-06.00.
2) You have to pay attention to the orientation of the connectors. If you use a cable with both of the connectors coming out on the same side (like an old floppy or HD cable), you will need to connect the second connector to the top of your HAT connection. The connector holes only correspond to the pins on the original connector if your look down on it with the connector pointed away from you.