Will heatsink be necessary?

[purelife]

I saw a heatsink on eBay for the Pi, is this necessary? Will my Pi burn out?

[jamesh]

Completely unnecessary.

[itimpi]

I think of a heat sink as if it is jewelry. You might want it because it can look great but is not critical.

[mahjongg]

I think of a heat sink as if it is jewelry. You might want it because it can look great but is not critical.

Yes, it looks cool, but there is no need to keep it cool.

[MrEngman]

Completely unnecessary.

Have to disagree on that. I would have to say generally probably not necessary but not totally unnecessary.

Back in May, during the really hot weather, a couple of weeks after I got my Pi it started to refuse to reboot.

After doing some tests and measuring the temperature of the processor/ram PGA I found if the temperature exceeded about 45.5 degrees C the Pi would refuse to reboot. The problem was very consistent. The maximum temperature I saw from the PGA was about 51-52 degrees C dependent on how busy it was. When idle the temperature settled to around 47-48 degrees C. Ambient temperature was around 29-30 degrees C at the time.

I solved the problem by using a small fan from an old pentium processor heatsink. The fan would normally run from 12v but the connector fits very neatly on to the 5v,0v connectors on the GPIO connector and so using 5v runs relatively slowly with absolutely no noise. The fan sits comfortably on the HDMI connector and connector P3 directly over the PGA. This reduced the temperature quite significantly and solved the rebooting problems during the rather hot weather period.

I had initially thought the problem was a possible solder joint issue as when it first appeared I pressed my finger onto the PGA and it rebooted OK, and when I rebooted without pressing the PGA it failed to reboot. So I though there might be an issue with a solder joint under the PGA. However, I then found that even if I only put my finger on the PGA for a few seconds this reduced the temperature of the PGA sufficiently to allow it to reboot correctly. Then using the fan fixed the problem completely.

I would say if the ambient temperature is relatively high a heatsink or fan may be needed. And how hot will an RPi get in some of the enclosures that people are using with no free airflow around it?

MrEngman

[robwriter]

Completely unnecessary.

Have to disagree on that. I would have to say generally probably not necessary but not totally unnecessary.

Back in May, during the really hot weather, a couple of weeks after I got my Pi it started to refuse to reboot.

After doing some tests and measuring the temperature of the processor/ram PGA I found if the temperature exceeded about 45.5 degrees C the Pi would refuse to reboot. The problem was very consistent. The maximum temperature I saw from the PGA was about 51-52 degrees C dependent on how busy it was. When idle the temperature settled to around 47-48 degrees C. Ambient temperature was around 29-30 degrees C at the time.

I solved the problem by using a small fan from an old pentium processor heatsink. The fan would normally run from 12v but the connector fits very neatly on to the 5v,0v connectors on the GPIO connector and so using 5v runs relatively slowly with absolutely no noise. The fan sits comfortably on the HDMI connector and connector P3 directly over the PGA. This reduced the temperature quite significantly and solved the rebooting problems during the rather hot weather period.

I had initially thought the problem was a possible solder joint issue as when it first appeared I pressed my finger onto the PGA and it rebooted OK, and when I rebooted without pressing the PGA it failed to reboot. So I though there might be an issue with a solder joint under the PGA. However, I then found that even if I only put my finger on the PGA for a few seconds this reduced the temperature of the PGA sufficiently to allow it to reboot correctly. Then using the fan fixed the problem completely.

I would say if the ambient temperature is relatively high a heatsink or fan may be needed. And how hot will an RPi get in some of the enclosures that people are using with no free airflow around it?

MrEngman

I'm not doubting your story, but it's still far more likely there's something wrong with your Pi. This behavior isn't standard, else there'd be tonnes of people reporting this.