52Pi Ice Tower Raspberry Pi 4 Cooler Review: Big Honking Fan

[Admin]

This giant fan will keep your Pi 4 cooler than anything else, but its large size comes with even bigger trade-offs.

52Pi Ice Tower Raspberry Pi 4 Cooler Review: Big Honking Fan : Read more

 

[tennis2]

This is so absurd, I want it!

 

[BulkZerker]

Watching all these cooling solutions for the Pi4 come out makes me wonder what kind of chipset/ram heatsinks would fit on it.

 

[R4DIO4CT1VE]

you guys don't have Hyper 212's on your pi's?

 

[Giroro]

Honestly, the fun of getting creative with the cooling is part of why I want a Pi 4 in the first place.
I'm still really curious to how The Pimoroni Heatsink performs when it uses thermal compound instead of the thermally insulating tape that they used.
I'm a little suspicious they deliberately nerfed the cooling on that $3 heatsink on purpose, in order to sell fan shims....
It really shouldn't be that hard to passively cool <10 watts.

How does this ice tower cooler perform without the fan on? It seems like a relatively neat way to add a heat pipe.

Watching all these cooling solutions for the Pi4 come out makes me wonder what kind of chipset/ram heatsinks would fit on it.

I hear some m.2 cooling will fit without much effort

 

[King_V]

How does this ice tower cooler perform without the fan on? It seems like a relatively neat way to add a heat pipe.

They addressed that in the article.

The Ice Tower, thanks to its dramatically greater surface area and overall mass, is a different story. Even with the fan removed, the Ice Tower kept the SoC well below the throttle point with a peak recorded temperature of 68 degrees Celsius. This impressive result suggests a passive Ice Tower could handle even extended sustained workloads, though eventually the laws of physics suggest it too will begin to throttle without forced convection from a fan.

 

[Giroro]

They addressed that in the article.

oh haha. I guess I skimmed it too quickly

 

[King_V]

oh haha. I guess I skimmed it too quickly

No worries, I've done that more times than I'd care to admit.

 

[Giroro]

I don't agree with the idea that passive cooling is destined to eventually throttle without a fan, because physics.
In a perfectly sealed case, maybe.. but not with ventilation.

 

[King_V]

Yeah, that it seemed to be leveling out on the graph suggested that it would continue to keep things at 70 or below.

Maybe that part of the comment was a little bit of hedging bets, a sealed or maybe poorly ventilated case, different ambient temperatures (say, if you live in India vs if you live in Finland), etc.

 

[Guillermo Arenas]

I want this so bad, this thing is adorable

 

[bit_user]

eventually the laws of physics suggest it too will begin to throttle without forced convection from a fan.

WTF?

I don't agree with the idea that passive cooling is destined to eventually throttle without a fan, because physics.

I know, right?

Yeah, that it seemed to be leveling out on the graph suggested that it would continue to keep things at 70 or below.

It's converging well below the throttle point!

 

[bit_user]

If you want better performance from the 4 GB version, rather than overclocking and buying a big heatsink, your money is better spent on a faster board.

(DISCONTINUED)ODROID-N2 with 4GByte RAM – ODROID

www.hardkernel.com

A bonus is that it runs full 64-bit Ubuntu and is much more power-efficient, but the downside is it's not exactly a Pi.

The linked page shows that it converges at about 73 degrees C, with its passive heatsink and all 6 cores + GPU stressed.

 

[MxMatrix]

Isn't there some sort of gpio extender cable that fits beneath the cooler?

 

[LordConrad]

I use a heatsink/dual-fan on my Pi 4. Overclocked to 1.9GHz and it never goes above 73° C

https://smile.amazon.com/Enokay-Ras...nk/dp/B07LBRWGCN?ref_=bl_dp_s_web_14360649011

 

[briandela]

Curious what tool you use to capture and render the temperature graphs?

 

[SpadgeFox]

This is so absurd, I want it!

It's completely absurd, as I opened it the partner screamed and the children cried, and I started to have the faintest whiff of buyer's remorse. I had the hope that I'd be able to bodge the PiBow 4 to fit the Ice Tower but when I saw it I thought this plan had gone completely out of the window... Not so, surprisingly a perfect fit and no bodging required, just had to omit the bottom plate and 4 riser screws from the cooler kit and it all fit's together beautifully.

It's still absurd, but I love it!