News Raspberry Pi 5 delidded and topped with Peltier element for the ultimate cooling test

[Admin]

Ivan Kuleshov delids a Raspberry Pi 5 and using a little electronics and thermodynamics to keep the flagship Raspberry Pi 5 cool

Raspberry Pi 5 delidded and topped with Peltier element for the ultimate cooling test : Read more

 

[bit_user]

Peltiers almost never make sense, which is why they've fallen into disfavor among the PC community. They produce too much waste heat for the good they do.

The only time I've seen peltiers make sense was to cool a fairly low-power component below room temperature, but there was a waterblock sitting on top of the peltier stack to remove all the heat. Furthermore, it required careful condensation controls, because such a setup will attract water like an ice cold drink on a warm summer evening.

Maybe it'll work in this case, simply due to how little heat the Pi's SoC, itself, actually generates. IMO, it's still not worth dealing with condensation.

 

[BillyBuerger]

Yeah, while the Pi 5 may run hot for a little chip, any decent sized heat sink, especially with some heat pipes would easily keep it cool. I assume they're doing it just for kicks. Because Peltier makes no sense for cpu cooling.

 

[CerianK]

IMO, it's still not worth dealing with condensation.

Usually not an issue as long as the CPU stays at 15C or above, which would require temperature feedback to the Peltier controller. This, of course, would only allow marginal overclock headroom, as the Peltier would be swamped quickly, as it is limited to about 5W of net dissipation improvement.

I used to work on these double-stacked in a vacuum chamber... -40C/F was doable when the chip they were cooling (photo diode array) was low wattage. The external enclosure was water pumped at 15C with no condensation issues.

 

[bit_user]

I used to work on these double-stacked in a vacuum chamber... -40C/F was doable when the chip they were cooling (photo diode array) was low wattage. The external enclosure was water pumped at 15C with no condensation issues.

For astrophotography? That's the application I'm familiar with. Yes, you need a vacuum chamber. This camera had a 4-stage TEC stack. An ion pump was used to maintain a sufficient vacuum inside the chamber.

 

[CerianK]

For astrophotography?

ICP spectroscopy.

 

[froggx]

This is all passive cooling; there is no active fan cooling here!

there's a fan pointed at the heatsink in the pic right above this paragraph, one of the black centrifugal-flavored blowers like they use in laptops...

 

[bit_user]

there's a fan pointed at the heatsink in the pic right above this paragraph, one of the black centrifugal-flavored blowers like they use in laptops...

Good eye.

If the maker was touting its passive nature, maybe the fan is just there to find out how much better it works with active cooling. Perhaps all will become clear in the follow-up article, where we find out how high it clocks.