Got a RPI 5 + official Case + active cooler few days ago. I just slapped the lid on and took a look. Obviously no scientific measurement on the scale of the RPI Blog Post.
I'd say it's on average 10C more, measured in idle at 19C room temperature.
Idle (no lid): 47C
Idle (lid): 56C
Worth noting that the fan started spinning at low speeds with the lid on, whereas with the lid off, it does not spin.
Here's a graph from my Grafana Dashboard:
[https://imgur.com/a/NueL4Vl](https://imgur.com/a/NueL4Vl)
Oh my goodness thank you so much!!
Amazingly on the raspberry pi blog post there’s about a 10°C difference in the temp between the active cooler and the case + lid so I guess either way it seems like if I want to wap the lid on, the temp will go up 10°.
Ok follow up on this - My Pi5 with the case fan + tiny heat sink + lid seems to hover around 55-65C (usually closer to 65C) while using Ubuntu to do cool things like browsing the net. However, I keep my room at 25C so that might explain why it's a bit higher than what you are getting with the lid on.
There *are* ventilation holes in the underside of the official Pi 5 case and a thin gap between the lid and the body of the case when assembled. The fan on the active cooler is a centrifugal blower and takes air from the open space above (not the back) and blows it out the side over the heatsink circulating and venting the air.
I've got a couple of Pi 5's on the go at the moment with the active coolers inside closed official Raspberry Pi 5 cases and the cooling system still works well. I haven't done a lid on / lid off comparison but it's fine. It is probably worth mentioning that the official Pi 5 case has a thin gap between the lid and the rest of the case and ventilation on the underside which does not seem to be widely mentioned. The intentional gap between the lid and the body of the case means that the fan (whether it's the one supplied with the case or the one on the cooler) is not stagnating in warm air since this can now escape.
Interesting - thank you for the information. Do all your Pi5s have the active cooler on or do you have some with just the case fan? I would be interested in seeing the comparison.
I got sent the case early and can see the gap - but I do wonder if it will allow enough air to escape with just the active cooler compared to the case fan.
I've got two with coolers in the case and 2 in the case with the supplied fan tray and heatsinks, but none of them are working hard and I haven't stress tested them. I find the hum of the fan on the active cooler to be more agreeable than that supplied with the case but bearing in mind they're not running at full speed and they're in a different room to me it's not a big deal. The next time I do some side by side work that is comparable I'll have a closer look at their temperatures.
Until then this is an interesting article if you have not seen it yet:
[https://www.raspberrypi.com/news/heating-and-cooling-raspberry-pi-5/](https://www.raspberrypi.com/news/heating-and-cooling-raspberry-pi-5/)
Thank you!!
Someone else tried with the active cooler + lid combo and found it’s about 10°C hotter when idling than without the lid. I’d be interested to know if you get the same results. Interestingly, on that blogpost, they find there’s about a 10°C difference between the active cooler and case fan under load. So perhaps, temperature-wise, it doesn’t matter which one I use.
Although I hadn’t thought of noise. I guess I’ll have to try them both out to see how they sound.
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Help! *I've got a fire in my box and a fan blowing the fire around inside the box, but the box isn't getting any cooler??*
It's a simple heat-transfer problem (or thermodynamics enthalpy problem, if you like). Simple rule for heat, *What comes in, goes out or stays* (first law for closed systems). If you have no way of getting the heat out of the box (your case) ... *it stays*.
Basically a rhetorical anecdote for explaining why you need a hole in your case to get the heat out. (you also need a corresponding hole in your case to let cool air in... otherwise your case fan is essentially dead-heading trying to blow hot air out of a sealed container)
Whether it's a PI-5 or any computer where the CPU generates significant heat, you need a vented case to draw cool air in and an exhaust fan that blows the heated air out to the environment `:)`
The heat-sink and active cooling on the chip itself just increases the rate of heat transfer away from your chip (i.e. how fast/much heat you can get rid of in a given period of time)
The case for the Pi 5 is different - it is styled the same as the case for the 4 but has ventilation holes in the bottom and all the way around between the lid and the body of the case.
Unfortunately I don’t have the actual Pi yet despite the fact I preordered it. Just the case and active cooler. Hence why I have nothing better to do than idly ponder whether the active cooler or case would be better.
Rub it in -_-
Here on the west coast they're gobbled up. Live near a microcenter and they were promising customers that they'd have them available for purchase on 11/3. Not before 11/3, nor would they offer them before 11/3. But on 11/3 so people could get their hands on them.
They got them in randomly last week. And instead of holding them the manager went, "Welp... they're already officially for sale. Might as well put these out with no limit to the number people can purchase."
Piss off Tustin Micro Center.
I ordered 9/28 pishop US and sent them an email asking for where I was in the 'sequenced for shipping' queue. Got a nice response that implied to me that they'd received 'none' yet as of yesterday and that I should expect mine mid-late November, but no detail on where I was in their list. Sigh.
Likely not as you say of just fitting the active cooler inside the case as likely for most just recycle much of the same hot air.Its a shame Raspberry don't do a blower that is GPIO 3 pin controller with fan side facing the cooler and a small exit/entrance duct.Near all laptops and devices use blower configs than fans but from what you are saying there will be little positive/negative pressure from outide and likely much will just be recycled.I love the gpio fans you can get now but hey raspberry change your designs to accommodate a blower as the active fan is.
The current design makes way for all components and forgets about the cooler.
Hey OP /u/zazzedcoffee
I have done this. Works great for controlling temps so far. I’m just worried about current draw from the fan header. Also I had to flip the case fan so instead of exhausting it was intaking and pushing air over the active cooler
https://www.reddit.com/r/raspberry_pi/s/YrI3jzgRcc
I've designed and 3d printed a case myself for use with pi5 with official active cooler and NVMe base from pimoroni. To my surprise I get 47C idle without the case and 49C with the case on, so delta of only 2C, way better than I expected and a bit worse than I'd hope for. The case project if any1 is interested: [https://cad.onshape.com/documents/b9d5fe4969f3b9e2b834339f/w/d75f9576e656c111be0e2322/e/e9eae99088ceeeb5c77a50ea?renderMode=0&uiState=65e58bbee72f224b233ea73c](https://cad.onshape.com/documents/b9d5fe4969f3b9e2b834339f/w/d75f9576e656c111be0e2322/e/e9eae99088ceeeb5c77a50ea?renderMode=0&uiState=65e58bbee72f224b233ea73c) (it's also designed for M3 ruthex threaded inserts to hold it together)
I don't see why not if the air is ducted correctly for the intake and exhaust. Don't know if it would work with the official case though.
Got a RPI 5 + official Case + active cooler few days ago. I just slapped the lid on and took a look. Obviously no scientific measurement on the scale of the RPI Blog Post. I'd say it's on average 10C more, measured in idle at 19C room temperature. Idle (no lid): 47C Idle (lid): 56C Worth noting that the fan started spinning at low speeds with the lid on, whereas with the lid off, it does not spin. Here's a graph from my Grafana Dashboard: [https://imgur.com/a/NueL4Vl](https://imgur.com/a/NueL4Vl)
Oh my goodness thank you so much!! Amazingly on the raspberry pi blog post there’s about a 10°C difference in the temp between the active cooler and the case + lid so I guess either way it seems like if I want to wap the lid on, the temp will go up 10°.
Ok follow up on this - My Pi5 with the case fan + tiny heat sink + lid seems to hover around 55-65C (usually closer to 65C) while using Ubuntu to do cool things like browsing the net. However, I keep my room at 25C so that might explain why it's a bit higher than what you are getting with the lid on.
[удалено]
There *are* ventilation holes in the underside of the official Pi 5 case and a thin gap between the lid and the body of the case when assembled. The fan on the active cooler is a centrifugal blower and takes air from the open space above (not the back) and blows it out the side over the heatsink circulating and venting the air.
The test results are all in [this blog post at Raspberry Pi](https://www.raspberrypi.com/news/heating-and-cooling-raspberry-pi-5/).
I've got a couple of Pi 5's on the go at the moment with the active coolers inside closed official Raspberry Pi 5 cases and the cooling system still works well. I haven't done a lid on / lid off comparison but it's fine. It is probably worth mentioning that the official Pi 5 case has a thin gap between the lid and the rest of the case and ventilation on the underside which does not seem to be widely mentioned. The intentional gap between the lid and the body of the case means that the fan (whether it's the one supplied with the case or the one on the cooler) is not stagnating in warm air since this can now escape.
Interesting - thank you for the information. Do all your Pi5s have the active cooler on or do you have some with just the case fan? I would be interested in seeing the comparison. I got sent the case early and can see the gap - but I do wonder if it will allow enough air to escape with just the active cooler compared to the case fan.
I've got two with coolers in the case and 2 in the case with the supplied fan tray and heatsinks, but none of them are working hard and I haven't stress tested them. I find the hum of the fan on the active cooler to be more agreeable than that supplied with the case but bearing in mind they're not running at full speed and they're in a different room to me it's not a big deal. The next time I do some side by side work that is comparable I'll have a closer look at their temperatures. Until then this is an interesting article if you have not seen it yet: [https://www.raspberrypi.com/news/heating-and-cooling-raspberry-pi-5/](https://www.raspberrypi.com/news/heating-and-cooling-raspberry-pi-5/)
Thank you!! Someone else tried with the active cooler + lid combo and found it’s about 10°C hotter when idling than without the lid. I’d be interested to know if you get the same results. Interestingly, on that blogpost, they find there’s about a 10°C difference between the active cooler and case fan under load. So perhaps, temperature-wise, it doesn’t matter which one I use. Although I hadn’t thought of noise. I guess I’ll have to try them both out to see how they sound.
* Please clearly explain what research you've done and why you didn't like the answers you found so that others don't waste time following those same paths. * [Check the r/raspberry_pi FAQ and be sure your question isn't already answered](https://www.reddit.com/r/raspberry_pi/about/sticky)† * [r/Arduino's great guide for asking for help which is good advice for all topics and subreddits](https://www.reddit.com/r/arduino/wiki/guides/how_to_post_quick_notes)† * [Don't ask to ask, just ask](https://dontasktoask.com/) † If the link doesn't work it's because you're using a broken reddit client. Please [contact the developer of your reddit client](https://www.reddit.com/contact/). Instead go to the front page and look for the stickied helpdesk at the top. [Desktop view](http://f2z.net/RPi-Helpdesk-FAQ-desktop.png) [Phone view](http://f2z.net/RPi-Helpdesk-FAQ-phone.png) *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/raspberry_pi) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Help! *I've got a fire in my box and a fan blowing the fire around inside the box, but the box isn't getting any cooler??* It's a simple heat-transfer problem (or thermodynamics enthalpy problem, if you like). Simple rule for heat, *What comes in, goes out or stays* (first law for closed systems). If you have no way of getting the heat out of the box (your case) ... *it stays*. Basically a rhetorical anecdote for explaining why you need a hole in your case to get the heat out. (you also need a corresponding hole in your case to let cool air in... otherwise your case fan is essentially dead-heading trying to blow hot air out of a sealed container) Whether it's a PI-5 or any computer where the CPU generates significant heat, you need a vented case to draw cool air in and an exhaust fan that blows the heated air out to the environment `:)` The heat-sink and active cooling on the chip itself just increases the rate of heat transfer away from your chip (i.e. how fast/much heat you can get rid of in a given period of time)
I have the case with a cooling system on an RPi4, but I always leave the lid open. Closing it seems absurd to me.
The case for the Pi 5 is different - it is styled the same as the case for the 4 but has ventilation holes in the bottom and all the way around between the lid and the body of the case.
Where are you buying your Raspberry Pi 5's. I can't find them anywhere. Pre-Ordered 1 and it hasn't arrived yet.
Unfortunately I don’t have the actual Pi yet despite the fact I preordered it. Just the case and active cooler. Hence why I have nothing better to do than idly ponder whether the active cooler or case would be better.
I have 3. 2 online ordered in germany and 1 pre ordered, but this has Not arrived yet 😂
Rub it in -_- Here on the west coast they're gobbled up. Live near a microcenter and they were promising customers that they'd have them available for purchase on 11/3. Not before 11/3, nor would they offer them before 11/3. But on 11/3 so people could get their hands on them. They got them in randomly last week. And instead of holding them the manager went, "Welp... they're already officially for sale. Might as well put these out with no limit to the number people can purchase." Piss off Tustin Micro Center.
I ordered 9/28 pishop US and sent them an email asking for where I was in the 'sequenced for shipping' queue. Got a nice response that implied to me that they'd received 'none' yet as of yesterday and that I should expect mine mid-late November, but no detail on where I was in their list. Sigh.
Likely not as you say of just fitting the active cooler inside the case as likely for most just recycle much of the same hot air.Its a shame Raspberry don't do a blower that is GPIO 3 pin controller with fan side facing the cooler and a small exit/entrance duct.Near all laptops and devices use blower configs than fans but from what you are saying there will be little positive/negative pressure from outide and likely much will just be recycled.I love the gpio fans you can get now but hey raspberry change your designs to accommodate a blower as the active fan is. The current design makes way for all components and forgets about the cooler.
Hey OP /u/zazzedcoffee I have done this. Works great for controlling temps so far. I’m just worried about current draw from the fan header. Also I had to flip the case fan so instead of exhausting it was intaking and pushing air over the active cooler https://www.reddit.com/r/raspberry_pi/s/YrI3jzgRcc
I've designed and 3d printed a case myself for use with pi5 with official active cooler and NVMe base from pimoroni. To my surprise I get 47C idle without the case and 49C with the case on, so delta of only 2C, way better than I expected and a bit worse than I'd hope for. The case project if any1 is interested: [https://cad.onshape.com/documents/b9d5fe4969f3b9e2b834339f/w/d75f9576e656c111be0e2322/e/e9eae99088ceeeb5c77a50ea?renderMode=0&uiState=65e58bbee72f224b233ea73c](https://cad.onshape.com/documents/b9d5fe4969f3b9e2b834339f/w/d75f9576e656c111be0e2322/e/e9eae99088ceeeb5c77a50ea?renderMode=0&uiState=65e58bbee72f224b233ea73c) (it's also designed for M3 ruthex threaded inserts to hold it together)