So I’ve got an 8GB Pi 5 with the offical Active Cooler and then the Pineberry NVME HAT on top in the Pi52 tall alumnium cooling case and thermals are not great. Looking for guidance and/or recommendations.

I already have the active cooler so I’m all out of fan headers, and I have 3 hard drives plugged in so I’m not sure about powering a whole USB fan.

I saw that Noctua finally came out with their desk fan and thought that may be a perfect solution. I was thinking of just slapping it under the Pi, but I was wondering if this would even make a difference.

Also wondering what the best configuration would be between push/pull & bottom/top or if anybody has better ideas, I’m all ears. Thank y’all!

    • DARbarian@kbin.runOP
      2·
      5 months ago

      This is the exact case I own lmao I guess PiHut doesn’t credit the manufacturer (52Pi). I have the active cooler on the Pi. Since I have the NVME top HAT, I didn’t think the fan in the top of the case would cool enough with the HAT in the way.

      • sabreW4K3
        2·
        5 months ago

        😂 okay, well since that’s the one you’ve got. We can work from there. Is it a snug fit in there or do you have lots of room?

        • DARbarian@kbin.runOP
          2·
          5 months ago

          @[email protected] There’s quite a bit of space above the NVME HAT, which is why I thought about buying the default case fan as well, but I only have one fan header. Plus I feel like the HAT would get in the way of any real cooling for the Pi board.

            • DARbarian@kbin.runOP
              1·
              5 months ago

              I would hate to make this HAT and yet another case obsolete lol Is the Noctua fan underneath / on top really that pointless an idea? I wouldn’t think the official active cooler would be much worse than this

              • sabreW4K3
                2·
                5 months ago

                The problem is, the case you’re using just has lots of empty room not doing much. With this case, it’s practically all heat sinks and fan inside. The only other solution I can think of is a different active cooler, like https://a.aliexpress.com/_EHeH207

                Regarding the fan underneath, yeah. You need the cool air inside as opposed to on the bottom

                • DARbarian@kbin.runOP
                  2·
                  5 months ago

                  Fair enough. I was really trying to avoid obsolescing another case though 😭 What about putting the fan on top in either push or pull? Think it’d be worth getting cool air in there despite the HAT?

                  • sabreW4K3
                    2·
                    5 months ago

                    I say try it. You have nothing to lose. If the heat drops, stick with it.