Hot hot hot
June was quite the month! As everyone scrambled to get their latest slice of Raspberry Pi, retailers have been rushing to ensure that they have the latest add-on boards and equipment to support the Pi 4. It is the natural order for a Pi release – a new Pi means new add-ons to further hurt your wallet.
One of the most prominent issues with the Pi 4 has been the amount of heat it can generate, and so this has been the focus of the latest products. The new Pi 4 can idle at around 50°C and can be easily pushed up to 80°C with heavy loads!
Pimoroni has released two cooling products. The Fan Shim was released at the same time as the Pi 4 and has proven to drop temperatures dramatically, by as much as 20°C. This keeps the Pi 4 well under the 80°C thermalthrottling trigger point.
The second product is an aluminium heatsink case which offers a passive, silent cooling option and promises to drop temps just as much. If you need extreme cooling, the ICE Tower CPU cooling fan from seeed is a monster! In fact it looks like a Pentium 4 CPU cooler. The whole unit fits atop the Pi 4 with a custom frame to ensure that it’s stable.
But the question is, are they compatible with previous models? And the answer is: yes and no. The Pi 3B+ and the Pi 4 share a very similar chip layout and so there is a high chance of compatibility, but anything older than that is a bit of a gamble, so do your research before spending the money!