The Raspberry Pi 4 needs a fan

Post by imtringued » Wed, Jul 17, 2019, 4:08 PM UTC

junaru wrote: post #29

adrianmonk wrote: post #22

> If you run computing hardware at its thermal capacity for long periods of time, this will cause more wear on the parts than if they are run well inside their limits. So I have a moderately increased likelihood of, at some indefinite point in the future, having to spend a whole $35 to replace the Raspberry Pi. I can prevent this by spending extra money (and time) up front. In some cases, it might be worth it. Maybe…

> If you run computing hardware at its thermal capacity for long periods of time, this will cause more wear on the parts than if they are run well inside their limits. How true is this actually? Personal anecdote is an I5-2500K overclocked to 4.6ghz with budget aftermarket cooler (its at 4.6ghz constantly regardless of load). It's been running 24/7 in my desktop since 2011. When will it fail? I see these disclaimers…

Post by tssva » Wed, Jul 17, 2019, 4:12 PM UTC

novaRom wrote: post #53

I cannot find a data sheet for its CPU (BCM2711B0). Is Pi4 actually an open hardware system?

Post by Marsymars » Wed, Jul 17, 2019, 4:14 PM UTC

arendtio wrote: post #80

I think 'need' is a pretty strong word in this context. 'Could use' would be a better term, as the Pi 4 clearly works without a fan, just not at peak performance for more than a few minutes. For many use-cases, I would prefer some performance reduction over the noise generated by a fan.

Post by pulse7 » Wed, Jul 17, 2019, 4:15 PM UTC

seanhandley wrote: post #56

dbg31415 wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Over the years I've used Raspberry Pis as little media players, but they kept burning out every 3-4 months; the card reader (their SSD) wouldn't work, or they'd just blink some other error message. I thought they were just cheaply made ($35 after all). Anyway, long story short, I got a fan and the last one has been working for over a year without issues.

SD cards have a limited number of writes so if you have the OS constantly writing to it then eventually it sets itself read-only. You can mitigate this somewhat with https://github.com/azlux/log2ram With some finagling you can get them to boot an OS from an external disk then your SD card can just hold a read-only boot loader.

Post by thoughtpalette » Wed, Jul 17, 2019, 4:22 PM UTC

tacotime wrote: post #65

thoughtpalette wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That link 404s for me unfortunately.

It's adorable! https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:k1aQeM...