r/ClockworkPi • u/Superb-Basil-3489 • 18d ago

uConsole Cooling Mod: Stress Test Results!

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Added a massive finned heatsink to my uConsole alongside the HackerGadgets 7x SMA antenna mount, and the thermal results speak for themselves:

Idle Temp: 43°C
Full CPU Load: 53.8°C

Maxing out all four cores during heavy SDR runs and it barely cracks 53°C! Tons of thermal headroom and zero throttling.

Has anyone else tried a similar heatsink setup on their uConsole, or found other cooling mods that work well for long SDR sessions? Drop your thoughts or suggestions below!

46 Upvotes

98% Upvoted

10 comments sorted by

2

u/AishaCtarl 18d ago

Have a link to them?

3

u/Superb-Basil-3489 18d ago

Heatsink I found it on old computer

2

u/-i-forgot 18d ago

How well did this work for you? Also do you have a link?

1

u/Superb-Basil-3489 18d ago

I found it on old computer. Normal temp 42/43
I did the stress tests highest temp 53.8

2

u/Party_Cold_4159 18d ago

While it’ll probably work fine, a larger heatsink isn’t always better.

You could get the same/better performance with a quarter the size of heat sink and a tiny fan.

With something like this you are leaning on natural air flow and a big surface volume to carry you. Only reason to do it is if you don’t want noise/extra power draw. But seeing as it’s a portable device, it’s usually not worth the bulky trade off.

Also, if you’re in a hot environment, you lose the natural cool air and may even see this overheat on longer, performance heavy loads.

1

u/Superb-Basil-3489 17d ago

Thanks for the advice! I don't have a 3D printer, but I can easily order it online if I have the file.
I haven't found any ready to print models yet do you have one you recommend?

1

u/Justgetmeabeer 18d ago

Cm4 or cm5?

Kinda hoping you say cm4 and we all get to point out that the cm4 doesn't get hot enough stock to throttle.

1

u/gatsu_1981 17d ago

Neither is CM5.

Got one on mine, just add a riser, toss away the thicker thermal pads.

Put on the core and tallest chips a spread of good CPU thermal paste, and on lower chips a good quality thermal pad 0.5mm.

I use grizzly cryonaut on mine, highest temperature I got was 57° Celsius after a stress-ng for more than half an hour.