Dear moderator,
Thank you again for your service. One quick question. I purchased a set of heatsinks for the RPi 3B+. The big one goes on the SOC, the small one goes on the chip behind the USB and the other one goes on the chip undernneath. My question what is the raised piece of metal with the RPI logo on the top left corner please. Does it get hot.
Thank you
Hi Anthony,
You should only need one on the main SoC chip (big one on the top, near the center). The others are not typically needed. Sam goes into this on a tutorial here.
The new package near the GPIO (shown below) is the wireless module. No heatsink is needed for that. They’ve bundled all the wireless hardware into that enclosed space to make it easier for people to create commercial products with RPi (as the wireless certification is now self-certifiable because it’s “modular”).
Dear Graham,
Thank you for your reply. I have fitted the 3 heatsinks with the $1.95 heatsink kit.
I have also managed to ‘eventually’ fit the RPi inside the enclosure with fan.
I have connected the fan’s connector, red on pin 4 and black on pin 6 of the GPIO. These represent 5V and GND respectively.
The fan: I hope that I have fitted the fan on the top of the case in the correct direction, of sucking the air out: I fitted the fan with the fan’s labelled ‘x’ facing the air inlet at the top.
Thank you,
Anthony of Belfield NSW
Hey Anthony,
It doesn’t particularly matter which direction you move the air, as long as it’s moving past the heated components. Most PCs would be set to blow air away from the components, with adequate space for air flow to move past heat sinks etc.
Let us know if you need anything else.
