Hi,
I see that my Pi 4B with pi-hole is running around 65 degrees, which is apparently ok (esp. in summer) but still seems a bit high.
I know there are cooling systems and all, but that feels like overkill. For now, the Pi just has the passive radiator that came with the normal kit.
I was just wondering whether it's worth using any small metal thingy to place under the Pi to allow the heat to dissipate under the case. I am not sure exactly what form that would take, but basically four little metal bits that I would place under the "feet" of the case to put it, say, 1-2cm above the surface it is on.
Is that any useful?
Thanks!
It might be helpful to understand the "kit" and the case your using. Generally speaking a heatsink and small 5v fan is a pretty economical way to cool a pi, especially one that won't be under heavy load.
I'm using "Geekworm for Raspberry Pi 4 Aluminum Case" (search on Amazon or similar) on all my RasPi 4's and temps are close to always around 40-45˚C for PiHole even though it's running few other things (MySQL, Grafana, ...) as well.
Your kit / case does come with a PWM fan. That might be part of your heat issue. PWM fans won't start until the pi hits a certain tempature. I've no experience with these on a pi but I believe they require some tweaks to the pi's config or a script that needs to be run at boot up. Have you noticed the fans spinning at all? If you pull the wire for the PWM controller ( blue one ) do the fans run all the time? If so what does the temp look like?
There are a lot of variables at play here, so it is almost impossible to know if what you are experiencing is unusual. Also, I am thinking that the Pi-hole forum is probably not the best resource for this sort of thing.
I have two Pi 4Bs running Pi-hole on Ubuntu Server, and in addition to Pi-hole being the DHCP Server and a couple of home web sites, little else. I do use them to work on and enhance my home sites, but that does not appear to impact temperature. Typically, my devices hover around 40-42 degrees C. When I initially set them up, I used some GUI based distros, and the temps were, from what I recall, above 50 degrees. Both devices are housed in aluminum cases, with small heat sinks and no fans.
To me, the OS, applications used, amount of use, typical ambient temperature, all play a role. Certainly there are other considerations, too. So, while your temperatures are perhaps higher than my systems, that could be normal.
The Pi 4 does have a tendency to get warmer than its predecessors. I have mine in a FLIRC case which itself acts as a passive heatsink. You can see how it works in that last photo here:
My Pi-hole is actually in a 3B+ and I don't use any cooling on it. It runs at around 56C.
I do have a 3B which is used for PiAware and that sits in a window in a southern facing room and can get quite warm when the sun is coming through. I have one of these fans connected to the GPIO pins and positioned next to the small passive heatsink stuck to the CPU:
That looks like the same thing you have with your fan - the three wires give it power and temperature control. You can set the temperature with
sudo raspi-config
and then Performance Options > Fan. The fan kicks in when that temperature is reached, and switches off when the temperature has dropped 10 degrees C.