First Pi, first project, so I have no baseline. It is in one of those aluminium cases where the whole shell is the heatsink, sitting on a desk in a room that is about 22C. Idle with nothing running it reports 59 to 61C. Under a long compile it went to 78C and stayed there. Everything works, but 60C sounds hot for a computer doing nothing, and I do not want to shorten its life through ignorance.
That is normal and fine. The Pi 4 soft throttles at 80C and hard throttles at 85C, so 60 idle and 78 under a compile means you are inside the design envelope with room left.
The chip is not being damaged at these numbers. The reason people chase lower temperatures is throttling under sustained load, not longevity. If your workload is short bursts you will never notice.
Watch it live with watch -n 2 vcgencmd measure_temp while you compile, and if it never crosses 80 there is nothing to fix.
For context, my Pi 4 in the same style of case idles at 55 to 62 depending on the season and has run continuously for over three years with nothing degrading. Room temperature moves that number more than anything I have ever done to it.
Same, three and a half years here. The one thing that did change was dust in the vent slots. Blow it out once a year and it goes back to where it started.
If it bothers you anyway, a five dollar 30mm fan blowing across the case drops it about 20C and is nearly silent at 5V. Not necessary, just cheap peace of mind.
60C at idle means the case is doing its job of pulling heat out of the chip into a large piece of metal. A bare Pi with no heatsink idles about the same or lower and then shoots past 80 under load, which is the situation you actually want to avoid.
@deadbug_wiring · 12mo ago · 2 replies
One thing worth checking on those cases: the thermal pad. They usually ship with a couple of blue pads and people either forget one or leave the plastic film on one side. If the pad over the main chip is not making contact you get a case that is cool to the touch and a chip that is hot, which is the opposite of what you want. If the whole case feels warm, contact is good.
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@swatch_sonia · 12mo ago
Add the RAM and USB controller pads too if the kit came with them. Not because those chips need it, but because they help move heat into the shell from more places.
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