How to Attach Heatsinks to Raspberry Pi 4

Learn to attach heat sinks to the Raspberry Pi 4

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Written By: Cherie Tan
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Difficulty

Very Easy

Steps

6

Time Required

Introduction

With a more powerful processor on the Raspberry Pi 4, this means more excess heat can be expected. The new Broadcom BCM2711 System-on-chip (SoC) has the same packaging as its predecessor, but it is more powerful and will run noticeably hotter than the Raspberry Pi 3 Model B+. To protect your Raspberry Pi 4 from overheating, use heatsinks.

In this guide, learn how and where to attach heat sinks to your Raspberry Pi 4. 

After completing this guide, your Raspberry Pi 4 will be much more safer from overheating.

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    • The Raspberry Pi 4's new Broadcom BCM2711 system-on-chip has the same packaging as its predecessor, but it is more powerful with a vastly improved bandwidth for both memory and external hardware. According to benchmarks from MagPi, there is also a higher power draw, and this naturally leads to more heat.

    • After a ten-minute heavy CPU-focused workload, a thermal image is captured, demonstrating where heat is generated and how it spreads throughout the board. 

    • The second image shows a thermal image of the Raspebrry Pi 3B+, and the third image shows a thermal image of the Raspberry Pi 4. In both cases, most of the heat is centred on the system-on-chip.

    • As indicated in the thermal image, most of the heat is centered on the system-on-chip. So the large heatsink will be placed on the Broadcom BCM 2711 SoC.

    • Next, a heatsink will be placed on the VL805 chip. 

    • Another heatsink will also be placed on the Broadcom BCM54213 Gigabit ethernet controller.

    • Each heatsink comes with some adhesive, simply peel back the tape on the flat side of the heatsink.

    • First, place the large heat sink over the Broadcom BCM 2711 SoC.

    • Next, place the second heatsink on the VL805 chip for the 2 x USB 3.0 and 2 x USB 2.0 ports as shown.

    • Finally, place the third heatsink to the Broadcom BCM54213 Gigabit ethernet controller as shown.