Hello all,
I am having Alta board for around a month or so, and I am still do some experiment with it.
I use it as a desktop PC. Currently, I use Fedora 40 Workstation (gnome). When I do regular use, e.g. watching a movieYoutube video, opening a number of tabs in chromium and around 10-14 another applications are opened, sometimes the thermal CPUs degrees jump up to around 85-88c.
Alta board has a thermal heat-sink aluminum attached with it, but that seems not enough for some cases. What I have did, I have ordered Libre Computer Board ABS Case with Fan, but the board doesn’t fit inside that case.
I want your suggestions to cool this board in more than a sufficient way
Thank you.
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Hi, My experience with the case LoveRPi Active Cooling Media Center Case with USB Type-C is:
- The board fits perfectly and it is easely to be detached from the case.
- If you use the bottom of the case it is quite handy for a workbench or table.
- The SD is difficult to handle for removal or insertion if the lid is on the case.
- To use the serial connection with the lid up is a challenge.
- The fan will make some noise if you use the lowest voltage.
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You can turn off the fan if cooling is not needed. Keep the PWM pin high.
I bought “LoveRPi Active Cooling Media Center PC Case with Fan for Raspberry Pi 3 Model B+, Libre Computer Board, ASUS Tinker Board (Black) case” for “Alta AML-A311D-CC board”, the USB-c couldn’t be connected, so I had to make it larger a bit. The fan noise is too much, even with low power. I had to take the board from the case.
Any other solution to make passive cooling for Alta?
Thank you.
DISCLAIMER: I have not tried any of these cases myself, I simply looked up passive cooling cases for the RPi3B+ since they should be pretty much compatible with the Alta (if you chose to try any of them - at your own risk - you would obviously need to enlarge the hole for the microUSB so that it will fit the USB-C, as you already did for your LoveRPi case). Again, I provide no guarantees that any of these cases will work for you and if you decide to purchase any of them, you do so at your own risk. I merely wished to put out some potentially helpful suggestions.
“Case A” from Geekworm: Raspberry Pi 3B+/3B Aluminium Alloy Armor Cooling Case – Geekworm
Or this one, also from Geekworm: Raspberry Pi 3B Plus 3B 2B Use Aluminum Case Metal Enclosure Heatsink – Geekworm
Or the MechatronicsArt case: https://www.tindie.com/products/MechatronicsArt/aluminum-case-for-raspberry-pi-3/
Or the Flirc case: Flirc Raspberry Pi 3B Case - Flirc though it doesn’t have GPIO access
Or the CNC machined case from KKSB: KKSB Raspberry Pi 3 Model B Case (CNC Machined) — KKSB Cases - which also doesn’t have GPIO access
Finally, it could be a neat option to download the files for the RPi4B+ case from CoolerMaster and modify them for the RPi3B+ / Libre Computer Alta… https://www.coolermaster.com/catalog/cases/raspberry-pi/pi-case-40-v2/#
It would be great if DeSalvo Systems would do a case for the Alta.
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Actually, what are the dimensions of the fan in the case you have?
Judging by comments here and here, it may be worth your while swapping out the fan for one from Noctua, if one will fit?
DISCLAIMER: Please note, that I have not tried Noctua fans myself, I just came across these posts while looking at cooling solutions and thought they could potentially be helpful to you if you didn’t want to purchase another case in addition to the LoveRPi one you already have. If you did decide to purchase such a fan and make such a modification, it would be entirely at your own risk. Obviously, you would have to check that the dimensional and electrical properties of such fans were compatible with the Alta… (ideally as close as possible to the fan that came with your case).
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Do not recommend incompatible components if you have not tested! Please scratch our your recommendations or we will edit your post to do so.
My apologies, I was simply trying to suggest options that might prove helpful to another user.
I didn’t state that I had tested any of them, nor insist that they should/must try them themselves - in fact, I used the words “though”, “could”, “if” and “may”…and I’m not a member of Libre Computer staff, so it’s not like they were coming officially recommended either! Furthermore, the user @sally in their OP said “Hello all…I am still do some experiment with it [the Alta]”, that they’d already ordered an ABS case with fan in which the Alta did not fit, and that they “want your suggestions to cool this board”.
I won’t scratch them out - feel free to do so if you really must - but I will modify my posts to make it clear that I have not tried any of these suggestions and that they are merely that: suggestions, which other users might like to try at their own risk. I hope my disclaimers rectify any offence I may have caused.
It might help to foster greater community support (such as what the RPi community enjoys) with a little less hostility!
I can understand the terseness of some of your replies to other threads where people expect your support for free but, in this case, one member of the community was simply making potentially helpful suggestions to another member of the community based on their own (albeit superficial) research. It didn’t involve/require/expect any work on your part and I don’t believe it’s reasonable to expect that - had @sally or other users felt my suggestions were something they had to follow up on but then found to be a failure - those users would have required your help to rectify a situation of our own making. That’s not how community support works. I put my own time in to try and help, at no cost to yourselves.
In case it’s not clear from the number of times I’ve read, liked and shared many of your informative replies, I really appreciate the effort that you do put into helping support the community as well as developing really helpful tools and guides - and the fact you do so for free is not lost on me - but I hope what I’ve written above explains why that particular comment was pretty uncalled for. I have read the Forum Guidelines as well as the TOS and I don’t believe my comments were in breach of either.
Finding a suitable case for Alta board isn’t a priority for me, what I really want is a good solution for the heat, I am looking for passive cooler, which should be much better that the heat-sink which comes with the board.
Thank you so much @AltaTHD For all your suggestions.
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You’re very welcome, @sally ! I hope you find a solution that works for you 
Let us know here when you do!
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If a case isn’t your thing, might it be worth trying the ICE Tower but remove its fan/replace with a Noctua?
I do actually have an ICE Tower…
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The heatsink designed for Alta is sufficient for open bench scenarios. If you are using Alta in an enclosed case, active cooling is always necessary.
@sally Obviously you’re looking to achieve lower temperatures through hardware, rather than changing which software you use, but in case it helps you and/or anyone else, I would recommend using Firefox (or other Gecko-based fork) as it seems to fare far better than Chrome/ium with several tens of tabs open at the same time - but further tricks to reduce its impact on your system are to turn off as many “phone home” options in Settings* as you want and then go to
about:memory
→ Free memory
→ Minimize memory usage
*you can turn off more in about:config but be sure to adequately inform yourself first before changing anything there! Do your homework; I am not responsible if you bork your browser or set something you regret!
You have much greater control over what calls Firefox makes than with EvilCorp’s Chrome/ium, which will always be eating up more of your network bandwidth and processing cycles in the background than is reasonable. Another step you could take to reduce this is to configure something like PiHole on your network.
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