The MagPi - February 2020

A

relatively straightforward two-part

design, this all-aluminium affair aims to

provide cooling and protection without

taking up too much space – its overall footprint

is only marginally larger than Raspberry Pi 4 on

its own.

There are a few issues, though, starting with

its design. Like all aluminium cases, Pimoroni’s

heatsink case includes pillars designed to

contact hot-running chips and transfer

the heat to the outside of the case. The

installation instructions, however, tell

you to only add a thermal transfer pad to

the one in contact with the central SoC.

It turns out that this is because the RAM

pillar targets a chip which doesn’t get hot,

With so little metal to play with, the Pimoroni

heatsink case gets noticeably warmer than

the competition.

Even contacting only the SoC, the case

keeps Raspberry Pi 4 well below its

throttle point.

while the pillar for the USB controller is both too

small and in the wrong place.

This, and a patchy anodised finish, aside, the

case does as promised: it prevents Raspberry Pi 4

from throttling, and keeps all ports and headers –

including GPIO, DSI, and CSI – readily accessible.

A compact two-part design, a few flaws don’t

stop this case performing well

pimoroni.com magpi.cc/heatsinkcase £12 / $13.20

Pimoroni Aluminium Heatsink

Case for Raspberry Pi 4

The pillar for the USB

controller is too small

and in the wrong place

DIMENSIONS:

88×56×22.4 mm

MATERIAL:

Aluminium

WEIGHT (INC. ONE

RASPBERRY PI 4):

149 g

NUMBER

OF BOARDS

SUPPORTED:

1

COOLING

METHOD:

Passive heatsink

(SoC only,

RAM and USB

3.0 controller

optional)

EXTRAS:

Thermal transfer

material pads,

hex key

SPECS

Verdict

The Pimoroni

Heatsink

Case does an

acceptable job of

cooling Raspberry

Pi 4, but feels

like a missed

opportunity. Fixing

the USB pillar and

adding one for the

PMIC would have

been welcomed.

6 /10

CPU Temperature CPU Clock CPU Clock (Moving Average)

Frequency

(MHz)

850

1100

1350

1600

Temperature

(Degrees Celsius)

45

55

65

75

85

Time (Seconds)

200 400 600 800

Thermal imaging Thermal load

Raspberry Pi thermal case group test magpi.cc 71

REVIEW