When experimenting with a Raspberry Pi 3 I noticed that the CPU could get pretty warm.
I decided to measure the temperature during idle and load with:
cat /sys/class/thermal/thermal_zone0/temp
And load tested the CPU with 7-zip benchmark:
7zr b
Measured these temperatures:
Idle | Load | |
---|---|---|
Without heatsink | 50-52 °C | 77-79 °C |
With heatsink | 47-49 °C | 65-67 °C |
Improvement | 3 °C | 12 °C |
I used a small aluminium heatsink with thermal tape:
Conclusion
The 12 degree reduction in load temperature is well worth the effort.
It should prevent thermal throttling and thereby ensure optimal performance.