Use of multiple heat sinks on SBC

[Seaofdep]

Hi
  On my pine64 single board computer, only using one heat sink on the main... I have noticed others using around 4 or 5.
  My question is if using more heat sinks on such a small board actually beneficial and necessary  and if so I have a few of these lying around that are tad bit larger than the component itself , will this be okay , should I cover them all and what is the right adhesive to use ?
Thank you


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[Benta]

Why on earth use a heat sink at all, let alone 3 or 4 on a Pine64? Seems completely pointless to me. None of the chips consume enough power to make heatsinking necessary.
Unless you are talking about a different board than the quad-core ARM SBC?

[Seaofdep]

Why on earth use a heat sink at all, let alone 3 or 4 on a Pine64? Seems completely pointless to me. None of the chips consume enough power to make heatsinking necessary.
Unless you are talking about a different board than the quad-core ARM SBC?

– 1.2 Ghz Quad-Core ARM Cortex A53 64-Bit Processor. Executes both 64 and 32 Bit for scalable high performance
– Dual I/O expansion slots
– Dual Core Mali 400 MP2 Graphics card
– 2GB DDR3 Memory
– Integrated Display engine with HDMI 1.4a
– 10/100/1000Mbps Ethernet Port.


  I received mine second hand and already had one . It does run a bit warm after a bit of use. With research and youtubing I noticed a lot of them with more than just one heat sink. I'm new in this field but thought it was odd to have so many on the other hand maybe being new I was lacking the knowledge of why they are neeeded.
  So your saying it is fine the way it is and I need not worry about not having more than just the one ?
Thank you for your reply 


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[Seaofdep]

The SoC (CPU) on these boards can get quite hot when run at full tilt, even with a small heatsink. In a tablet or phone they will throttle back the clock speed if they start to get hot. This doesn't get noticed really in a mobile device which typically does not run continuously at full speed.  The battery consumption certainly will be noticed  if you could maintain full multi core performance for any length of time.

I've recently been investigating others experiences with heatsinks on a RPi. A small heatsink on the main chip needs a fan to keep it cool at full speed over extended periods. RPi kits contain 2 or 3 heatsinks for the memory and Ethernet chip. I think that was a bit of a wank and a means to get marketing one-upmanship on the Ebay et-al listings. I have heard the Rpi2 was a little more in need of extra chip cooling.

Even with the Rpi the size of the heatsink is generally restricted to a fairly low height because the accessory boards need to fit over the top of them. To get effective passive cooling on a RPi running hard needs a larger heatsink than the constrained ones commonly available. I can imagine it is essentially the same story with other variations on the theme.

Any heatsink will help to offset the need for throttling back the CPU but the small ones won't do it for very long.

I don't suppose it hurts to decorate the board with heatsinks unless they end up blocking the radio signals from the Bluetooth and WiFi. They're dirt cheap.

I wouldn't take them off if they are already fitted. You might do some damage if not careful.

Thank you for such a detailed reply . I don't see why Not If it will do no harm adding them , the wifi bluetooth module  is on the right of the board and sits above the board and will not be affected. You know what type of adhesive to use use ? Much appreciated



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[wraper]

I't pointless to use heatsink on anything other than SoC(CPU). I often see such thing on raspberry Pi, people put heatsink on USB/ethernet hub  which never gets that hot anyway.