For those that tend to push the Raspberry Pi 3 or 4 models to their limits, there is an awesome solution available now. GeeekPi offers quite possibly the most powerful and efficient cooling fan on the market for Raspberry Pi enthusiasts, called the 52Pi Ice Tower. Let’s dive right in and see just how chilly things get.
Stay Frosty
The 52Pi comes with everything needed to achieve radically cooler temps on the CPU during load. This includes: Thermal pads for the RPi3 and RPi4, Copper sticks, nuts, screws, mounting brackets, acrylic protection base, screwdriver and a detailed colored manual making installation a breeze.
First attach the 2 metal brackets to the base of cooling fan and then tighten the copper sticks to each post by using the supplied M2.5 nuts. Place the thermal tape on your CPU, then mount the 52Pi Ice Tower to the Raspberry Pi board with copper sticks (Fanside towards the HDMI port). Attach the included acrylic base to the bottom of the Raspberry Pi board with the M2.5 screws. Lastly, connect the red wire to your 5V pin connection and the black wire to the ground pin. There is a diagram included for guidance on this within the manual. That’s all there is to it! If you find it too loud (which we did not), there is a secondary option in which you can supply power via the 3v3 pin connection instead. Keep in mind however, this also lowers the efficiency of the fan and the LED brightness.
We have an extensive arcade build on our Raspberry Pi3 that utilizes Attract Mode in RetroPie. It delivers an incredible flashy presentation that is right up there with the most robust Hyperspin images. All the high resolution animations, videos and effects for every system, game and specific arcade collection really skyrockets the temps within just a few minutes if within a regular case.
Aftermarket heat sinks didn’t even make a dent in keeping things under 80 Celsius on this specific build. Since we have installed the 52Pi cooler, the Pi3 runs flawlessly and as advertised temps are now 25-35 degrees cooler.
Conclusion
The GeeekPi 52Pi Ice Tower Cooling Fan for the Raspberry Pi is an absolute beast that enables overclockers and enthusiasts to really maximize system performance, while maintaining shockingly cool temps. Now we just need someone to design a rad case to accommodate the 52Pi Ice Tower. At around $23, it is the king of cooling solutions presently on the Raspberry Pi and shockingly affordable at that.
