so… after suffering from CPU fan failure (the quality of the fan is bad, seriously), i sought out replacement fans or heatsink for the raspi (on top of the noctua 40mm fan replacement for the top hat) as i stay in the bloody hot and humid tropics and my daily temps hover around 34 deg, which is HOT..
these are the two solutions i tried:
1. mini dual fan heatsink.
Had to jank the connecters a little for it to work with the sata hat, nothing major. The temps were disappointing as the pi is idling at about 51 deg (on a cooler day) to 54 deg (on a hot day)… and it goes up as high as 60+ on load (ie, mdadm raid array check).. highly not recommend this heatsink.. the fan dies very fast too.. mine died in like 3months..
2. Aluminum heatsink with integrated 3510 fan
Same thing, had to jank the connector to work with the sata hat, but no big deal.. make sure you buy the correct version for the 4B as there is a version of 3 that will not work due to the LAN port in the way… the fan is a standard 3510 fan, and you can get replacements from aliexpress (though its hard to find for some reason).. Temps wise this is the best.. idle temps are below 45 consistently, dipping down to 40 on cooler days and going up to 51 on load.. i would definitely recommend this heatsink..
