I have always supported "passive" cooling when it comes to Pi and pretty much any other hardware to be honest as i hate fan noise (and all other noises). However, the metallic enclosure i have bought from amazon (photo included) for my Pi-5 leaves so much to be desired when it comes to using the on-board wifi and bluetooth specs of the Pi. Especially combined with a USB3 connection, the 5ghz wifi is a gamble. Bluetooth actually works, but it is so unstable when it comes to high quality audio streams (a2dp). If i use USB2 only, it is a little bit better. However, i tried to run it without the enclosure (naked) and with a USB3 connection, and it works perfectly.
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That tells me, if you use the Pi "naked" or maybe with some plastic enclosure, the wifi and bluetooth functions actually work pretty good, even with USB3 connections. So, in case any of you want to go the passive cooling route, i suggest you to find a product that is "half" metallic. Let's say a huge metal heatsink on top with a plastic (or some other "permeable" material) underneath. This is so that radio waves can find some opening to disperse around which i assume would be a much better. Do not get a fully metallic enclosure if you want to utilize the onboard wifi and bluetooth functions.
That tells me, if you use the Pi "naked" or maybe with some plastic enclosure, the wifi and bluetooth functions actually work pretty good, even with USB3 connections. So, in case any of you want to go the passive cooling route, i suggest you to find a product that is "half" metallic. Let's say a huge metal heatsink on top with a plastic (or some other "permeable" material) underneath. This is so that radio waves can find some opening to disperse around which i assume would be a much better. Do not get a fully metallic enclosure if you want to utilize the onboard wifi and bluetooth functions.
Statistics: Posted by jason_kidd — Wed Apr 03, 2024 5:02 pm