With a large caveat. I have the official Raspberry PoE hat. It has a dinky little loud as fan on it, and the only way to make it liveable is to set it to only come on at 70c. Which I don't like. So I'm looking at cases that either act as a heatsink and allow the poe hat to still fit either with the fan on or off. Or replaced with a noctua thing because I saw one that was dinky and used by a YouTube guy so I know the pi can power it. Buuut pi cases are a minefield, and I don't know what will and won't fit the poe hat. The website isn't helpful, it claims that four cases will fit and all four of them are basically the standard case and have no additional cooling functions. Anyone got any suggestions of brands to look at that might (not above some .. massaging to make things fit) have what I want/need?
found this if its any help have the same case for 3b+. Worst case small hole saw the top for more air
From what I understand, OP wants a case that doubles as a heatsink so he doesn't need the lil dinky fan. Honestly just go for the 5V Noctua fan.
Yeah, trying to keep temperatures down without the fan and maintaining the PoE hat. Currently it's in a Pi4 case with the lid off. I've found some Chineseium case that appears to be all heatsink and low profile - But crucially leaves the GPIO pins unobstructed, so I bought one and a couple of stacking headers to see if that does what I need.
Delayed response on my part. It does! However, it doesn't seem to have much in the way of heatsink going on. I went for what might be a German thing, a Sertronics Armor Case. It's basically two whacking great bits of finned aluminium that clamp around the Pi. I also added some GPIO stacking risery things. 13mm if the ebay listing is to be believed. Which meant I could put the PoE hat over the top, with the spacers supplied with the PoE hat to make sure there was no contact, and still keep the Pi cool. Incidentally, it went from idling at ~64c to 35c. So I'd call it a win! Thanks for the input folks.
like this? https://www.berrybase.de/neu/armor-geh-228-use-f-252-r-raspberry-pi-3-b-43?c=2265 do you then put this in a case of its own? Or just leave the poe hat nekkid?
Exactly that, yes, and the hat is wearing it's birthday suit. When I've more patience for case searching I'll see if I can find one with a bigger bum that will accept the bottom half of the heatsink wrap around doodad I currently have.
This is the case I have "Ebay Link" It keeps the cpu at around 30c without the fans running and with them running it keeps it the same temp so I don't use the fans. I don't use anything else with it, as I only use the Pi for Pi Hole and if I want to upload something overnight I just put it on a pen drive and then use the Pi to upload it.
I have always fancied this solid aluminium case (https://www.amazon.co.uk/Raspberry-Aluminium-Heatsink-RaspberryPi-Aluminium/dp/B01JBAGQNE) but that link is only for the Pi 3B+. I like the idea of using the solid billet as a heatsink, doubly so with the Pi 4. However, I did find the following options during my searches: https://wickedaluminum.com/ (detailed photos here: https://www.raspberry-pi-case.com/) https://kksb-cases.com/products/kksb-raspberry-pi-4-case-aluminium I reckon they just look sexy as well as being functional.
