Advice for my cooling solution

[Chemist_in_Vain]

Hello dear hive mind!

 

I have come to seek your wisdom. I am planning to build my Desktop Rack with a cluster of Raspberry Pis, Pi Zeros and similars like Asus Tinker boards. I have no real solution for cooling though. Since alot of the Pis dont have the GPIO attached (and i dont want to solder like crazy) and in addition to that some of the Pis dont have the standard layout (I use for instance a few Pi zero 2s with an adapter board for USB and Ethernet), I am not really able to use an active cooler on all of them. I insteadd came to a different solution, where i would like to know your experiences or educated guesses: 

The rack system i am using has also blind pannels for air flow on which you can mount 40mm fans. I was thinking if it could work to get those with obviously some fans. Though then i would run into the Problem of ho to power them while being controlled by one of the systems. There I was thinking to use some fan hub like on the pics here and an adapter to usb, so the fans could actually be run by one of my systems in the rack. What i can imagine is now that the fans will be running on max since there is no real way to control them via the usb. Or is my guess wrong? Also something I am not sure about is if the fans will actually run because of the required voltage. Would 5V fans run with that setup? Also would they pull to much current and I could damage my controlling Pi with that? What are you opinions about that? Does anyone have by chance already experience with that "problem"?

 

Thank you in advance!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[jordanbuilds1]

22 minutes ago, Chemist_in_Vain said:

Hello dear hive mind!

 

I have come to seek your wisdom. I am planning to build my Desktop Rack with a cluster of Raspberry Pis, Pi Zeros and similars like Asus Tinker boards. I have no real solution for cooling though. Since alot of the Pis dont have the GPIO attached (and i dont want to solder like crazy) and in addition to that some of the Pis dont have the standard layout (I use for instance a few Pi zero 2s with an adapter board for USB and Ethernet), I am not really able to use an active cooler on all of them. I insteadd came to a different solution, where i would like to know your experiences or educated guesses: 

The rack system i am using has also blind pannels for air flow on which you can mount 40mm fans. I was thinking if it could work to get those with obviously some fans. Though then i would run into the Problem of ho to power them while being controlled by one of the systems. There I was thinking to use some fan hub like on the pics here and an adapter to usb, so the fans could actually be run by one of my systems in the rack. What i can imagine is now that the fans will be running on max since there is no real way to control them via the usb. Or is my guess wrong? Also something I am not sure about is if the fans will actually run because of the required voltage. Would 5V fans run with that setup? Also would they pull to much current and I could damage my controlling Pi with that? What are you opinions about that? Does anyone have by chance already experience with that "problem"?

 

Thank you in advance!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

what is the workload and what does the encasement look like?

[Chemist_in_Vain]

13 minutes ago, jordanbuilds1 said:

what is the workload and what does the encasement look like?

The Workload wilkl not be that high. Probably quite medium. And the encasement is that desktop rack from geeekpi (its arriving tomorrow therefor no real pic yet :x ). So i assume there is prabably enough airflow for my usecase but maybe im gonna switch things around in the future. I will probably encouter that "problem" one way or the otheer anyway. So maybe if its just educational for me it the very moment, it may help me out some other time c:

 

 

 

Edited May 15 by Chemist_in_Vain

[jordanbuilds1]

3 minutes ago, Chemist_in_Vain said:

The Workload wilkl not be that high. Probably quite medium. And the encasement is that desktop rack from geeekpi (its arriving tomorrow therefor no real pic yet :x ). So i assume there is prabably enough airflow for my usecase but maybe im gonna switch things around in the future. I will probably encouter that "problem" one way or the otheer anyway. So maybe if its just educational for me it the very moment, it may help me out some other time c:

 

 

 

Best bet is a heatsink cooler off Amazon, heres one I found with good reviews: https://www.amazon.com/Raspberry-Pi5-Temperature-Controlled-Aluminium-Dissipation/dp/B0CW164TCW/ref=sr_1_3?crid=31RNRWO8SZMV3&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.XcDQF_A3NgYJZjRkehy45KAgJfq9wzcr_OeUnuh_WfkV8PVH8ukogELhTPdvNtIC_dBSnQA4w8qgKrgI2ON-vBzEitOMtzpO7EA6y5ha57C80sThVrjkZoKfc5fguRfEoR8OYazChSQ-mc58j4z_tnsK19UDJUj1fnbTJM9IO5514tDvwRv0-HEJ_mwimT5OjRMM5F8FlSP9qTAwMHo8wkFH4H9oVrh3XC20OB42Ydw.8NYyDxCFa-YlDIPT3XQcFVq4vDYXCappLCSx_LSNPUw&dib_tag=se&keywords=raspberry+pi+cooling&qid=1778866315&sprefix=rasberry+pi+coolin%2Caps%2C226&sr=8-3

 

Hope this helps!

[Chemist_in_Vain]

2 minutes ago, jordanbuilds1 said:

Best bet is a heatsink cooler off Amazon, heres one I found with good reviews: https://www.amazon.com/Raspberry-Pi5-Temperature-Controlled-Aluminium-Dissipation/dp/B0CW164TCW/ref=sr_1_3?crid=31RNRWO8SZMV3&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.XcDQF_A3NgYJZjRkehy45KAgJfq9wzcr_OeUnuh_WfkV8PVH8ukogELhTPdvNtIC_dBSnQA4w8qgKrgI2ON-vBzEitOMtzpO7EA6y5ha57C80sThVrjkZoKfc5fguRfEoR8OYazChSQ-mc58j4z_tnsK19UDJUj1fnbTJM9IO5514tDvwRv0-HEJ_mwimT5OjRMM5F8FlSP9qTAwMHo8wkFH4H9oVrh3XC20OB42Ydw.8NYyDxCFa-YlDIPT3XQcFVq4vDYXCappLCSx_LSNPUw&dib_tag=se&keywords=raspberry+pi+cooling&qid=1778866315&sprefix=rasberry+pi+coolin%2Caps%2C226&sr=8-3

 

Hope this helps!

I was thinking of that too but discarded that idea quite early since i have quite a few of the pi zero 2s with an ethernet + usb adapter. I have the feeling that the heatsink will have issues to stink on there since that pi + adapter contraption isnt taht uniform around the ports in the middle :C

[Thomas53]

Since its open, a desk fan behind the rack should do as much as anything else. Just place the rack so the fan doesn't blow in your face. You can even use a dualfan model placed on its end for even more cooling.

[Matacks]

Can you use air conditioning?  Lowering the ambient temp of the room will keep things cool.   

 

If you dont have central HVAC the cheapest and simplest option would be a window mount air conditioner.   Mini-split is a better but are more costly option than window AC amd requires professional installation.

 

I'm curious.  What is a rack of raspberry Pi's used for?