The 5 Best Methods to Cool Your Raspberry Pi !

Heatsinks are a common and cheapest way to cool down your PI. Heatsinks designed specifically for Raspberry-Pi are available throughout the internet for $1-$2 bucks easily. Most efficient material for heatsinks are Copper and Aluminium. The best idea is to get a 3-piece combo heatsink, As the USB hub and 3.3v linear regulator gets more hot than CPU itself. Copper heatsinks are a but costly,but they work wonders. Also it gives your pi a sleek-n-sexy look (not that it needs any more), Installing a heatsink should be the first step in cooling your Pi. Below are the results of using a heat sink :

Small,High RPM GPIO powered fans are an another option in efficiently cooling your pi. These mini fans require 5V and do not cause a major power surge through your board. Connect them to pins #3 & #4 and let them work miracles. The only (partially) bad thing about these fans are that they create noise, which can get irritating if your Pi is within hearing vicinity. If you like these fans, The best option to get them would be with an airflow optimized case, Like this one here.

Ahh, The most controversial topic. Adhesive tapes are double sided sticky tapes that sometimes come with heatsinks. Their job is to transfer heat from component to heatsink efficiently. A much better alternative to them are Thermal Compounds, the ones that are used with laptops and PC’s, I.e Artic Silver 5 or similar. These thermal compounds are much more better at transferring heat, but you need some mechanisms to keep the sink pressed at component, as they don’t provide the stickiness compared to their adhesive counterparts.

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These little pads are known as Peltier modules, Very often used in Micro-DIY refrigerators projects.These unique electronic components can generate a temperature differential when powered. That is to say, apply 5V to the red (positive) and black (negative) wires and one side will get cold while the other side gets hot. I kidd you not, 4 of these lil’fuc*ers can chill your beer in 2 minutes flat. If you’re interested, Adafruit sells these modules designed for RPI specially, Get the here.

Warning : This much cooling can effect the operations of your Raspberry Pi CPU, Use only if necessary.
Whats better than any of these things ? All of these things ! Get the Peltier-Thermo electric module + Heatsink + Fan in one clean packed case. Want temprature differences of more than 65. Degrees Celsius ? This is made for you. An pioneer of engineering compiling active and passive cooling for your raspberry Pi. Altough a bit expensive, starting at $35, This cooler module is guaranteed to never let you down. Perfect for RPI projects like automobile, Satellite systems, etc. Get it here !