SBC extreme cooling: the quest for more power
- Dirk Broer
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#11 Re: SBC extreme cooling: the quest for more power
The Odroid-XU4 needs a copper shim on the SOC for better heat transfer from SOC to cooler.
The heatpipes from the Low-Profile Ice Tower touch the board otherwise. I didn't have a shim, so tried without.
I wouldn't be surprised if the new cooler only partially touches the SOC at the moment, as htop reports 84°C CPU temperature running BOINC, board speeds are 1600 MHz (big) vs 1400 MHz (LITTLE).... which is far faster than before, but still needs improvement as the big cores should be able to run at 2000 MHz. The LITTLE cores run as advertised, 1400 MHz.
Under the old cooler -pun intended- the system ran at 1000 MHz vs 1100 MHz, due to what now appears a malfunctioning fan.
I used pins 1 and 28 to power the cooler, there is not enough room to have the black wire connect to pin 2
The original cooler's pins are too small to be of use.
The heatpipes from the Low-Profile Ice Tower touch the board otherwise. I didn't have a shim, so tried without.
I wouldn't be surprised if the new cooler only partially touches the SOC at the moment, as htop reports 84°C CPU temperature running BOINC, board speeds are 1600 MHz (big) vs 1400 MHz (LITTLE).... which is far faster than before, but still needs improvement as the big cores should be able to run at 2000 MHz. The LITTLE cores run as advertised, 1400 MHz.
Under the old cooler -pun intended- the system ran at 1000 MHz vs 1100 MHz, due to what now appears a malfunctioning fan.
I used pins 1 and 28 to power the cooler, there is not enough room to have the black wire connect to pin 2
The original cooler's pins are too small to be of use.
- Dirk Broer
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#12 Re: SBC extreme cooling: the quest for more power
The Cubieboard 4 poses much less difficulties attaching a cooler as is has so much more space to work on -it is easily twice the size of the Odroid-XU4.
Much to my amazement Cubietech appears to have produced a staggering amount of Cubieboards over the years, eleven.
They are, in short:
BOINC-wise, the two octa-cores are the most interesting, as they do the most credits per Watt.
The CubieBoard4 should be able to run as good as the Odroid-XU4 having the same big.LITTLE combination of Cortex-A15/A7 CPUs. The main difference -aside from the IO offered by the CubieBoard- is the Video Chip: A PowerVR G6230 for the CubieBoard versus a Mali T628 on the Odroid-XU4.
The PSU that the CubieBoard needs is very hard to find, mostly due to the 4mm x 1.7mm connector plug -but 5V @4A isn't that easy either. The Odroid-XU4 has that, but a 5mm x 2.1mm connector plug.
Much to my amazement Cubietech appears to have produced a staggering amount of Cubieboards over the years, eleven.
They are, in short:
- CubieBoard1, with a single-core Allwinner A10 (an ARM Cortex-A8 SOC),
- CubieBoard2, with a dual-core Allwinner A20 (an ARM Cortex-A7 SOC),
- CubieBoard2 Dual, two connected CubieBoard2's,
- CubieBoard3, aka CubieTruck, with a dual-core Allwinner A20 (an ARM Cortex-A7 SOC),
- CubieBoard4, aka CC-A80, with a octa-core Allwinner A80 (an ARM Cortex-A15/A7 SOC),
- CubieBoard5, aka CubieTruck2, with a octa-core Allwinner H8 (an ARM Cortex-A7 SOC),
- CubieAIO-A20 Board, with a dual-core Allwinner A20 (an ARM Cortex-A7 SOC),
- CubieBoard6, with a quad-core Actions S500 (an ARM Cortex-A9 SOC),
- CubieAIO-S500 Board, with a quad-core Actions S500 (an ARM Cortex-A9 SOC),
- CubieBoard7, with a quad-core Actions S700 (an ARM Cortex-A53 SOC),
- CubieAIO-S700 Board, with a quad-core Actions S700 (an ARM Cortex-A53 SOC),
- CubieBoard9, with a quad-core Actions S900 (an ARM Cortex-A53 SOC).
BOINC-wise, the two octa-cores are the most interesting, as they do the most credits per Watt.
The CubieBoard4 should be able to run as good as the Odroid-XU4 having the same big.LITTLE combination of Cortex-A15/A7 CPUs. The main difference -aside from the IO offered by the CubieBoard- is the Video Chip: A PowerVR G6230 for the CubieBoard versus a Mali T628 on the Odroid-XU4.
The PSU that the CubieBoard needs is very hard to find, mostly due to the 4mm x 1.7mm connector plug -but 5V @4A isn't that easy either. The Odroid-XU4 has that, but a 5mm x 2.1mm connector plug.
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#13 Re: SBC extreme cooling: the quest for more power
On Tuesday, when I will also have the computers cleaned, looking forward to it. I want my gpu's back.scole of TSBT wrote: ↑Fri Nov 27, 2020 12:28 amYou need either this one...https://www.coolermaster.com/catalog/co ... g-edition/
or this one...https://noctua.at/en/products/cpu-cooler-retail/nh-d15
And you need your case fans taken care of. Did the one fan get replaced?
- Megacruncher
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#14 Re: SBC extreme cooling: the quest for more power
You're getting your computers cleaned? Why? Eventually the dust & heat leads to a, hopefully small & self limiting, conflagration after which you can continue uninterupted!
Willie the Megacruncher
- Dirk Broer
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#15 Re: SBC extreme cooling: the quest for more power
Well, some tie-wraps further I decided to buy a Jetson Nano -the 'cheap' 2GB model, as Simply Red already sung "Money's too tight to mention".Dirk Broer wrote: ↑Tue Nov 17, 2020 9:59 pmSo we need more cooling, and 52Pi is going to supply it. It is just that they themselves do not know it yet. I will try to tie-wrap my way into getting their low-profile ice-tower cooler securely onto my Odroid-XU4 and my Cubieboard 4, as the normal way of fitting them will not work. I'll keep you informed.
P.S. These coolers might do great on your Frankendroids as well.....
The earlier bought top-down blowing 52Pi coolers went to my two Raspberry Pi 4 model 4GB's, as it proved very hard/impossible to secure them to either the Cubieboard 4 CC-A80, respectively the Odroid-XU4. The complete 64-bit ARM squadron of my ARM fleet runs now on 2000+ MHz Cortex-A7x's (forgetting the in total four Cortex-A53's that are part of the two six-core Odroid-N2+'s).
For the Nano I have also bought the specialized 52Pi Nano cooler, but the first setback was that the included miniature torx t7 screwdriver was only able to remove the two outer screws of the four screws holding the relatively big 6cm x 4cm x 1.7cm heatsink, so I'll have to do with passive cooling and stock speeds for the time being.
And while a Cortex-A57 is no Cortex-A72, it certainly is better than the two Cortex-A7 it will replace. It is also better than a Cortex-A53, so the 100+ Euro 4GB model is high on my list too, the Nano cooler will not go to waste.
Upon starting L4T (Linux For Tegra) you are greeted with a screen that the staunch AMD supporter will make thinking "isn't that the logo of the GPUs from that other brand? F#**ing nVidia?", while the more opportunistic user will think "isn't that the logo of the brand that works out of the box when installing Linux? Will I have CUDA running on ARM soon?"
I'll keep you informed.
- Dirk Broer
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#16 Re: SBC extreme cooling: the quest for more power
First start o the nVidia Jetson Nano gave me a bit of a surprise: I couldn't install either BOINC or Synaptic, but after
I could install to my heart's desire.
Clinfo at first gave 'no platform', but after installing -amongst others- some nVidia and CUDA files I've progressed to two recognized platforms, GPU and CPU.
After adding to the cc_config.xml these lines:
and
to be sure 32-bit libs are there when needed and, voilá: Boinc starts getting work for 32-bit apps.
Because I was unhappy with the memory assigned to the GPU (a mere 99MB) when using the default 5GB swapdisk I installed and configured ZRAM via
and rebooted
Jetson-Nano2GB
Starting BOINC client version 7.9.3 for aarch64-unknown-linux-gnu *so no need to have this as alternate platform*
log flags: file_xfer, sched_ops, task
Libraries: libcurl/7.58.0 OpenSSL/1.1.1 zlib/1.2.11 libidn2/2.0.4 libpsl/0.19.1 (+libidn2/2.0.4) nghttp2/1.30.0 librtmp/2.3
Data directory: /var/lib/boinc-client
CUDA: NVIDIA GPU 0: NVIDIA Tegra X1 (driver version unknown, CUDA version 10.2, compute capability 5.3, 1979MB, 1343MB available, 236 GFLOPS peak) *CUDA! and enough RAM!**
OpenCL CPU: pthread-cortex-a57 (OpenCL driver vendor: The pocl project, driver version 1.1, device version OpenCL 1.2 pocl HSTR: pthread-aarch64-unknown-linux-gnu-GENERIC)
[libc detection] gathered: 2.27, Ubuntu GLIBC 2.27-3ubuntu1.4
Host name: Jetson-Nano2GB
Processor: 4 ARM ARMv8 Processor rev 1 (v8l) [Impl 0x41 Arch 8 Variant 0x1 Part 0xd07 Rev 1]
Processor features: fp asimd evtstrm aes pmull sha1 sha2 crc32
OS: Linux Ubuntu: Ubuntu 18.04.5 LTS [4.9.201-tegra|libc 2.27 (Ubuntu GLIBC 2.27-3ubuntu1.4)]
Memory: 1.93 GB physical, 4.97 GB virtual *ZRAM can deliver enough GB's here too*
Disk: 58.41 GB total, 12.05 GB free *This from a 64GB SD card*
We get the following Benchmark results:
Number of CPUs: 4
1387 floating point MIPS (Whetstone) per CPU
68511 integer MIPS (Dhrystone) per CPU
Stock speeds, passive cooling -which gets really hot, BTW...I happened to have an old Pentium II or III heatsink of 13 x 8 x 5 cm that I've laid on the Nano for the time being.
P.S.: Good thing I did, it lowered the temperature with some 20°C...it dwarfes the Jetson Nano, but it does do the job!
Code: Select all
sudo apt update --fix-missing
sudo apt dist-upgrade
Clinfo at first gave 'no platform', but after installing -amongst others- some nVidia and CUDA files I've progressed to two recognized platforms, GPU and CPU.
After adding to the cc_config.xml these lines:
Code: Select all
<options>
<alt_platform>arm-unknown-linux-gnueabihf</alt_platform>
<alt_platform>armv7l-unknown-linux-gnueabihf</alt_platform>
</options>
Code: Select all
sudo dpkg --add-architecture armhf
sudo apt update --fix-missing
sudo apt dist-upgrade
sudo apt install libc6:armhf libstdc++6:armhf zlib1g:armhf libfuse2:armhf
Because I was unhappy with the memory assigned to the GPU (a mere 99MB) when using the default 5GB swapdisk I installed and configured ZRAM via
Code: Select all
sudo apt install zram-config
Jetson-Nano2GB
Starting BOINC client version 7.9.3 for aarch64-unknown-linux-gnu *so no need to have this as alternate platform*
log flags: file_xfer, sched_ops, task
Libraries: libcurl/7.58.0 OpenSSL/1.1.1 zlib/1.2.11 libidn2/2.0.4 libpsl/0.19.1 (+libidn2/2.0.4) nghttp2/1.30.0 librtmp/2.3
Data directory: /var/lib/boinc-client
CUDA: NVIDIA GPU 0: NVIDIA Tegra X1 (driver version unknown, CUDA version 10.2, compute capability 5.3, 1979MB, 1343MB available, 236 GFLOPS peak) *CUDA! and enough RAM!**
OpenCL CPU: pthread-cortex-a57 (OpenCL driver vendor: The pocl project, driver version 1.1, device version OpenCL 1.2 pocl HSTR: pthread-aarch64-unknown-linux-gnu-GENERIC)
[libc detection] gathered: 2.27, Ubuntu GLIBC 2.27-3ubuntu1.4
Host name: Jetson-Nano2GB
Processor: 4 ARM ARMv8 Processor rev 1 (v8l) [Impl 0x41 Arch 8 Variant 0x1 Part 0xd07 Rev 1]
Processor features: fp asimd evtstrm aes pmull sha1 sha2 crc32
OS: Linux Ubuntu: Ubuntu 18.04.5 LTS [4.9.201-tegra|libc 2.27 (Ubuntu GLIBC 2.27-3ubuntu1.4)]
Memory: 1.93 GB physical, 4.97 GB virtual *ZRAM can deliver enough GB's here too*
Disk: 58.41 GB total, 12.05 GB free *This from a 64GB SD card*
We get the following Benchmark results:
Number of CPUs: 4
1387 floating point MIPS (Whetstone) per CPU
68511 integer MIPS (Dhrystone) per CPU
Stock speeds, passive cooling -which gets really hot, BTW...I happened to have an old Pentium II or III heatsink of 13 x 8 x 5 cm that I've laid on the Nano for the time being.
P.S.: Good thing I did, it lowered the temperature with some 20°C...it dwarfes the Jetson Nano, but it does do the job!
- Dirk Broer
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- Dirk Broer
- Corsair
- Posts: 1964
- Joined: Thu Feb 20, 2014 11:24 pm
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- Dirk Broer
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- Posts: 1964
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#19 Re: SBC extreme cooling: the quest for more power
Things done so far, SBC cooling-wise:
I already had my three Raspberry Pi 4's with 52Pi Ice Tower coolers, but now i have these premium cooled beasties as well:
If all is well, the local hardware store has a professional T7 lying for me. I am now first going to try to fit the Noctua NC-U6 on top of one of my Cubieboard4's.
Bummer! It turns out that the holes in the Cubieboard4 are too near to each other (40mm, instead of the minimum of 45mm that the NC-U6 needs)... Might have to place the Noctua NC-U6 on e.g. the Odroid-XU4 (or an Odroid-C model), where the holes are 55mm apart. But I have to measure temperatures first.
I already had my three Raspberry Pi 4's with 52Pi Ice Tower coolers, but now i have these premium cooled beasties as well:
- I re-launched my Odroid-XU4, this time with a Hardkernel heatsink -making it effectively the XU4Q- and a Noctua NF-A4 40x20mm fan on top of it -still quiet.
- Activated my 2nd Jetson Nano -a 2nd hand purchased 4GB model- with a Noctua NF-A4 40x20mm PWM fan, also very quiet (or it must be that the rest of the crunching farm makes too much noise).
If all is well, the local hardware store has a professional T7 lying for me. I am now first going to try to fit the Noctua NC-U6 on top of one of my Cubieboard4's.
Bummer! It turns out that the holes in the Cubieboard4 are too near to each other (40mm, instead of the minimum of 45mm that the NC-U6 needs)... Might have to place the Noctua NC-U6 on e.g. the Odroid-XU4 (or an Odroid-C model), where the holes are 55mm apart. But I have to measure temperatures first.
- Dirk Broer
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#20 Re: SBC extreme cooling: the quest for more power
Just arrived in the post, all the way from China in a mere plastic bag -kudo's to the blister designer:
....wait for the test results!
....wait for the test results!
- Dirk Broer
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#21 Re: SBC extreme cooling: the quest for more power
While I am at it, let me present to you the possibilities of extremely cooling your SBC or Frankendroid -that hothead hacked Android TV of yours.
What can be used, short of a complete old CPU cooler from a no longer useful Socket, that might be just too big to fit into the space you have?
The Great Chipset Cooler Comperative
I could find too little data for the 70mm Syba CL-CNL-CHPMG2 -aka EKL Alpenföhn Ötzi- to make a table entry. It was extremely difficult to obtain data that can be truly compared too. I suspect the radiator height in fact to be the height of the entire cooler, and I had to adjust the radiator width several times too, as here the complete width is sometimes given including fan, or includiung the base. Some base sizes are guesstimates...
What can be used, short of a complete old CPU cooler from a no longer useful Socket, that might be just too big to fit into the space you have?
The Great Chipset Cooler Comperative
Name | Fan size | Heat-pipes | Weight | Radiator size HxWxD | Base size | Fastening | Material | Fan Support |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Coolink ChipChilla | 60mm | 1 double | 130g | 60 X 60 X 27 | 36 x 30? | Push-Pins & Mounting-Hooks | Copper (base and 6mm heat-pipes) / Aluminum (cooling fins) | Comes with 60 x 60 x 10mm fan |
Evercool NCA-610EA | 60mm | 1 double | 110g | 60 X 60 X 24 | 30 x 34 | Clips | Copper (6mm heat-pipes) / Aluminium (base, cooling fins) | Comes with 60 x 60 x 10mm fan |
Noctua NC-U6 | 60mm | 2 double | 130g | 67 x 70 x 23 | 33 x 33 | Push-Pins & Mounting-Hooks | Copper (base and 6mm heat-pipes) / Aluminium (cooling fins), soldered joints | 60mm fan compatible, no mounting material provided |
KKmoon/PCCooler HB-802 | 80mm | 2 single | 99g | 80 x 86 x 17 | 30 x 34 | Screws & Mounting-Hooks | Copper (6mm heat-pipes) / Aluminium (base, cooling fins) | 80mm fan compatible, mounting material provided |
Thermalright HR-05 (straight) | 70mm | 1 double | 145g | 78 x 78 x 19 | 30 x 30 | Screws & Mounting-Hooks | Copper (base and 6mm heat-pipes) / Aluminium (cooling fins), soldered joints | 70mm fan compatible, fan wire clips included |
Thermalright HR-05/IFX (wildfire) | 80mm | 1 double | 125g | 80 x 86 x 20 | 30 x 30 | Screws & Mounting-Hooks | Copper (base and 6mm heat-pipes) / Aluminium (cooling fins), soldered joints | 80mm fan compatible, fan wire clips included |
Thermalright HR-55 | 80mm | 2 double | 130g | 82 x 87.3 x 29.9 | 30 x 30 | Screws & Mounting-Hooks | Copper (base and 6mm heat-pipes) / Aluminium (cooling fins), soldered joints | 80mm fan compatible, fan wire clips included |
Xigmatek Porter CN881 | 80mm | 1 double | 150g | 77 x 80 x 25 | 40 x 40 | Screws & Mounting-Hooks | Copper (8mm heat-pipes) / Aluminium (base, cooling fins) | 80mm fan compatible, mounting material provided |
- Dirk Broer
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#22 Re: SBC extreme cooling: the quest for more power
The Great Chipset Cooler Comperative 2: Looks and impressions
Name | Picture | Reviews | Manufacturer page |
---|---|---|---|
Coolink ChipChilla | https://www.techpowerup.com/review/cool ... lla/3.html | https://web.archive.org/web/20100111220 ... 11_18.html | |
Evercool NCA-610EA | not found yet | http://www.evercool.tw/categories/globa ... ca_610.php | |
Noctua NC-U6 | https://www.overclock3d.net/reviews/cas ... t_cooler/1 | https://noctua.at/es/nc-u6 | |
KKmoon/PCCooler HB-802 | - | not found on https://www.pccooler.com/ | |
Thermalright HR-05 (straight) | https://www.overclock3d.net/reviews/cas ... e_cooler/1 | https://web.archive.org/web/20060804091 ... right.com/ | |
Thermalright HR-05/IFX (wildfire) | https://www.extremeoverclocking.com/rev ... IFX_1.html | http://thermalright.com/product/hr-05ifx/ | |
Thermalright HR-55 | http://thermalright.com/product/hr-55/ | ||
Xigmatek Porter CN881 | https://www.dragonsteelmods.com/xigmate ... -cooler-2/ http://www.hillbillyhardware.com/Reviews/n881/n881.html | https://web.archive.org/web/20160326045 ... oductid=20 |
- Dirk Broer
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- Dirk Broer
- Corsair
- Posts: 1964
- Joined: Thu Feb 20, 2014 11:24 pm
- Location: Leiden, South Holland, Netherlands
- Contact:
#24 Re: SBC extreme cooling: the quest for more power
Finally got round to install the Jetson Nano special version of the 52Pi Ice Tower Cooler. My first attempt to install it was halted because the supplied T7 screwdriver wasn't up to the task and the heatsink couldn't be pried loose from the SOM. I now praise myself lucky to have bought an expensive Stanley 4-Torc screwdriver set with T6-T7-T8-T9, because it turned out that the T6 was what I needed, not a T7!
So off with the -for SBC standards- big standard Jetson Nano heatsink, and off with the BIG extra Pentium II heatsink on top of it (125mm x 68mm x 50mm/4.92'' x 2.67'' x 1.96''), that shaved off 20ºC/68ºF of the CPU temperature and on with the best in 'standard' SBC cooling (as being offered for the very purpose):
that is able to shave of even 40ºC/104ºF! Now it is just a matter of following all the right steps to overclock it to 2000 MHz....the next Universe@Home badge should be mine soon!
So off with the -for SBC standards- big standard Jetson Nano heatsink, and off with the BIG extra Pentium II heatsink on top of it (125mm x 68mm x 50mm/4.92'' x 2.67'' x 1.96''), that shaved off 20ºC/68ºF of the CPU temperature and on with the best in 'standard' SBC cooling (as being offered for the very purpose):
that is able to shave of even 40ºC/104ºF! Now it is just a matter of following all the right steps to overclock it to 2000 MHz....the next Universe@Home badge should be mine soon!