2 in 1 heatsink package for Cubies
A Chinese young fellow, only 16 years old and is on his summer holidays nowadays, bought a Cubieboard2 from TaoBao. He was so infatuated and played with it all day. He asked the seller lots of questions, though many of them seemed not very professional. And then I recalled that time I was 16 years old. It was full filled with schoolbooks and test papers. I really admire his momentum and passion. One of his questions hit me in a great extent. He said: Cubieboard2 is so hot while playing games. I even feel pity to use it for long time, I have to use a household fanner to maintain it in cool.
The main chip used in Cubieboard2 is Allwinnner A20, which is a super large scale integration circuit. It will become considerable hot especially when 3 core parts (CPU, GPU and DDR) are synchronously operating at full speed. Additionally, Cubieboard configures several higher operation parameters than Allwinner’s default or recommended configuration, in order to bring better user experience for geeks. In this way it will make heating phenomenon more extrusive. However, Cubietech promises that over-clocking in proper range will not damage the main chip because of heating reasons. You know, there is a temperature detection and protection circuit within the main chip A20. If the die temperature exceeds the set value, A20 will shutdown itself and enter into a safe status. As a board level system designer, Cubietech have not many methods to solve the heating problem. The only feasible way is to choose a heatsink.
A few days ago, we purchased some heatsink which adopts nano carbons ( a high tech. heatsinking material ) as surface coat. I find that it is very nice after some experimentation. It has a peculiar heat gather effect. By using this heatsink, the PCB around main chip will become very cool, though the surface coat will become especially hot. Is this a kind of noble character of sacrifice oneself to protect others?
Cubietech recommends enthusiasts of Cubieboard buy a piece of heatsink like this incidentally. The whole 2 in 1 heatsink package is very cheap. The most cost of this package is the heat conductive silicone. And we plan to bring a much lower cost heatsink solution in next step.
Usage and Steps
- Clean up the surface of the main chip, make sure not to have greasy dirt
- Coat with a thin layer of thermal silicone on the surface，recommended thickness is 0.1~0.5mm，the thinner the better
- Attach the metal block, press slightly, adjust the position of the main chip, do not move in 10 minutes. Warning: This silicone adhesive force is large, not easy to remove after dry
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