[Ned Scott]

Just bought a RPi3, switching from RPi2. I'm using the official red/white case this time. Idle temps are very high in my opinion. kodi.bin sits at ~8% CPU usage while idling in the menu and with the case closed I have ~59c. With a open case it drops to 52c.
I had like 38-42c with the RPi2 idling in the menu. This seems excessive.

That's still very much within operating temperature, right?

I suppose you could underclock the Pi 3 if you want to lower it, and get back to Pi 2 performance. Or get a little heatsink. Just make sure to not use some cheap doublesided tape to mount it (many cheap heatsinks come with such tape), which might end up insulating the CPU rather than dissipating heat. Thermal adhesive would do the trick.

[meccs]

I bought the Flirc case which is fantastic and keeps my RPi3 cool due to the case acting as a heatsink (~10°C lower than before). I really love that design. I added a small normal heatsink before that and it only was a ~2°C difference.

[calev]

I bought the Flirc case which is fantastic and keeps my RPi3 cool due to the case acting as a heatsink (~10°C lower than before). I really love that design. I added a small normal heatsink before that and it only was a ~2°C difference.

I also bought the kodi flirc case. It is a great case. If only it was easier to switch the sd card on the pi 3 it would be perfect.

[meccs]

I bought the Flirc case which is fantastic and keeps my RPi3 cool due to the case acting as a heatsink (~10°C lower than before). I really love that design. I added a small normal heatsink before that and it only was a ~2°C difference.

I also bought the kodi flirc case. It is a great case. If only it was easier to switch the sd card on the pi 3 it would be perfect.

I did add a tiny bit of tape to the end of the SD and now it is easy to pull it out.
The temperature difference is huge though. It's 8-10°C less with the closed Lirc case in comparison to the open official red/white one with a heatsink attached. And it looks awesome. I just hope the RPi4/5 still fits in it.

[skylarking]

I just hope the RPi4/5 still fits in it.

I hope the new RPi4/5 breaks away from the current physical layout and places all the connectors on what would be the rear of the board.
And hopefully the foundation can finally includes an ON button, a RTC along with wifi antena plug(s) on the board itself (for optional wifi antena(s)).

Others can then produce new cases just as they have in the past, in plastic or preferably diecast like the flirc case, to cater for the new layout.
With all connectors at the back of the unit, along with real wifi antena's to help with getting a better signal when using the new diecast cases, we'd still have overclocking headroom and a better HTPC
And this nicer HTPC layout would still be based on RPi and leveraging all the work of the past.

Yeah, i know the RPi is meant to be a cheap board for schools and such but there is nothing to stop the foundation producing another variants
Alternatively the foundation can update their compute module which would improve the SLICE achieving a simliar goal
Or the five ninjas could take it upon themselves to produce a completly new RPi compatible board for use as HTPC rather than relying on a compute module.

Basically i don't want to see things become static/fixed because someone produced a nice case

[Ned Scott]

The upcoming Pi 3 compute module will actually work in the Five Ninja's Slice :D

[nickr]

@ned Scott, that will be a cool addition to the pi family!

[skylarking]

The upcoming Pi 3 compute module will actually work in the Five Ninja's Slice

Yeah, i read some many months ago that the foundation had working prototypes of the RPi-3 CM but nothing has been released yet. And it's taking forever.

I know it's their baby but it's approaching a nine month gestation.... just saying...

[nickr]

But for a media player I don't see the point in buying a stripped down pi then adding all the stripped out bits again via a slice. Pi3 plus flirc case.

[skylarking]

Yeah, RPi-3 functionality is OK for my needs.

I'd still like to see the foundation provide a board layout where all connections are available at the rear and i'm OK with it being logically the same as a RPi-3 (can call the new layout a RPi-3H since it would be better suited to HTPC duties).

Problem is that backwards compatability seems to also extend to the mechanical side to preserve case designs, which i feel is placing a greater limit than need be. Keeping backward compatibility for software reuse reasons is OK but to not produce a board layout more useful for HTPC duties is an unnessesary restriction...

As i said before, i don't want to see things become fixed because someone produced a nice case

[meccs]

Yes, having all connections on one side would be preferred but as you said unlikely with that small layout.