Chill Out with Your Raspberry Pi 5

When it was released last year, people quickly realized that the Raspberry Pi 5 was more than just an incremental update. This little computer has since proven itself to be a beast for the price. It is capable of much more than powering some relatively simple electronics projects like earlier versions of the Raspberry Pi. The Pi 5 is suitable for use as a fairly nice desktop computer, and even some gaming — especially emulation of retro gaming consoles.

This extra power comes with some problems familiar in the world of computers, but that were previously unknown to Raspberry Pis. Cooling, in particular, is something that owners of Pi 5s need to consider. As the processor heats up, its speed will automatically be throttled to help cool it off and prevent damage. This is an essential feature of any modern processor, but when that throttling happens, performance naturally dips.

So if you want to get the most out of your computer (and who doesn’t?), you need to keep it cool. YouTuber Zac Builds wanted to use a Pi 5 to build a retro gaming console, and since gaming heats up the system like few other tasks, cooling was a major consideration. To address this consideration, Zac Builds went all out and developed a custom water cooling system to keep the Raspberry Pi cool under stress.

The water cooler was built from an off-the-shelf pump and reservoir meant for use with a 3D printer and a copper water block. The chips on the surface of the computer are not all the same height, so some copper shims were soldered to the water block to ensure good contact would be made. The integrated heat spreader, which normally covers the CPU, was also removed so that the water block could make better contact with the chip. To keep everything in place, a frame was 3D-printed from a carbon fiber reinforced nylon, which will not deform under the temperatures generated by the computer.

To determine how well the cooling system worked, Zac Builds measured the CPU temperature with and without it. While idling, the Pi 5 ran at just over 80 degrees Celsius. But with the water cooling system running, that measurement dropped to the mid-20s. That is nearly a 60 degree drop! Very impressive!

With that much of a drop in temperature, the next question becomes: how far can this computer be pushed? So Zac Builds overclocked the chip to see what clock speed could be reached. After updating the firmware to remove a restriction, a stable clock speed of 3.1 GHz was achieved, all while staying nice and cool.

All that was left to do was make an enclosure for the system that would make it feel like a game console and install the operating system. The case was 3D-printed to fit both the computer and the water cooling system. Acrylic windows showed off the hardware inside, while a wood panel spiced up the appearance.

Finally, Batocera was installed, which makes tons of retro game console emulators available in just a few steps. Thanks to the overclocking, most Nintendo 64, PlayStation, and GameCube games ran nice and smooth. With a bit of work, some PlayStation 2 games even ran pretty well. Truth be told, many of the games will run well enough on a stock Raspberry Pi 5, but by going the extra mile, it pushes past some of the computer’s present limits. Be sure to check out the video for all the details if you want to push your Pi 5 to the next level (and void your warranty).