Cooling for FW Gold
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@Alvaro Diaz, if you have your unit in a well ventilated area, you're good !
If you're picky just like me, just get some computer fan, and hook it up on top of your firewalla, and it will never get hot again !
I have a 12v computer fan connected to a small 5v USB phone charger, that way the fan runs slow without noise, and keeps my firewalla cold !
Note: if you choose to have a fan like me, go big or go home, otherwise @Chris will explain to you why to go big ! lol
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Thank you both for the response. Mainly I don’t like hot surfaces and even though it’s in an open space the router and mesh network device are close too so I was thinking of a fan like this one: AC Infinity AIRPLATE T3, Quiet Cooling Fan System 6" with Thermostat Control, for Home Theater AV Cabinets https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00QFWLGPU/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_vMLtFbKTHGJKZ
To put everything in a cabinet space. And I don’t know if the 52 CFM airflow is good enough or maybe the 104 CFM.Thanks!
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Well, that fan looks great, but if you're considering to put everything in a cabinet, you need to know all other equipment you have, and know if it also get hot ! If so, you may need a big fan or more of this one you post in the amazon link!
It's a matter of how big is your cabinet, how many devices you have there, and how hot it can be inside ! Also you need to consider the intake of the air !
That said, I would recommend you have an fan for intake and a blower to take out the hot air if it's possible !
If you choose to do this, also I would recommend you to add those "dust filters" for the intake fan, just to prevent tons of dust to get inside your cabinet and sit on your devices ! You will need to clean it every week / month depending where you live and the amount of dust in the air !
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Keep it simple folks. Put the $50 bucks toward something good like a SATA SSD card.
Spend $13.00 on a 5" (120mm) USB fan powered from the front USB port.See my other post how I cool my Gold and how I take advantage of the excess heat.
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@Firewalla, it's not a bad idea if that reduces the final cost / price of the unit !
You should do a survey, and have an estimate final cost for the people to decide!
Me personally, I like the way it is because it looks more a quality device (heavy metal instead of plastic case).
I know that the main board is the same high quality, but it's my own opinion !
But I think you guys should do a survey, with the close price, and maybe you could have it in 2 options!
Metal case and plastic case ! Not sure if it's viable for the business...
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@Firewalla, plastic and a fan is not a good idea. Any time you have a moving part you are going to have an increase in failures. Furthermore, you are now introducing foreign objects onto the circuit board - more failures. I don't see how the design could remain the same with the CPU on the bottom (heat rises) and the need to add a (sizable?) heat sink. While the manufacturing cost might be lower you have to consider the total cost with support, returns, and impacts to good will.
Trust me, after years (decades?) consulting on data center leading practices you don't want to introduce dust and dirt into your equipment. Data centers are clean - peoples homes and small offices are not. Read about zinc whiskers - I billed A LOT of hours investigating and remediating them. Don't make opportunities to let the smoke out. Just say no to plastic and fans.
We know the hardware manufacturer and have spoken them. You have a good box here - don't change away from the current design. Don't make me cite this post in the future :-)
This SBC is a workhorse (come on, you guys should know that better than anyone). There are many places where you can't have fans. We like this box and how it's sealed pretty tight (until someone pokes out the plastic covers for the antenna connectors -who would do that!?).
Even with added Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, a 512GB SATA SSD drive, and running a CPU benchmark We can't get the temperature over 60°. We think the temp discussion and worrying is overrated. The box, in our tests, never gets too hot to touch. Certainly, putting the Firewalla Gold along with other equipment and in an enclosure changes things.The test ran 200 threads (294 with core processes running) for three minutes for a total of 312,508 events and a CPU speed of 1,735.48 CPU events per second. At the peak the load average hit 190.56 (the Firewalla Gold typically run at between 0.20 and 0.60 load average).
Base Temperature
acpitz-virtual-0
Adapter: Virtual device
temp1: +43.0°C (crit = +127.0°C)
temp2: +26.8°C (crit = +95.0°C)
coretemp-isa-0000
Adapter: ISA adapter
Core 0: +46.0°C (high = +90.0°C, crit = +90.0°C)
Core 1: +47.0°C (high = +90.0°C, crit = +90.0°C)
Core 2: +47.0°C (high = +90.0°C, crit = +90.0°C)
Core 3: +42.0°C (high = +90.0°C, crit = +90.0°C)
Loaded Temperature
acpitz-virtual-0
Adapter: Virtual device
temp1: +45.0°C (crit = +127.0°C)
temp2: +26.8°C (crit = +95.0°C)
coretemp-isa-0000
Adapter: ISA adapter
Core 0: +58.0°C (high = +90.0°C, crit = +90.0°C)
Core 2: +55.0°C (high = +90.0°C, crit = +90.0°C)
Core 3: +60.0°C (high = +90.0°C, crit = +90.0°C)
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While it sounds like your Firewalla works find without cooling, I've had two units now which do not. In the first case, the client PCs were dropping internet, losing the DNS server, or a variety of other strange behaviors. I emailed back and forth with Firewalla support and nothing worked. I happened to be in the server closet and noticed that the Firewalla gold was very very hot. I could pick it up, but it was so hot that I wouldn't want to hold it for more than a couple of seconds. I put a fan on it and all the problems went away. A month later, I was reading boards like this one which indicate there isn't an issue, I turned off the fan, and the problem came back within a day. Fan back on, no problems. Several months later, still no issues.
We put another Gold in a branch office, almost the exact same sequence occurred. I was hoping the first unit I had was just an anomaly. However, within two days of install in the new location, I had the same problems with clients as in the first office. Added a fan, no issues thus far (only one week in).
In both cases, prior to the fan being installed the unit was in a well ventilated closet that with the HVAC system set to 78 degrees. The unit is is physically separated by other units by more than 5 inches and the other equipment is much cooler. While this isn't definitive proof, I do think that directing a fan at the unit should be part of basic troubleshooting. Ten bucks buys a usb powered fan which made my life much easier.
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Do you still have the unit that's not under a fan? If you do want us to look at it deeper, please just send an email to help@firewalla.com.
The Gold needs good airflow, meaning if you put it inside a rack, with things above and below, it will get hot. But if you put it at the top of the rack, it may be better.
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We have 61 devices. One device is a live audio streamer. Two are live webcams. We have PiHole running. We push about a TB a month on average. In more than two years not a single heat issue.
But like any audio or computing device - especially fanless - you have to have the ability to have airflow. You can put equipment in a cabinet but that cabinet needs airflow a fan. Computing equipment normally gets 55 degree air for cooling - 78 is a bit warm for passive cooling. We did test with a fan which is not a big deal - and it does sound you need one in your set up.
Have you checked DMESG or JOURNALCTL for heating issues or other faults? You could write a script to report / log network performance and cpu temp.
Another benefit of PiHole is that you can easily see CPU performance and temp in real time.
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For these fanless single board computers thermal paste isn’t used. The case and cover are an integral component of the passive cooling design with the top of the case being design as a heat sink. It requires sufficient airflow around the device and a low enough ambient air temperature.
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