FeedsQuick tip for fixing hot soekrises
Are you using one of those wonderful little Soekris machines? Did you put in a harddrive? Are you now having temperature issues? But you don't want to put in a fan?
The problem is the harddrive is placed just above the CPU. They both generate heat, so stuff can get pretty warm in the little case.
Here's what helped for me. The standard cases have air holes in them on the sides. Hot air rises up, not sideways, so I figured let's try placing the machine vertically. I could not believe the difference. I logged the CPU temperature differences, take a look:
>>> Mon Apr 20 23:35:01 CEST 2009
hw.sensors.nsclpcsio0.temp2=58.00 degC (Local)
>>> Mon Apr 20 23:40:01 CEST 2009
hw.sensors.nsclpcsio0.temp2=58.00 degC (Local)
>>> Mon Apr 20 23:45:01 CEST 2009
hw.sensors.nsclpcsio0.temp2=58.00 degC (Local)
>>> Mon Apr 20 23:50:01 CEST 2009
hw.sensors.nsclpcsio0.temp2=58.00 degC (Local)
>>> Mon Apr 20 23:55:01 CEST 2009
hw.sensors.nsclpcsio0.temp2=58.00 degC (Local)
>>> Tue Apr 21 00:00:01 CEST 2009
hw.sensors.nsclpcsio0.temp2=58.00 degC (Local)
>>> Tue Apr 21 00:05:01 CEST 2009
hw.sensors.nsclpcsio0.temp2=56.00 degC (Local)
>>> Tue Apr 21 00:10:01 CEST 2009
hw.sensors.nsclpcsio0.temp2=54.00 degC (Local)
>>> Tue Apr 21 00:15:01 CEST 2009
hw.sensors.nsclpcsio0.temp2=53.00 degC (Local)
>>> Tue Apr 21 00:20:01 CEST 2009
hw.sensors.nsclpcsio0.temp2=52.00 degC (Local)
>>> Tue Apr 21 00:25:01 CEST 2009
hw.sensors.nsclpcsio0.temp2=52.00 degC (Local)
>>> Tue Apr 21 00:30:01 CEST 2009
hw.sensors.nsclpcsio0.temp2=52.00 degC (Local)
>>> Tue Apr 21 00:35:01 CEST 2009
hw.sensors.nsclpcsio0.temp2=51.00 degC (Local)
>>> Tue Apr 21 00:40:01 CEST 2009
hw.sensors.nsclpcsio0.temp2=51.00 degC (Local)
>>> Tue Apr 21 00:45:01 CEST 2009
hw.sensors.nsclpcsio0.temp2=51.00 degC (Local)
>>> Tue Apr 21 00:50:01 CEST 2009
hw.sensors.nsclpcsio0.temp2=51.00 degC (Local)
>>> Tue Apr 21 00:55:01 CEST 2009
hw.sensors.nsclpcsio0.temp2=51.00 degC (Local)
Before, during the day, the soekris was running near 60 degrees Celcius constantly. At around 0:00 on 20 April I placed the machine vertically. Temperature dropped 7 degrees in about half an hour!
Temperature has since been constantly between 50 and 52 Celcius all the time. Yay! :-)
