Mount a HeatSink on the Rock64 using 3M Thermal Tapes

[MarkHaysHarris777]

   

Tonight I'm going to be mounting a heatsink on my production Rock64 board ( using a nice heatsink I pulled from an old Epson printer stepper controller board -- the old style TO-220 heatsink ).  I'm also using thermal tape from 3M ( blue ) which serves the double function of thermal conductance as well adhesive for physical integrity.

The heatsink in the pic is about 25x15x14 mm.

   

Before you begin its a good idea to jot down the board info about your SoC if you're interested;  or like I've done here take a quick pic of it.  Once we stick the heatsink down with the 3M thermal tape, it is not going to be easy to get it off;  I've even known one guy to pull his SoC off the board because the balls gave way before the tape did !

   

I usually cut the 3M thermal tape just larger than the heatsink and then I trim it back with cuticle scissors. You do not want the heatsink (aluminum in this case) to touch any of the components on any side;  also don't worry about covering over any components. Peel the protective mylar backing away one at a time;  tape the heatsink first, then trim, then remove the other backing mylar,  and then gently place the heatsink over the SoC.

   


This pic shows the heatsink mounted and doing its thing!  With just passive cooling the temps went from mid to high 40s ℃  to mid to high 30s ℃ !  This heatsink is a little beefier than the ones I put on my Pines or Pis, and it certainly performs well even without the fan ( which is coming next week ).