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    6100 Thermal Performance

    Official Netgate® Hardware
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    • R
      RJ
      last edited by

      How is the thermal performance under load with the 6100?

      Having the heatsink on the bottom, and a plastic insulator on the top seems backwards to me. I much preferred the 5100 design with the heatsink on the top.

      Perhaps the 6100 design hold up on it's own, or maybe its better to run it upside down?

      Wishing the 5100 was still available.

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      • stephenw10S
        stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
        last edited by

        Like how hot does it get under full load?

        R 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
        • R
          RJ @stephenw10
          last edited by

          @stephenw10

          Yeah.

          Also what is temp difference between having 6100 upside down and upside right same load.

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          • stephenw10S
            stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
            last edited by

            As a quick test here I ran the CPU to 100% load and you can see the CPU temp rise in the monitoring graphs:

            6100_max_load_temp.jpg

            That's in ~22°C ambient.

            Steve

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            • R
              RJ @stephenw10
              last edited by

              @stephenw10

              Thanks. Thats some good data. Decent temps after over an hour under load.

              I wonder though if temps would be lower if unit was upside down.

              M 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
              • M
                mer @RJ
                last edited by

                @rj I don't have the data or graphs but my desk has a nice big flat space on the back I mount everything to so the units are vertical. A simple fan blowing low speed across it all lowers temps dramatically; all I'm doing is moving the surrounding air away from the devices. If your 6100 is sitting flat, you could simply flip it upside down and see if that makes a difference for you.

                R 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                • R
                  RJ @mer
                  last edited by

                  @mer

                  I don't have a 6100 yet. Just doing a little research first.

                  But now that you mention it, I'll bet mounting it vertical is even more effective than flipping it upside down.

                  Do you have fans on the unit out of necessity or is that more a precaution?

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                  • M
                    mer @RJ
                    last edited by

                    @rj No real reason. Smallish home office, airflow non existent at times. It's a small desk fan, maybe 20 cm diameter, just sitting on the floor, lowest speed, blowing up and across all the components, keeping air moving. Not very noisy, like a low level white noise generator. I've seen things like USB powered muffin fans used for the same thing.

                    If you look at the documentation for the 6100, there are probably instructions for wall mounting.

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                    • stephenw10S
                      stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                      last edited by

                      https://docs.netgate.com/pfsense/en/latest/solutions/netgate-6100/wall-mount.html

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