Heat buildups are are a real problem for home electronics, including streaming devices. With many tv android boxes lacking airspace and enough ventilation, you should consider purchasing a ventilation/cooling fan to place under or on top of your device to keep your cpu from eventually frying your unit. There are many good quality usb connected fans available at amazon along with other retailers and manufacturers. Doing this will help ensure your streaming box has a longer life span.
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I also built holding stands for my devices that stand it up on it’s “thin” side, which now exposes both the top and also the bottom. Maybe overkill, but no issues so far.
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I applied self-stick “feet” to the bottom of both my Cube and FireTV. They sit about an inch higher then before.
These are also good passive methods to help keep your box cooler if you have enough cooling vents. The problem with some of these devices is a lack of ventilation holes which allows heat from the more powerful higher speed processors to build up. If the heat consistently reaches 60 degrees celcius or higher, it is doubtful that it is going to last very long. I placed a cooling fan under my a95x max box to push cooler air below through the box and it keeps the internal processor temperature in a range between 42 and 46 degrees.
A few years back, they were selling the X96 S android stick to compete with the firestick and it was excellent, with plenty of cooling vents, 4 gb of RAM and 32 gbs of internal memory running on stock android 8 and later android 9. I still have mine and it works great. I you look really hard, you might find it for sale somewhere on the internet but it won’t be cheap.
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They have laptop cooling pads I have used in the past that work nicely for one or more devices. That are USB powered
I prop my ONN, W2 stock android box & Dynalink on their sides. It does make a big difference.
For whatever reason, the MeCool KM1 doesn’t run hot at all.
I use these. Simple soap savers readily available & inexpensive. Have worked great
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Just added an 80mm fan to my Km2+, had it on its side but after being on for a couple of days it would start buffing. Would have to shut it down for a while. Still in test mode as it’s only been a couple days with it on.
Nvidia Pros have built in fans.
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MacGyver lives!!!
Seriously, if the manufacturers of the various sticks & boxes just vent the covers, both top & bottom or front & back, that’d make a big difference. It’s just molded plastic.
Exactly, I just dont understand why they cant make the Firesticks, especially the Max, like the PC stick I posted above. Would help them significantly.
They figure it isn’t needed. The max never suffers from overheating as they have a thermal throttling, that if it goes over their threshold will reduce power to the cpu to prevent it from frying.
I’m not trying to start an argument by any means, but just because motherboards and CPUs have thermal protection sensors to keep them from frying dead, that surely doesn’t mean I would plug up all of the vents, fans, cpu cooler, etc on a laptop or PC. Max may not run as hot, which is definitely good, but there is absolutely nowhere for the heat to escape. It is essentially airtight, which in my opinion is just a poor design if you are trying to make any electronic device last and function at optimum performance for its entire life.
edit: This isn’t just the Firestick, I’m not just pointing fingers at them. The Tivo is like that and many other devices, which freaks me the F out lol. My thermal OCD kicks in something awful.
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You think they make the casing solid as to avoid dust, dirt and possible pet hair buildup? I’ve always wondered as you have why no vent holes could be made into the casing
I actually sent a msg to them asking why there was no air flow built into their cases. Of course I got a lengthy and detailed explanation from their tech team. I simply asked why the firestick cases did not allow for air flow to assist in heat dissipation. Here is their detailed reply.
“It isn’t needed”
and to think on my built from the ground up desktop tower I considered a liquid cooling system. If I’d only known.
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MacGyverAgain!
Great idea!!!
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