Installing heatsinks on the Raspberry Pi 2

Raspberry Pi 2 Heatsink Installation Guide

Hi guys! My heatsinks arrived from eBay a few days ago, and I thought I'd just do a quick post on how to install heatsinks on the Raspberry Pi 2
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Before I start, I just want to say that this is definitely NOT necessary at ALL. Even when overclocked, the Raspberry Pi's processor isn't even CLOSE to being hot enough to require cooling at all. But they were $1 on eBay, so I thought why not :). Without further ado-

The 2 spots we will install heatsinks.

Here are the 2 spots where we will place the heatsinks - the larger one will go onto the processor (the larger of the 2) while the smaller heatsink will go onto the smaller chip (the USB + ethernet hub controller). You don't need any special tools for this - just a Pi, and some heatsinks, which can be found on eBay for literally $1. A simple search of ‘raspberry pi 2 heatsink’ yields many results.

I recieved 3 heatsinks, but only require 2.

Make sure you have everything laid out and ready to go. Also, note that some heatsink packs ship with 3 heat sinks. This is great, but we only need 2 - the larger one and one of the smaller ones. We won't be using the 2nd small one, so do whatever you want with it. You can even chuck it out if you want.

The heatsinks should have a thin film of thermal paste applied.

Take the larger heatsink, and peel of the protective sheet on the back to expose the layer of thermal paste. Note that it may not be silver, like above, but also possible black, and…. other colours… Stick the heatsink onto the larger of the 2 chips, making sure to line up the edges of the heatsink with the edges of the chip. Press firmly, and there you have it. The heatsink should now be stuck on firmly. Repeat these steps to install the smaller heatsink.

There we go! Easy as Pi :)

And there you go! Your heatsinks should look something like the above picture. Don't worry if they’re not perfectly lined up with the chip - a slight overhang doesn't matter.

There you have it! And the results are pretty interesting! for $1 and about 2 minutes of my time, I managed to decrease the temperature of the main processor by about 10℃, or roughly 20% of the operating temperature! Not bad!

Congratulations! Enjoy your ~15-20% cooler Raspberry Pi 2, and if you have any questions, feel free to ask in the comments!