Accidental cooling

It was a stroke of luck that led to this. A reduction of about 5 degrees (Celsius) on my Raspberry Pi servers. How? Just by changing their orientation.

Earlier, it used to sit flat.

And now it sits sideways.

The USB to m.2 SATA converter sat atop the Pi trapping the rising heat from the heat sink all this time. In hindsight, it was just a matter of allowing proper air flow. I didn't pay any attention to it before since it's a Pi and it wasn't in any box that would require a fan. Also, I switched to a 3 amp power supply that came with an on/off switch and the Pi had to be moved to accommodate the switch in that cramped space.

Actually I am hoping its a matter of better air flow since I am not certain if the extra 0.5 ampere had anything to do with reducing the temperature (less load on the Pi to run the SSD, maybe?). I love the convenience of a on/off switch better than running tests with the old power adapter to find out if that's the case.