CM5 riser adapter with a thin thermal pad
A CM4 socket protection adapter lifts the CM5 so a 0.5 mm pad reaches the back shell instead of the thick stock pad.
What it takes
- Disassembly
- Purchase required
Difficulty 2 of 3 — moderate.
Details
The stock design pushes heat through a very thick pad. thoughtfix fitted a CM4 interface-protection adapter — a male-to-female riser sold for frequently swapped CM4 sockets — between the adapter board and the CM5. It raises the module just enough for a 0.5 mm thermal pad to press firmly against the shell.
Temperatures went from around 70 °C with throttling and two hard shutdowns to a 55 °C maximum while compiling. One caveat from the thread: the riser may not work with third-party adapter boards that add NVMe or other features.
Links
Open at Forum threadRelated mods
Two layers of 0.5 mm thermal pad and a small aluminium heatsink on the CM5 SoC, held with thermal tape — about 10 °C cooler under load.
hack2you's machined cooling pad for the compute module, sold on Tindie alongside the trackpad keyboard and NVMe modules.
Replace the ~4 mm stock pad, which is sized for the A-06, with a thinner high-quality pad or paste that matches the real CM4/CM5 gap.
A ~3 mm copper block bonded to the BCM2711 so a 0.5 mm pad can bridge the remaining gap, adding thermal mass.
The adapter board's PWM fan header runs a Raspberry Pi, Waveshare or EDATEC CM5 cooler; printed back covers make the room.
A cheap magnetic gaming-phone cooler clipped to the aluminium back pulls heat out of the whole console when a CM5 is working hard.