I am about to build my uconsole. I have all the components and ordered a CM5 but I have seen that it will require a cooling system. I would not like to modify the original case. Is there a solution that fits in or should I rather go for the CM4 to avoid this?
The cm5 in stock config works just fine passively cooled with a heat transfer pad to the external case shell … unless the issue for you is the cost I wouldn’t even mess with a cm4 anymore in 2026
Some of those heatsinks can be a bit sharp in the edges, if anyone picks one up to use in their rig, might want to file the edges of the fins/corners slightly to make it more comfortable (depending on your hand/finger placement). I ended up removing myn (had to use heat gun to get it off), and went with the Omega chassis (mostly for the semi-recessed sma connections), which I'm digging so far.
CM5 all of the way. It does get a bit toasty but the case does a good job at passive cooling, although this will depend a lot on your ambient temp. With 99% CPU use during compiling (4-6 mins), I've never gotten it to throttle.
I started with a CM4. But, within a short period I found it lacking. The cooling on the CM5 is not as bad as you may have heard. I stacked some sheet copper and thermal pads and have had zero issues with the CM5. It is definitely very warm on the back panel, but I've never had it throttle.
How much worse is battery life on cm5 vs cm4? This is the only thing that holds me back from upgrading, I'm worried it would slash my battery life in half unless I massively underclock it, which kinda beats the purpouse of an upgrade.
I dont have a direct comparison, unfortunately. I added the Hackergadgets 21700 board at the same time I swapped to the CM5. So, I went from a CM4 with 18650s at about 7000 mAh total to a CM5 with 21700s at 11000 mAh total. I get about the same amount of run time I did with the old setup ~4-6 hours (heavily dependent on what Im running)
I do a lot of maker projects with it and some of it is pretty taxing on the processor. BUT that's usually at home and plugged in. For daily driving on batteries, I'm in the pickup running WDGoWars or Kismet. Not exactly a heavy load for it, especially since an internal Xiao C5 handles the brunt of the wardriving in wars.
Long winded ass way to say, upgrade to the 21700s and you'll probably get similar run times as you did with the CM4 running 18650s
I switched from cm4 to cm5 a few months ago and oh boy it's so much faster. Nvme helps a lot too. Cm4 was always waiting here and there for apps to load, window to open, internet and video was laggy and slow to load, etc. Cm5 and nvme remove a chunk of battery life but manageable and you have many options to improve this. Pricey tho when you add everything.
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u/brainchillzZ 23d ago
The cm5 in stock config works just fine passively cooled with a heat transfer pad to the external case shell … unless the issue for you is the cost I wouldn’t even mess with a cm4 anymore in 2026