I’d rather have to replace a cheap Chinese fan once a year or so than risk ever having to replace the Pi motherboard if the CPU got thermal damage: the way things are going I might not be able to get a replacement board for months because of chip shortages should I need one. Fans are inexpensive and readily available. They’re cheap insurance.
Many people use it even without heat sinks. As long as the CPU is not stressed that much, even this wouldn’t be a problem.
The device is capable up to 85°C including throttling.
So the only concern should be the long term reliability.
But who will run the device forever? We are technical kids, always want the latest technology 
My Pi3b+ that failed (heatsink run-away) was getting to 75°C every day.
The replacement Pi is in the bigger of the two cast cases with a 12V Mag-Lev fan (highly recommended) running at 5V.
If the enclosure goes above 35°C, two Pappst 28V fans kick in. Each is rated 450CFM.
I don’t seem to have a problem any more!
No wonder! 
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Nice to see a forum thats realy active to be honest…
Thanks for all the posts and the banter!
I have a spare full custom water cooling kit and a gpu water block… might just strap the whole thing to it for fun 
Does it suck or blow?
I think that should be only the secondary question.
Not me, at least not where my ADS-B feeder is concerned. My feeder’s working fine on my little Pi 3 and I want it to stay that way as long as possible. “If it ain’t broke don’t fix it.” I’ll use a Pi 4 or other mini computer for other projects, like HFDL or satcomms something.
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A Pi3 is still “new”. If i am talking about long-term usage it will be 10 years or longer.
I am an older guy and also prefer keeping things as long as possible.
But also older guys need some playground
I’m in my 60s and I just ordered a Beelink mini PC with an Intel Celery N5905 CPU, 16GB of DDR4 RAM, 512GB NVMe SSD etc that I have no actual need for, just to play with it. It has room for a 2.5" HDD or SSD in it too (not included but I have lots of spare SATA SSDs.)
For that matter, my various SDRs, antennas etc. are all really just toys too. Every boy needs a hobby.
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That’s exactly my statement above. Welcome to the club of the “60s”
Sorry another question. My flightfeeder is up and running at work now and seems pretty good ( will be better when i have the antenna mounted outside of course )
With the pi aware im building from home, how do we think it will perform if i put the antenna in the loft?
Going outside might be an option for my home setup yet… its a similar antenna to the flightaware feeder one from pi hut…
Im i being stupid as well? im looking to share the stats and live map from just my feeder? or do you have to have an account?
Will be built when i find a Pi 4 in the uk i can actualy buy of course.
This setup has an antenna in my attic. It does use an airspy but gives you an idea of how well it can work. Note that my antenna is less than 50ft AMSL and I have a ridge to my East and Apartments to my South.
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It strongly depends on your individual enrivonment. Getting it higher into a loft might work in most cases, but if there are obstacles, it will fail.
In many cases it’s simply try and error. But you can expect a better reception
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