The Raspberry Pi has sparked a lot of interesting projects, but passive cooling and other technical details limit the overclocking potential of the little computer. Since it's relatively inexpensive, there are enthusiasts out there who have no problem pushing a Pi to its limits, even if that means modifying the hardware, or destroying it altogether. Sometimes the risks pay off, and Brazil's EverPi proved it by claiming first place in HWBOT with a Raspberry Pi Zero cooled via Peltier to 1,600 MHz.
The overclocking landscape
Overclocking is quite popular on the Raspberry Pi platform, despite the restrictions imposed by the hardware. The market offers special cases that optimize cooling and include small heatsinks, but anyone seeking extreme results will need to go much further than a block of aluminum and a fan. Looking closely at the HWBOT results table, the ceiling for the Raspberry Pi across all models is around 1,600 MHz. Almost three years ago, user RRainbo took first place with 1,620 MHz on a Raspberry Pi 1 B+, but as we know well, HWBOT assigns positions according to validated scores.
EverPi's record-breaking run
That brings us to EverPi, which scored 855.04 points at 1,600 MHz on a Raspberry Pi Zero. The key to reaching that speed was feeding power directly to the processor, because the software control doesn't allow going above 1.4 V. EverPi sacrificed a small inductor and introduced an LM2596 regulator for better control above 2 V. Their cooling solution (and the SoC itself) found a limit at 2.08 V, so the solution was to customize the heatsink, adding a Peltier module with the hot side submerged in ice-cold water. The SoC temperature dropped to 2.4 degrees Celsius, and condensation was critical, but while running HWBOT it stayed at a stable 16 degrees.
In theory, the Raspberry Pi Zero could break the 1,600 MHz barrier (after all, it shares the same chip as the Raspberry Pi 1 B+) but it requires a low-level firmware modification that isn't available yet. Until then, Brazil is at the top.
