Thanks for that! I’ll give it a try and see. I appreciate the feedback.
OK, now that I’ve attempted the Epiphany based browser, I can report back that though it is resource friendly, it is incredibly unstable. Crashes a lot, and sometimes will not load the videos at all. Seemed very random when it would fail. Kweb seems to be the best alternative for streaming on the rpi3 so far, but it’s not without issues (like choppy playback). I haven’t had any incidents since that first crash, though. Not to say it won’t turn on me again, but it’s been pretty stable since. The only problem I have with it is that it’s a little rough to work with when you’re a noob like me. A slightly larger learning curve 
Thanks again for your help! I’m going to go give MATE a try now…
Jason
Hey Jason,
Unfortunately, I have not found another browser for streaming YouTube without the heat issues. I’m not sure if one will be developed. I kept looking for a couple months, but couldn’t find anything significantly better. Most of the current browsers are Firefox based, so it really might take a fresh build of a browser to get one specifically for the Pi3 to watch YouTube. If it goes that way, you’ll probably see apps, like on the Android platform, specific to each task you want to perform in order to keep programs and processing needs small.
For now, I still use YouTube-dl to download and OMXplayer to watch with…
I’ve come to the same conclusion. I’m going to have to find another device for doing what I need. I’ve since added MATE to my Pi and have been using it as my shop computer. It’s been a great tool to have and I’m loving it so far.
Thank you all for your input!
I noted a large temperature increase between the Pi 2 and the Pi 3 (both on Ubuntu Mate). My Pi 3 was getting hot in an enclosed case, but I haven’t had any such issues since putting it in a WD PiDrive enclosure. The WD enclosure has the Pi oriented vertically and allows for good air flow. It seems to keep the Pi (and its accompanying hard drive) cool enough that I never get the temperature warning, let alone have an actual overheat.
add me to the list. Chromimum on Jessie . Certain videos are fine. others like the below bring up the temp flag almost instantly
I was having a similar problem with my RPi3 and got the copper sinks from Amazon . They gave me a big 2 or 3 C improvement until they fell off. The black goop was a better insulater than transfer medium. I removed it with “Goof Off” and removed the residual from the chips and used a very thin coat of “Arctic Alumina” epoxy. Now it rarely gets to 62 C even on java intensive web pages on Chromium. It idles at around 50C. Epiphany is unstable garbage and the best way to treat it is “apt-get remove --purge”. Firefox is the least CPU intensive but that will overheat too without the heat sink.
I have been having what appears to be overheating issues for awhile with both the PI2 and PI3.
It would run for about 15 minutes and then just restart in an endless loop.
This happened with all OS versions.
When I first tried it ( Pi2 ), I thought it was the small 1A power supply so got a more industrial 5A power supply.
Still continued.
Got the heat sinks ( addicore) which held well and did seem to get hot to the touch.
Still continued.
Checked the card with an infrared thermometer. A lot of heat around the SDcard with the top side ( raspberry symbol) showing the hottest temperature around 105F.
Put a little pc fan next to it.
Seems to have done the trick so far.
I was really hoping to use it in an industrial setting, but temperature and reliability seem questionable.
Hope someone at PI can fix???
My RPi3B was overheating, using raspbian and chromium and watching a VIMEO clip. The heatsinks I got from Amazon looked great…raw copper with self adhesive pad for attachment but did not help much…gave only a 2-3C reduction in temp (vcgencmd measure_temp). My RPi is mounted vertically in an open VESA mount on the back of my LCD monitor (old type with fluorescent backlight). The heatsinks eventually fell off on the desk due to the heat and so I removed all the old, black goop with “Goof-Off” and used thermal epoxy (Arctic Alumina) in a very thin coat. The difference was dramatic…normally idles at 51C and never goes above 63C. As the CPU throttles at 85C, that is plenty of headroom.
The moral of the story is that heat sink tape may not be the answer. Some types have more thermal resistance than others and may even be as bad as free air. It is also true that all RPi’s are not created the same and may run hotter or cooler. Cases are not all well designed for thermal exchange. If you are really up against it, a fan may be the final answer. A few of the tiny ones are really quiet.
Fooling around with poor browsers is not the answer either. Midori is better than Epiphany but neither is a full feature application and Epiphany just quits too often. Midori has come a long way but still falls way short of the top two.
Good point.
I took a little effort to check the temps with my Pi2 and Pi3.
Looks like my Pi2 ran a lot hotter.
( Checked with /opt/vc/bin/vcgencmd measure_temp as well ).
I think it might just be a bad manufacturing anomaly.
Put heatsink on SD card enclosure. Hot spot.
Anyway here is the graph results:
Pi2 no fan reset loop at 15 minutes.
Pi3 ran fine:
Sounds like people are asking too much of the ARM chips. Maybe someone should come up with a case design that incorporates a small fan.
Had anyone using the Asus Tinker Board been having the same trouble?
I am very surprised at your results…that the 2 ran hotter than the 3. I have not seen any complaints about overheating on the 2 on this or the Raspbian forums. That the uSD card was the hot spot was surprising as well…the same uSD for both? How big? You mentioned that it was hotter around the Raspberry logo…is it a small uSD card, 8 gig or so? Should not get that hot. Could be a bad uSD card. Try a 16G UHS1/class10 from San Disk. Are your charts vcgencmd results or from your IR thermometer?
As to your industrial setting concerns, I’ve been running a B+ for several years now, headless, 24/7 to control my solar water heater backup and no issues have surfaced (but the B+ runs very cool). The Broadcom chips are rated much higher than the 85C throttle point of the RPi firmware…105 or 125C IIRC so the headroom for the chips is really extreme. Even so, in that setting I would use a fan just to satisfy my paranoia.
As to tiox’s comments, there are several cases on the market that incorporate and include a fan. For most people’s use of the RPi, a fan is a needless source of energy drain and noise.
Hi…i am a new user here. In my case using a Pi3 in a molded plastic case and no heat sink, my temps seldom get past the mid 50’s C with firefox running. I have not done much with videos on a capped ISP here so I block flash content. My idling power consumption is about 3.5 watts with firefox running but nothing going on.
