AirBlock 40: Stock Cooler for Bitaxe Gamma and NerdAxe Gaia

One part to swap when the fan or the cooler gives up.

The AirBlock 40 is the cooler that sits on the Bitaxe Gamma and the NerdAxe Gaia when they leave the factory: a black finned heatsink with a 40 mm fan on 5 V screwed on top and four spring-loaded push pins at the corners. The fan plugs into the board with a 4-pin PWM plug, so the firmware keeps setting its speed by temperature.

When you need it

A miner runs day and night, and the fan is the one part that moves. When it gets loud, grinds or stops, the chip warms up and the firmware throttles or the board restarts. With an AirBlock 40 on the shelf, the miner is back to work a few minutes later. If only the fan has failed and the heatsink is fine, the AirFan 40 on its own is enough.

Which miners it fits

• Bitaxe Gamma: yes, it is the cooler the Gamma ships with.
• NerdAxe Gaia: yes, the Gaia ships with the same cooler.
• NerdQAxe++ and other multi-chip boards: no. They carry larger coolers, the NerdQAxe++ a 92 mm one.

Fitting it

You need fresh thermal paste, which is not in the box, a little isopropyl alcohol and a lint-free cloth.

1. Unplug the power supply and the fan cable.
2. Squeeze the push pins of the old cooler from the back of the board and lift the cooler off.
3. Wipe the old thermal paste off the chip and apply a thin layer of fresh paste.
4. Set the AirBlock 40 on the chip and press until all four push pins click in.
5. Plug the fan into the fan header of the board and power up.

After the first start, check the chip temperature in the dashboard: AxeOS on the Bitaxe Gamma, NerdOS on the NerdAxe Gaia. Our Bitaxe setup guide and NerdAxe setup guide show where to find it.

Quieter or cooler

The AirBlock 40 cools exactly like the stock part, no more and no less. For a quieter or cooler Bitaxe Gamma, the Upgrade Kit Stage 1 and the Upgrade Kit Stage 2 combine larger coolers with Noctua fans. The NerdAxe Gaia Copper Pro leaves the factory with a copper cooler and a 60 mm fan.