Actually a bit of both.
The consoles were always running hot, and would freeze/lock up fairly often - enough to require rebooting from time to time.
Sometimes they would be quite hot to touch, but the fan would not be running. After a reboot the fan would run straight away due to the heat, in order to cool it down. Kind of like it had locked up due to heat.
Let's face it - having a "cooling fan/heatsink" setup that only ever recircs it's own exhaust air is going to have a low/poor efficiency.
The console's cooling system design puts an unhealthy amount of dependence on natural convection to expel hot internal air through the top vents.
After this cold-air-intake mod on my kick starter console, it NEVER gets warm to the touch, regardless of how long the console is powered up for, or what it is doing, and I can hear the fan kick in from time to time, for maybe 15 seconds max every 20-30 mins or so.
The cold air is drawn straight in to the fan, and the warm heatsink air is pushed out of the top & bottom vent holes of the console. Kind of like it should have been.
Performance wise, it hasn't skipped a beat since the mod, and I'd say has "never worked better". Even after (KODI) scanning databases & updating library content, transferring files etc etc, there is no longer any heat on the body of the unit. I'd definitely say that it has made a big difference.
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