We’re on the case!
A case isn’t just for Christmas – it’s a life-long home for your chosen Raspberry Pi project, so make sure you pick a good one!
Although you can run a Raspberry Pi effectively without one (Raspberry Pi co-founder Pete Lomas designed it that way), many people want a case that can protect the single-board computer while offering an attractive design, built-in cooling or even special features. Originally, the Raspberry Pi was not supposed to be contained in anything, but over the years the number of cases available has become almost as numerous as decimal places in the number pi, so choosing the right one for your model and project can be a challenge.
There’s no single best Raspberry Pi case for all uses, because what you would want for a media centre is different from what you need for maker projects or extreme overclocking. Some cases can turn the humble SBC into a desktop computer, while others are designed like classic retro consoles to hit the nostalgia node of our brains, and some cases completely engulf the Pi in a shield of aluminium or acrylic. Let’s start by considering what you need from a case: