Raspberry Pi 4 Aluminum Case P173

It's a fine little kit, and it is priced right. I used the included copper shim and some Arctic Silver instead of the thermal pad for the CPU. It seems to have the right amount of squish on the thermal interfaces to keep everything held together and smoosh things out appropriately. All of the thermal pads (there are two sets of 4) were cut to the right shapes, and had protective plastic on both sides which must be removed for optimal performance. One extra screw is included, along with an Allen key for tightening the screws. It cools the CPU, the RAM, the PMIC, and the USB 3 hub chip. No provision is included for cooling the Wifi chip, but none is needed or useful (and on the Pi4's PCB, the metal can covering the wifi chip doesn't actually touch anything that gets warm anyway -- there is nothing to cool here, by nature of the Pi4's design. The can improves RF interference and light sensitivity vs the Pi3B's design, which used a similar chip but as a bare unprotected silicon die). I wanted a better cooling solution for a Pi4 (I'm going on a adventure that is going to include using a Raspberry Pi on battery power while camping in the Florida sun), and I'm allergic to using noisy fans for such low-power applications. This will work great: It uses zero energy and offers wonderful thermal dissipation -- more than plenty to dump the Pi4's maximum heat output of around 6.4 Watts. In its present duty, running Kodi with LibreElec on the living room TV: It works fine. No issues. Reported temperatures while watching a film in a 68-degree room with minimal airflow are around a very-chill 31C, which is 49 degrees below the throttle temperature (and 54 degrees below the maximum allowable operating temperature) of the Pi4. I could overlock it and put the hammer down, but meh: Provisions are made for running the GPIO out with a 40-pin ribbon cable, if tinkering is in order. The finish is a nice, semi-matte black. It was consistent on the unit I ordered. One star deducted because the screws were more difficult to get started than I anticipated. It's a little bit unnerving holding the case closed with one hand (to keep the thermal interfaces where they need to be) and starting screws with my other hand. A little bit of a chamfer would completely resolve this issue, but I shouldn't have to add that myself. It would also be more-ideal if the aluminum posts molded into the top-half of the case were unpainted where they contact the parts being cooled. They're beefy and solid aluminum, and that's quite good, but the main goal of a case like this is to conduct heat and paint gets in the way of that goal.

I really like the looks and simplicity of this pi case, utilitarian and clean, fits the pi perfectly. Good quality aluminum, keeps the pi cool without needing any fans.

TL;DR: Excellent case for the money, great performance for a simple Home Assistant dashboard, and silent. Use Case: I am currently using a Raspberry Pi to run a Home Assistant dashboard in my office. I was using a different heatsink with a small fan. The fan would turn on periodically throughout the day and became quite distracting for the few degrees improvement it caused, compared to if it stayed off entirely. I experimented with a handful of cases and heatsinks until I eventually landed on this item. Wow, to say the least. It brought my temperatures down from 55-60 to 35-40. All of this without the use of a fan. No complaints and I'm glad I landed on this product. Build Quality: Feels sturdy and no complaints. The paint has some blemishes, but nothing that detracts overall from its look and performance. The product does come with a copper plate for covering the CPU. Per the instructions provided, I applied thermal paste on both sides of the copper plate and then only put the smaller thermal pads over the three other chips. Performance: Excellent. The CPU temperatures exceeded my expectations and it's silent. The entire case is made out of metal, so the case does transfer heat from the Raspberry Pi. For my use case, this isn't a problem. It's just slightly warm to the touch, and still cooler than any laptop bottom would be after a few hours of use.

So far so good. It's very hot in my living room this week and I've had none of the stuttering I experienced with the media playback using the Pi with only a small CPU heat sink. A q was posted about access to ports: all the plug ports and the SD slot are easily accessible. But the access to the multipin header is a narrow slot, probably only usable with a ribbon cable. My case arrived with a copper spacer for the large processor chip - metal to metal heat transfer instead of a silicone spacer. To use this you have to have some thermal grease, it's not included. A small but key upgrade. A very strong value for the price. Solidly built and fits together accurately.

Bought this case as a means to house a Pi4 for my 3d printer, and I went with this one since the entire case allows for passive cooling VS needing a fan. Pros: Simple, robust design. Hefty, so it has plenty of mass and won't get knocked around easily. This also means there's a lot of material and surface area to help dissipate heat. Cons: The biggest drawback I've found for this case is the inability to remove the micro SD card without using needle nosed pliers. The opening is too narrow to get a grip unless you have half-inch long nails. This is the reason for a 4-star vs 5. Another minor con is a lack of any mounting solutions. Simple tabs on the corners or cheap brackets to clamp over the case would be nice, but not so much a 'con' as it's just a slight inconvenience. This is a great Pi case and I recommend it, just be aware of its limitations so that you know it will work for your use-case.

The case is perfect. It is nice and heavy, solid aluminum and finned for heat dissipation. The thermal pads that it comes with do a great job of transferring heat from the chips to the case. Even though the board does attach to the case with screws (it just sandwiches in between the two halves) it is a perfect fit. No rattles at all. It even comes with a spare set of thermal pads if you ever needed to open the case. I really like the fact that I don't need a fan. I run Home Assistant and it never gets hot enough to need the fan with the thick aluminum.

Great design- case connects to chips and keeps Pi way cooler than any other design I have tried and with no moving parts. Solid aluminum cast.

Nice simple and clean looking case. Keeps the Pi cool.