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Akasa have released their Gem Pro, an aluminum case designed to passively cool the Raspberry Pi 4, and it has a “striking” design about it.
Measuring 3.7 x 2.9 x 1.4 inches, the case is significantly larger than the Raspberry Pi 4 as the mass of the case is used as a heatsink which will draw the heat from the CPU and USB chips via two aluminum blocks. The “L” shaped block for the CPU is of particular interest as it will also partially cover the PMIC (Power Management Integrated Circuit) which is an area that most cases do not ordinarily cool.
(Image credit: Akasa)
On the sides of the case are the usual cutouts for ports, including a cutout for the GPIO which is surprisingly low and will restrict the use of HATs, a breakout board will be needed to connect any components or HATs to the GPIO. The features for this case also list easy access connectors for the camera and display ports, and it looks as though they are routed through a gap just above the microSD card slot. This isn’t an issue for display connections, but the camera ribbon cable will have to be routed around the “L” shaped aluminum block across the length of the board, leaving little slack to frame your photos.
Ultimately a case such as this is all about how effectively it can cool the Raspberry Pi 4, and we will learn more about that once we get one in for review. The case is listed for sale at CPC a UK electronics reseller for £30, approximately $40.
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Les Pounder is an associate editor at Tom's Hardware. He is a creative technologist and for seven years has created projects to educate and inspire minds both young and old. He has worked with the Raspberry Pi Foundation to write and deliver their teacher training program "Picademy".
