Canada's Dickson Industries has unveiled a pleasingly designed new case for the Raspberry Pi 4 model B. Spotted by FanlessTech, the new Dickson Industries SQ1 case takes the firm's established hair raising heatsink design and puts a pleasingly minimal matte finish case design around it.
According to Dickson Industries head honcho Dickson Chow, the SQ1 delivers "beautiful and clean design" for Raspberry Pi aficionados. Chow's vision was to design a fanless case, utilizing his established heatsink product, so it would fit "put right beside your headamp, DAC and media center." In short, this case is meant to be seen, but not be distracting. The microforged aluminum silent passive cooler seemingly pushing up through the roof of the case in Play-Doh Barber Shop style, or like the engine protrudes from a hotrod's hood, is a very strong signature style for this case.
We have put together a montage of views of the new SQ1. From these images you can clearly see the ports accessible to two sides, and the room for a thumb to insert / remove the microSD card. However, like the official Raspberry Pi 4 case, and many other designs available right now, this isn't one to choose if you want access to the GPIO / PoE pins / Camera CSI / Display DSI functionality of your Pi 4. For the stated market – being used as an entertainment box next to your living room TV - this might not be any problem.
As well as the case components you get with your purchase, Dickson Industries showcases all the other bits and pieces you will get – basically everything you need except for the Raspberry Pi 4 Model B. The sizable heatsink even comes with a self-adhesive thermal pad, so you don't need to root around in your drawer for an old tube of MX-4.
Dickson Industries provides a dedicated guidance page where you can see all the steps in required to put together an SQ1 Pi 4 system.
You might be wondering about the how well this case works, especially its fanless cooling. If so, you can check out the Leepspvideo YouTube channel for a review. In brief, it was found that the SQ1 and its microforged aluminum silent passive cooler helped the Pi 4 run at 37.5 degrees Celsius at idle, and under 60 degrees Celsius when taxed. The respective temperatures for an official Pi case were more like 52 / 85 degrees Celsius.
The Dickson Industries SQ1 is listed at CAD $49 (US $39) direct, with a lead time of 3-4 days.
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Meanwhile, if you are interested in grabbing a new case for your Raspberry Pi and pondering over alternatives, it is definitely worth a look at our recently updated Best Raspberry Pi Cases 2022 We consider 11 popular cases, with a number of actively and passively cooled models for comparison.
Mark Tyson is a news editor at Tom's Hardware. He enjoys covering the full breadth of PC tech; from business and semiconductor design to products approaching the edge of reason.
