Maker community takes over where Fractal Design stopped and produces miniature North case for Raspberry Pi users

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If they don't sell us one, we'll make our own.

A 3D printed Raspberry Pi case inspired by the Fractal Design North
(Image credit: Nagrom on Printables)

During Computex 2024, PC case maker Fractal Design showed off a miniature North case for the Raspberry Pi, something many would buy in a heartbeat. The company doesn’t have any plans to produce the case. Please leave it to the maker community to fulfill that desire, though. The miniaturized version of the Fractal Design North case, scaled down to house a Raspberry Pi, has inspired some case designs for the SBC that you can just 3D print at home.

I wrote then that the “Fractal Design North “mini-me” presents the same sleek, modern looks as its big brother.” The Fractal Design North case was one of the best PC cases in 2024, and the miniaturized version the team brought to stream MP3s maintained that sleek look.

When Fractal Design failed to announce any plans to mass-produce the case for the Raspberry Pi community, I thought maybe that was it. I should have known better, though, because the maker community generally loves to design for themselves what the “big boys” won’t sell us.

Jeff Geerling has spotted at least two 3D-printed cases inspired by that Fractal Design North mini-me. One of the designs is already available for you to print yourself, and the other will be soon (hopefully).

You can find STL files and assembly instructions for Nagrom’s Fractal Baby North at Printables. It looks like a pretty easy build.

Depending on whether you have the Raspberry Pi 3, 4, or 5, you need to print the appropriate files in your desired colors. Nagrom included I/O panels matching all three Raspberry Pi models and separate files for the wood inserts on the front of the case.

(Image credit: Nagron on Printables)

The assembly looks pretty straightforward without any gluing required. You screw the pieces together. All the appropriate holes are there but don’t appear to be threaded. That’s fine because threading such small holes can test your 3D printer’s calibration.

If Fractal Design never brings the North Raspberry Pi case to market, at least you’ve got alternatives to make your own, as long as you have access to a 3D printer.

Jeff Butts
Jeff Butts
Contributing Writer

Jeff Butts has been covering tech news for more than a decade, and his IT experience predates the internet. Yes, he remembers when 9600 baud was “fast.” He especially enjoys covering DIY and Maker topics, along with anything on the bleeding edge of technology.

2 Comments Comment from the forums
  • SonoraTechnical
    Needs to be able to fit a NVMe drive underneath via one of the 3rd party adapters available out there..
    Reply
  • AlexBlack1982
    This article is wrong. The mod community didn't make up their own North cases for the Pi. Fractal released the files for the cases publicly via Reddit. Jeff Geerling even commented on the post thanking Fractal for making the files public so that the community can make their own cases.
    Reply