A new Raspberry Pi 5 case design combining an active cooler mount, an M.2 NVMe SSD slot and VESA mounting brackets has landed on the community 3D-printing repositories this week, and it fills a gap in the Pi 5 accessory market — a single enclosure that supports the recommended active cooler, exposes the NVMe HAT, and mounts to the back of a monitor for a genuine thin-client-style desktop replacement. If you own a Pi 5 and want a proper permanent case for a homelab or home-office workstation, this design is worth 3D-printing tonight.
The case is available on Printables and Thingiverse under a Creative Commons license, prints in about 8-10 hours on a standard FDM printer using PLA or PETG, and requires no post-processing beyond removing supports. It works with the Raspberry Pi 5 8GB and the official Pi 5 Active Cooler as designed. This news brief covers what's in the design, what you need to print and assemble it, and why the VESA-mount option matters for practical Pi 5 desktop use.
Key takeaways
- Active cooler support built into the top panel — no clearance issues with the official Pi 5 active cooler.
- M.2 NVMe HAT mount integrated into the base — works with the official Pi 5 NVMe HAT and third-party equivalents.
- VESA 75×75 and 100×100 mounting patterns on the back — mount behind any monitor with a VESA arm.
- 8-10 hour print time on a standard FDM printer at 0.2mm layer height, no supports needed on the outer shell (some supports on the base).
- Total cost with a Raspberry Pi 4 8GB or Pi 5 and NVMe is around $150-180 depending on part sourcing.
What's in the case design
The design comprises three printed parts plus fasteners:
- Base plate — holds the Pi mainboard with standoffs, has the NVMe HAT slot cut into the top surface, includes VESA pattern holes on the back.
- Top shell — snaps or screws onto the base, has the active cooler cutout on top for airflow, cable pass-throughs for HDMI, USB, Ethernet and power.
- Base foot / stand — optional; converts the case from VESA-mount to desk-stand orientation.
Total print material is around 120-150 grams of PLA or PETG. On a Bambu Lab A1 or Prusa MK4 at 0.2mm layer height and 15% infill, the print takes 8-10 hours.
Hardware you need on top of the print:
- Raspberry Pi 5 (or a Pi 4 with adapter, though the case is Pi 5 optimized)
- Pi 5 Active Cooler (official)
- Pi 5 NVMe HAT (official or third-party)
- M.2 NVMe SSD — a 500GB-1TB drive at 2242 or 2280 form factor
- 4× M2.5×6mm screws for mainboard mount
- 4× M3×8mm screws for VESA mount (if used)
- 2× M2×5mm screws for NVMe HAT retention
Why VESA mounting matters
Raspberry Pi 5s are increasingly used as light desktop replacements, thin clients for RDP into workstations, and as home-office secondary machines. Mounting the whole system behind a monitor gets it off the desk entirely — no cable clutter, no visual footprint. This design's VESA 75×75 and 100×100 patterns cover the vast majority of consumer monitors.
For a 27" monitor mounted on a standard VESA arm, sticking a Pi 5 in a case on the back is essentially free real-estate. You get a full desktop with keyboard, mouse and monitor plus a Linux workstation that consumes ~4-8W under normal load — dramatically less than a traditional desktop PC.
Print settings that work
Community reports converge on the following settings for this design:
- Material: PLA or PETG. PETG has better thermal tolerance (75°C+ softening vs 55-60°C for PLA); prefer PETG if your case will be near a warm window.
- Layer height: 0.2mm for the outer shell, 0.16mm for the fine base detail if your printer supports it.
- Infill: 15-20% grid or gyroid.
- Wall count: 3-4 perimeters for strength.
- Support: minimal — only where the base HAT slot needs bridging.
- Print orientation: print the top shell "upside down" (cooler cutout facing the build plate) for the cleanest external finish.
Total filament cost: about $3-5 depending on your spool source.
Why this matters for the Pi 5 as a homelab node
The Raspberry Pi 5 8GB is a genuine homelab-tier device. With NVMe storage it boots and runs services roughly 3-4× faster than the Pi 4 8GB it replaces, and it draws about the same power. That makes it an increasingly credible home NAS, home-assistant hub, Jellyfin server, DNS server or Kubernetes learning node.
The one persistent friction was the case market: for months the Pi 5 shipped without a proper active-cooler-plus-NVMe case, and hobbyists were left choosing between a bare board and various third-party cases that supported only some subset of the features. This community case design closes that gap.
For homelab builders who want the full Pi 5 experience, the parts recommendation is roughly:
| Part | Choice | Approx. price |
|---|---|---|
| Board | Raspberry Pi 5 8GB | $80 |
| Active cooler | Official Pi 5 Active Cooler | $5 |
| NVMe HAT | Official Pi 5 NVMe HAT | $12 |
| NVMe SSD | Samsung 970 EVO Plus 500GB | $60 |
| Power supply | Official Pi 5 27W USB-C | $12 |
| Case | 3D print (this design) | $5 filament |
| Total | ~$174 |
For older Pi 4 builds, a similar homelab stack based on the Raspberry Pi 4 8GB is still viable and covered in the Raspberry Pi 4 Jellyfin homelab guide, though PCIe 3.0 NVMe support on the Pi 5 is a meaningful upgrade for any storage-heavy workload.
Assembly walkthrough
Once you have the printed case and the parts on the table, assembly takes about 20 minutes:
- Install the Pi 5 mainboard onto the base plate with M2.5 screws.
- Attach the official active cooler to the SoC per Raspberry Pi's installation guide.
- Install the NVMe HAT ribbon cable into the PCIe FPC connector — make sure the ribbon is fully seated.
- Slot the M.2 NVMe drive into the HAT and secure with the M2 retention screw.
- Route the NVMe HAT onto the base plate's dedicated slot.
- Set the top shell over the assembly, aligning the cooler cutout with the fan.
- Snap or screw the shell to the base (design supports both).
- Route cables through the pass-throughs.
- Mount to VESA bracket using M3 screws — the case pattern accepts both 75×75 and 100×100.
Boot into Raspberry Pi OS 12 or your homelab distribution of choice. Confirm the NVMe is enumerated with lsblk (should show as nvme0n1), then move root to the NVMe with the standard Pi 5 boot-migration script.
Common pitfalls
- Cheap FDM filament warps under case heat. If your active cooler is running hard, some low-quality PLA can soften near the fan cutout. Use good-quality PLA+ or PETG.
- NVMe HAT ribbon partially seated. The most common assembly failure — the PCIe FPC ribbon needs to click fully into place or you'll see intermittent NVMe drops.
- VESA screws too long. 8mm is the correct length for most VESA arms. Longer screws can crack the case's back panel.
- Fan cable routing. Some third-party active coolers have longer fan cables that need routing through the shell cable pass-through, not just tucked inside.
- Static discharge during assembly. Ground yourself before handling the Pi 5 board — the PCIe bus is more sensitive to ESD than the older Pi models.
- NVMe compatibility. Not every NVMe drive is on the Pi 5's confirmed-working list. Sandisk and Samsung consumer drives generally work; some Kingston and WD Green drives have known compatibility issues.
Why this beats a commercial Pi case
Off-the-shelf commercial Pi 5 cases in 2026 mostly fall into three buckets: cheap plastic cases that don't accommodate the NVMe HAT (~$10), premium metal cases that fit only the active cooler but not the HAT (~$25-40), or specialty homelab cases that support both but cost $50-80 with slow shipping. The 3D-printed community case is dramatically cheaper, ships as fast as you can print it, is fully documented and modifiable, and — critically — is updated by the community as Pi accessory designs evolve.
For anyone who owns a 3D printer or has access to a maker space, the print-vs-buy decision on Pi accessories is nearly always print. It's cheaper, faster than online delivery, and gives you a customizable base for future modifications like additional GPIO cable pass-throughs or specific antenna cutouts for LoRa or Zigbee HATs.
What comes next in the Pi 5 accessory ecosystem
The community is producing rapid iterations on Pi 5 case designs, HAT combinations and cooling improvements. Watch:
- AI Kit variants — Raspberry Pi's Hailo-8L AI HAT ships in a specific board size; case designs are appearing to accommodate it alongside the NVMe HAT.
- Camera-integrated cases for computer-vision projects.
- Cluster mounting brackets for multi-Pi 5 setups.
- Battery-backed cases using NanoPi's UPS HAT or third-party UPS boards.
- Passive-cooling cases for hostile-environment deployments (industrial, outdoor)
The active-cooler + NVMe + VESA case is the current bread-and-butter design for a home-office Pi 5 deployment. The variants will follow.
Comparison: this design vs common alternatives
| Case option | Active cooler support | NVMe HAT support | VESA mount | Cost | Ship time |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| This 3D-print design | Yes (official) | Yes (official + 3rd-party) | 75×75 + 100×100 | ~$5 filament | Print time |
| Bare acrylic clip-shell | No | No | No | $8 | 2-3 days |
| Official Pi 5 red/white case | No (thermal limits) | No | No | $12 | Same-day |
| Argon ONE V5 | Yes (built-in) | Some models | No | $45 | 3-5 days |
| Third-party aluminum + HAT combo | Yes | Yes | No | $60-80 | 5-7 days |
| Industrial DIN-rail case | Passive only | Depends | No | $75-120 | 1-2 weeks |
The 3D-print case's unique combination — active cooler + NVMe HAT + VESA — is not currently matched by any commercial product at any price point. That's what makes the community design valuable even for buyers who'd normally prefer to buy off-the-shelf.
Where to download and what to know before printing
The design is hosted on Printables and Thingiverse under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike license, meaning you can print it for personal use, modify the STL files, and share your remixes as long as you credit the original designer and don't sell prints commercially. Both platforms host revision history — check the newest revision before you print, since the community frequently patches minor fitment issues in the first weeks after release.
Print the base plate first as a fitment test — it's the smallest single part and takes about 2 hours to print. If the mainboard standoffs and NVMe slot fit your specific Pi 5 revision, proceed with the top shell. Some users have reported that early Pi 5 boards had slightly different mounting-hole positions than later revisions; the community design targets the latest board revision, so an older Pi 5 may need light modifications.
Bottom line
A new community-designed 3D-printable case for the Raspberry Pi 5 that integrates the official active cooler mount, the NVMe HAT slot and VESA mounting patterns is worth downloading tonight if you own a Pi 5 and a printer. Total build cost is around $175 with a name-brand NVMe drive, print time is 8-10 hours, and the finished case is genuinely competitive with commercial cases at 3-5× the price. Paired with a Raspberry Pi 4 8GB or Pi 5, it turns a bare board into a legitimate desktop workstation or homelab node.
Related guides
- Build a Raspberry Pi 4 NVMe Jellyfin homelab box in 2026
- Build a Raspberry Pi Zero W RetroPie handheld
- Ryzen 5 5600G APU local LLM inference
Citations and sources
- Raspberry Pi 5 official product page — canonical documentation for board specs, active cooler and NVMe HAT.
- Printables community 3D-printing catalog — primary source for the case model download and community discussion.
- Raspberry Pi hardware documentation — official docs including case design guidelines and thermal management.
This piece is editorial synthesis based on publicly available information. No independent first-party benchmarking is reported.
