I have a Fractal Design case and I have a Raspberry Pi. I love them both. I was therefore flummoxed when I discovered people have been making mini versions of the Fractal Design North case for their Raspberry Pi without me knowing about it. Not rubbish little matchbox things reminiscent of a kindergarten project, either, but glorious, officially Fractal-designed mini luxury PC cases.
The mini cases, called North Pi, look fantastic when built. Take this one made by Reddit user manky_tw, a dinky little thing with a wood-panelled front, windowed side-panel, vented rear, and part-open top for port plugging. It's a handsome little rig, with all the class of a luxury ATX machine, but [[link]] pocket-sized.
This isn't just a one-off project [[link]] by a single Reddit user, either. No, this thing's got Fractal's proverbial stamp on it, and [[link]] the company has an instruction manual (PDF warning) for making one.
The manual seems pretty easy to understand and follow, too. There's little actual step-by-step instructing—it's more, "This part is 3D printed from this file name and fits into the chassis here."
My North Pi from r/FractalDesign
And if you ask me, now's a pretty good time to undertake such a project with the latest Raspberry SBC to grace the consumer market, the Raspberry Pi 5. This is because, as I argued in my Raspberry Pi 5 review for a different site, in my opinion the Pi 5 is the first Raspberry Pi that can serve as a veritable desktop PC for day-to-day use. (My 8 GB version, at least, can certainly serve as one.)
Using a 1080p monitor, my Pi 5 has no trouble performing a standard slew of day-to-day tasks such as browsing with multiple tabs open, watching videos (even 4K ones, if they're downloaded), and text editing. And by "no trouble" I mean with no lag at all.
So, if you've got a 3D printer handy, a North Pi would make a wonderfully fitting home for your Raspberry Pi 5. Now I just have to cross my fingers that Fractal makes a wider case that can fit a Pi 5 donning an NVMe base and SSD.