Earlier today, YouTuber Michael Klements uploaded a detailed build log showing off his custom water-cooled Raspberry Pi 5 The case, including split loops and acrylic side panels, has a footprint that rivals the best retail Pi 5 cases. This was done using a lot of retail hardware, including an existing (overkill) Pi 5 open loop cooler and a lot of custom parts, including 3D printing and laser cutting.
original water cooling kit The most impactful, unchanged part of the Raspberry Pi 5 design we reviewed is the original copper heatsink base. Beyond that, the fan and reservoir have been rebuilt and reprinted into a compact, one-piece design that still includes a tank that can be opened to fill or empty the combined reservoir and pump.
The resulting design, like the original Raspberry Pi 5, fits perfectly in one-handed holding and still retains all the core cooling features one would expect from a liquid-cooled device, albeit in a larger form factor than anyone would consider practical. Much smaller. After all, Pi 5 cases weren’t particularly hot or noisy before this, and we weren’t running 14th gen in those cases, you know? Practical or not, the final “Klements” Raspberry Pi 5 case design is excellent and looks as good as, if not better than, the best retail Pi 5 cases.
If I had to make a criticism, it would be that based on the stated design intent, the visible Raspberry Pi logo on the combined heatsink and pump (it’s a cutout) is more emphasized by the use of a high-contrast color for the coolant. With or without vibrant coolant, a single LED will do the trick. The final design is shown in white coolant, which is visible without more available lighting (ambient or otherwise) but is still dark. Alternatively, a UV reactive coolant can be used, which requires the loop to be refilled more frequently to keep it glowing.
Considering how well this project met its stated goals, and how stylish the final build and its Raspberry Pi symbol still look, I don’t want to exaggerate my criticism or point out small ways in which the design could have been iterated upon, based on stated intent. The entire design process, as described in the original video Companion blog post with benchmarks, Showcasing one of the best and hardest working Raspberry Pi shell We’ve met before.