The Raspberry Pi 5 is the most powerful model of this development board/mini PC to date, and it's the first one that really needs a refrigeration system to function correctly. In general, this is enough even with a passive heat sinkbut logically nothing prevents us from using more advanced systems. And that's what YouTuber Michael Klements did, who created a personalized case with liquid cooling and everything.
The latest Raspberry Pi 5 model features a quad-core ARM Cortex A76 processor that operates at a frequency of 2.4 GHz and with a TDP of 12 W is the first to require a cooling system. There is an official model that combines a passive heat sink with a blower-type fan, and from experience we can tell you that it is more than enough to keep the device at a good temperature. But obviously everything can be improved.
A Raspberry Pi 5 case with integrated liquid cooling
It's the YouTuber Michael Klements who uploaded a detailed video in which he shows the personalized case for Raspberry Pi 5 that he created using 3D printing, but what is curious is not the case itself -same but the fact that he also designed an integrated liquid cooling system. It includes an open and rechargeable circuit and an acrylic panel to see the interior, and the truth is that, at first glance, it seems even better than the commercial boxes that can be bought in stores.
Klements used some store-bought parts, such as the open-loop coolant cooler for the Overkill Pi5, as well as many custom parts, including the reservoir he made using 3D printing and laser cutting. Perhaps the most important part is the original CPU block, but otherwise the fan and reservoir have been modified with a more compact all-in-one design that includes a place to fill or drain the coolant. The pump is also integrated into the tank to save space.
The final design, like the original Raspberry Pi 5, fits in the palm of your hand and retains all the basic cooling features you'd expect from a liquid-cooled device, but logically in an extremely small form factor.
The truth is that the cases and heatsinks that we can buy for the Raspberry Pi 5 already do their job quite well, although we must admit that the original heatsink is a bit noisy when the fan starts working. We have a Raspberry Pi 5 with this heatsink, and with the computer at rest, the CPU temperature is usually between 45 and 49ºC more or less, with the fan off and therefore working completely silently.
Now when you “try” on the device, for example by managing videos with Plex, the temperature rises and the fan starts to work. And of course, being a small blower type fan, the noise is quite annoying. The YouTuber claims that with its liquid cooling system and custom case, the Raspberry Pi 5 never exceeds 43ºC even under maximum load, and that the system is also quite quiet that you would have to put your ear closer to hear it.
