A most brilliant part of my job is reading through all the lovely comments posted on these blogs every day. I remember clearly that one of the common questions when we announced Raspberry Pi 5 was “Will there be a Raspberry Pi 500?”
Obviously this question was on Christopher Barnatt’s (of Explaining Computers) mind too, because he’s only gone and built his own Raspberry Pi 500.
The build
Christopher’s Pi 500 comprises a Raspberry Pi 5, fitted with our Active Cooler, inside a custom enclosure featuring a full-size HDMI connector. The design allows for the Raspberry Pi to be removed easily from the custom supports holding it in place.
A generic chiclet keyboard was sacrificed for the mission, with Christopher taking it apart so he could build the rest of the case around it. He hand-cut the case from ABS plastic sheets, which are commonly used in computer keyboard components and LEGO bricks, then sanded it by hand to make it look like one continuous piece of plastic. Ventilation holes in the back panel of the case help to keep the hardware cool inside.
Christopher explains the challenges around all the extenders needed to connect the Raspberry Pi 5 to the keyboard, mouse, monitor, and so on at this point in the build video.
If the finished design looks familiar, it’s probably because Christopher chose the paint colour especially to resemble the 1987 Amiga 500.
Make your own Raspberry Pi 500 (sort of)
If you can’t wait for us to release Raspberry Pi 500 either, you’ll be glad that Christopher has included links to all the materials he used in this build in the project video description. He also warns that taking apart the keyboard he chose was very difficult, so take extra care there.
Explaining Computers on Raspberry Pi 5
Christopher also created some excellent content around the launch of Raspberry Pi 5. You can watch his initial review of our newest board here, and find the cooling tests he conducted here.
