Review on C4Labs Cloudlet CASE: Cluster Case For Raspberry Pi And Other Single Board Computers-Mist by Charlie Dillon

With the advent of the 4GB and 8GB Raspberry Pis and their I/O and USB expansions, I decided to finally create an energy efficient home lab with room for personal improvement to build. I'm glad I chose this as an essential build component. What I used: * Black and Green Cloudlet Case * 6 Pi 4 with PoE connectors * 2 x SATA SSD * Ubiquiti ES-8-150W Switch * Ubiquiti ER-X Router * Mikrotik Dual Radio Hotspot. Pros: * Quarter-inch thick acrylic is tough and shatterproof * Modular blades can easily hold Raspberry Pi 4 and SATA SSDs * You can see the reflections of the Pi's LEDs in the acrylic, making it even more whimsical * The green leaves react to UV radiation, so a blue LED or light makes them shine softly * Fan -quiet-. I can barely hear this thing sitting next to all four fans! * There is enough room under the blades for a small router, access point, or power cable for the Pi if you don't want PoE. Cons: * The blades are a bit brittle due to their thin profile and flexible parts. tend to click if you're not careful. Luckily, c4labs supplies spare parts with the kit! * The power connections on the fans are on the long side. Since I'm using a Power over Ethernet board on my Pis, the result puts pressure on the next blade as I mount it into the case. However, these are standard Dupont connectors, so I see no other way to fix this than replacing them with lower profile (and probably more expensive) connectors. Some things I have the tools and experience to fix and some I don't. Take this into account when planning your build. The unexpected: * The cloudlet case screws perfectly onto the Ubiquiti ES-8-150W's wall mounts and powers all that crap. I just added large washers to prevent the acrylic from cracking. For the two rear mounting holes, I used standard brass bolts to keep the cloudlet case flat on the switch. This made the build much cleaner and more portable. Conclusion: Thanks to C4Labs, my tiny home laboratory ("microrack") has become portable, compact and sufficient for my needs. I am very glad that they make such a product. If I ever want to expand my home lab for more computers, it will be easy to hook up another one to a new switch and add more Pis!