Heat sink case cools off a overclocked Raspberry Pi

The Razzmatazz, heat sink case for the Raspberry Pi 2. Overclocking a Raspberry Pi 2 allows you to get the most out of the hardware, with performance boots of at least 50%, however it steadily increases the internal chipset temperature. The new Razzmatazz case is a heat sink that keeps the Raspberry Pi 2 internal temperatures at optimal levels, even when overclocking at turbo levels.  (via razzmatazz.io)

A recent Kickstarter campaign is out to help Raspberry Pi uses get the most out of their Raspberry Pi 2 with an aluminium hard case. This new case is meant to act as a heat sink to ensure that the CPU and chipset temperatures are at optimal levels, especially when overclocking – thusly avoiding overheating and damaging the life span of the Raspberry Pi 2 in the long run. Although this case failed to win over the crowd funding set, I liked the idea... so, I figure I would talk a bit about it.

They are calling it the Razzmatazz, and it is built from a solid piece of aluminium to make it sturdy and effective as a heat sink. Plus, I suppose the one-piece aluminium construction just makes it cool and sleek... and potentially a good weapon in your next LARPing expedition?

This design is backed by a corporate sponsorship with MorpheusAV which has helped them get their design ready for productions, but they need backers to help them manufacture their first cases and get them to the market. They wanted to raise $20,000 by March 19, 2016. But they only made it to $6622. I guess the days where every Raspberry Pi project is a success, is over.

The aluminium case for your Raspberry Pi 2 ran for $39 on their Kickstarter page (here https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1685497915/razzmatazz-the-ultimate-home-for-the-raspberry-pi). It was expected to retail for $49.99, and the shipments are expected to ship by June 2016. $99 will get you a Raspberry Pi 2 board with the Razzmatazz Case, and a Razzmatazz SD card with several pre-loaded operating systems. The SD card can also allow your Razzmatazz to overclock with built-in boot options. The prices are pretty much the same or cheaper than what most folks spend on an iPhone case.

Overclocking is the only way to get the absolute maximum out of your Raspberry Pi board and the raspi-config comes with 5 different overclock pre-sets. Your overclocking level will depend on your power source and how well you can maintain the temperature of your Pi, which is why the Razzmatazz isn’t such a bad idea if you overclock. The result of overclocking is what Raspberry Pi is calling “turbo-mode” which can get you a 55% faster memory, 52% faster integer, and 64% faster floating point according to Raspberry Pi’s recent tests.

I think the concept is cool to try on your own, at least.

Some other stats: the Razzmatazz could allow you to get the most power out of the Raspberry Pi 2 hardware without as much risk of damaging the hardware since their tests demonstrate that an overclocked Raspberry Pi 2 using the Razzmatazz case can operate between 35.0° C to 39.0° C. If your Raspberry Pi 2 gets above 85.0° C, the lifetime of your Raspberry Pi will begin to decrease. In MorpheusAV’s tests, the overclocked Raspberry Pi 2 reached 69.3° C without their heat sink case. This still isn’t above Raspberry Pi’s reported recommended maximums for the internal chipset temperature, but their tests only ran 20 minutes long with temperatures steadily increasing. If you plan to run your Raspberry Pi 2 overclocked for more than 20-30 minutes, you should probably invest in a cooling solution., or have more Pi boards ready for when your current one burns out.

I prefer my Raspberry Pi case.... for the potential mostly...

Have a story tip? Message me at:

http://twitter.com/Cabe_Atwell