Supplier: SB Components (via eBay)
Date of purchase: 4th January 2013
Price: £4.79 (inc VAT & postage)
Delivery: 9th January 2013

Rating: 9/10

I spotted this post on the Raspberry Pi Foundation forum and thought I’d take a look at this case from SB Components. They come in a variety of colours: black, clear, blue, pink, red, dark blue and yellow. I went for the dark blue as it looked the most stylish. Delivery was quick – it arrived this morning in a grey Royal Mail packet inside both a box and a plastic bag. Here’s the unboxing:

The case, once unwrapped, feels quite sturdy and the dark blue is an attractive colour. All the ports are labelled in the plastic on top of the case. Importantly, there is a generous cut-out for the GPIO pins as well as for the CSI and DSI connectors and JTAG headers. On the backside of the case, there are some generous cut-out strips for ventilation and two cross-shaped mounting points.

I took these photos after I’d prised the two halves apart. I was a little concerned about breaking the case while doing this but I needn’t have worried. Once opened, the quality of the case continues.

Now it was time to put the Pi in the case. I knew straight away that it was going to be a snug fit and I wasn’t wrong. In fact, as pictured, you can hold the Pi upside down without it falling out. This is an improvement over the ModMyPi case, for example, that requires you to screw it to the case.

Putting the top of the case on was a matter of lining the edges up. It took a little while to do this as it is an extremely snug fit.

The slot for the SD card is also a tight fit and for a while I didn’t think it would fit, but it did. In fact, because of the way the plastic goes all around the slot, the card is solidly supported.

I had read that some of the sockets were too small on earlier versions but that wasn’t a problem for me (see below – I also tested the HDMI cable and that was okay too). The only minor quibble I have is with the light pipes as the light tends to blend together. This is very minor though and the lights are different colours so it’s not a huge thing that needs fixing.

Overall, this is a fantastic case for the price. The build quality is top-notch and has very tight dimension tolerances which, in layman’s terms means that it doesn’t rattle when you shake. The accessibility to all the ports and pins on the Pi is outstanding. I have rated this case 9/10 simply because, as per usual, the SD card isn’t completely protected.