Exciting news on the crowdfunding front today. The creators of Pi Top, the first Raspberry Pi laptop, have launched a new campaign to fund their desktop offering, the Pi-TopCEED.

The Pi-TopCEED offers you a Pi-based workstation with a 13.3″ HD LCD screen surrounded by a case that has an integrated stand. You then simply plug in a keyboard and mouse and away you go. The campaign offers the whole workstation, including a Raspberry Pi 2, for $99 plus shipping (which is around $19). Also available is a Pi-less option for $70. That’s $70 for a 13.3″ HD screen, case and stand. Both of these pledge levels are outstanding, in my opinion, and make a pretty portable HD screen really affordable.

Also included in the pledge level that includes the Pi is an SD card pre-loaded with pi-topOS which seems, from screenshots and videos, to be a very robust, user-friendly OS. Included in the OS is access to CEEDuniverse, which is an online multiplayer game that seeks to enhance learning through play. You also gain access to the Pi Top community which is beginning to establish itself following the successful shipping of the laptop products.

Estimated delivery for the CEED is April next year which I would say is very ambitious – be aware most crowdfunding campaigns deliver late. At least they’re not promising delivery before Christmas! 😉

I’ve already chosen to back the campaign and I hope you’ll give it strong consideration. It’s got the verbal backing of Eben Upton, CEO of Raspberry Pi Trading, so clearly the product prototypes have been impressive.

I wish the team, led by Jesse and Ryan, all the very best for the campaign.

So, if you are interested, head over to the IndieGoGo campaign page to review pledge levels and get more details.

Here’s the announcement video for the campaign: