C4Labs Zebra Bramble Fan Cluster Case – Raspberry Pi 5, 4B & 3B+ (6 Stack, Classic Wood)

I chose this Raspberry Pi rack primarily based on its visual appeal. All of the other Pi racks out there don’t really all that great. I was pleasantly surprised to find the wood variant was actual wood and not some pattern printed on to a piece of plastic.I was a little hesitant to purchase this as first because some of the existing reviews stated how difficult assembly was. I personally didn’t find assembly to be very difficult, but the tolerances are pretty tight on the nuts and on several occasions I had to lightly tap them in with a flathead and a small hammer to get them to seat into the plastic covers. That being said, I was able to assemble the whole thing in about an hour. The included instructions aren’t super helpful, but I was able to follow the YouTube assembly video without issue.Once assembled the entire case is very sturdy and looks good sitting on a wood desk or table.As of the time of writing this review I have two more Pi’s and 4 official RPi PoE hats coming and will update how the fit goes.

I didn't have much trouble assembling this case. The secret was letting gravity help me by placing everything down on the table, inserting screws with the threads pointing up, putting the larger part on top, then pick up everything while holding it together and screw in the screws.Once it was built it was nice looking and compact. I mounted a 2.5" drive underneath which added weight and stability.That said, I found myself tearing it apart a few times to replace sd cards or upgrade to pi4 boards. To do so I had to power down the whole stack, since you have to remove the faceplate (and cables to all ports) to get access. So, I switched to a rack mount solution which is uglier and much bigger, but more practical when there's a fair amount of change.This could be somewhat mitigated with sd card access extensions, which would mean you'd only have to tear down to replace boards.

This case is first and foremost very attractive. I purchased the black ice, 4 stack version and it was just what I was looking for - compact, sturdy, nice looking, and the fans are very quiet. The pieces are precisely cut and the instructions are well done - just make sure you pay attention to the pictures so that you get the orientation correct on the parts. It's easy to swap left and right sides or get pieces flipped around if you don't look closely.It took me a few tries to get the bottom piece on with all the nut plates. This could possibly have been a bit easier if the bottom section had been in two parts similar to the top section or if there was some other way to secure the nut plates in before assembling. The video makes this part look pretty straightforward and I'm sure it would have gone much quicker had I actually watched this first, but I actually had fun figuring out a way that worked for me.The only downsides I have encountered so far are: 1) There isn't much clearance for the fan plugs when the boards are inserted. It would have been nice if the fans had a more slimline connector. 2) It can sometimes be a struggle to slide the Pi's out of the case, but I'm not really concerned as I don't plan on removing them very often.I can't attest to the limited clearance for (the hot running) PoE hats, since i think an external multi-port USB charging brick may be a better option for an enclosed pi cluster anyway.All in all, I think this is a great cluster case for the money, and I do appreciate that there will be concessions considering how compact this is.

The case is really nice. Nice and solid. I've got a Pi 4 and two 3s in mine so far. Both types fit without issue. The instructions were hard to follow and not that useful. I looked up the video which seemed to have a slightly different model but from there I was able to figure out what had to be done and do it.A downside is that it makes it hard to access the GPIO pins and I'm not sure if it'd work with the ribbon cable ports (camera, display) without modification. Neither is an issue in my case. Haven't decided if I'm going to use the fans or not.

Had to use a dremel sander to allow the Pi 4 ports to fit standard mini-HDMI cable. Poorly machined parts did not allow easy snap-in of the black bridge supports, so had to file the heads down alot. All in all, took about 2hrs to assemble, which seems like alot more labor than I planned. I would not get a assembly like this again, because of the labor and troubleshooting needed to make things fit for a Pi 4. You will break of the tips in the attempt to get things to snap-in.

Perfect for my Pi stack. The fans are quick to cool the CPUs. Pi's are easy to take ind out of the stack. Assembly is challenging. Watch the video before you start. The video makes all the difference. If you get frustrated putting Ikea furniture together, this assembly is not for you!!! ;)