Geekworm X825-C8 (X825 V2.0) Metal Case+Power Switch+Cooling Fan Support X825 V2.0 2.5 inch SATA SSD/HDD Shield & Raspberry Pi 4 Model B & X735 Only(Not Include RPi4&X825 V2.0&X735&PSU&SSD&TF Card)

Yes, you need the 735 power board and the 835 SATA board to get this case fully and properly outfitted. Plus a drive, and a Pi. So yeah, you're starting to get into a cost territory near a compact PC I guess.Be sure to get the proper generation of case, power board, and storage board as everything is in pretty active development and constantly being improved (so, they are tinkerers just like us I guess).The case button is really satisfying.The SD card can be inserted but removal requires tweezers.The LEDs on the Pi and storage board were too bright for me so I put some tape to filter them down a bit.Solid metal case. Very nice quality feel. No issues with manufacturing or quality.

This is my favorite rpi case. I use it for my firewall and server. I use a serving one for a nas. I’ve had it on for several months, and I never hear the fan. I like the fact that it’s metal and well made.

This is a short review for two different models of this X825 case the C2 and C6. I am using the X735 power management cooling board and the X825 2.5" HDD USB3.1 expansion board with a 5400RPM 1TB Samsung HDD on both builds. You do not necessarily need to buy the 5V 4A $20 PSU from Geekworm. I have it and it works great btw. I had no issue powering these with the official raspberry pi power supply (5.1V 3A) or the CanaKit PSU (5.1V 3.5A). they are both high quality PSUs. I would get the 5V4A if you are overclocking and running things off the USB ports, WiFi, ext hdds etc.X825-C2 Case:This thing is great! Nice quiet, low energy, portable Plex server. My RPi4B is overclocked to 2.1GHz and the X735 keeps it under 60C at full load. 30-36C idle. Raspberry Pi 4Bs make really great Plex servers btw, move all the logs and transcoding dirs to tempfs. From my testing it can handle 1-2 transcodes pretty well. I use a FireTV 4K for local direct play. Works great highly recommended. Case is well ventilated keeping the HDD and pi4 cool. Setting up the scripts to get the X735 and momentary switch working was easy, assuming you are experienced with Linux. Only had to modify a few lines in the provided .sh file. There are even some forks floating around on github that are updated for the X735. This case originally arrived with a slightly warped lid that didn't fit quite right, fixed it with a rubber mallet lol. I'm not to picky, but for a $30 case there could be some better quality control. 2.4GHz wifi definitely does not work, have WiFi+ Bluetooth disabled anyway. 5GHz works just ok. For my use case I am using the Ethernet port.X825-C6 Case:I was so impressed I bought another, unfortunately it is entirely different than the one I ordered before. From the same listing! I was surprised to find out there is no mSD card slot cutout on the front of the case, like the previous X825-C2 case I bought. My fault though I should have read the listing again rather than assume it was the same case. The C6 has less holes for heat dispattion on the top and back of the case. Not really a huge deal. Case is slightly wider to accommodate the slightly protruding mSD card.Case also arrived with a significant warp on the left side. Nothing a little elbow grease can't fix. Although I still can't use this for it's intended purpose since I am swapping SD cards all the time: breaking, tinkering, hacking, overclocking, testing various Linux distros for RPi etc. I will probably swap it with the C2 case running my Plex server, since that mSD is rarely needed to be removed. I'm still annoyed that I have to disassemble the entire thing to get to the mSD card if it fails or I break something that requires an external fix.

Nice compact enclosure for a Pi 4, X825, X725 stack. Power and SSD indicator lights show through. Power button allows you to turn on, reset, or power off. Note that If you are using the X725 power unit, the fan included with this kit is redundant. With heat sinks placed on the Pi 4 and the X725 fan, I was able to overclock the Pi to 2.0 Mhz and still maintain a good CPU operating temperature, even under high loads. This box is a little pricey, but I'm happy with it!

After an hour of analysis and measuring, their design, or at least this specific run, is flawed.Here we go...To make this setup work with the X825 SATA Board and a Samsung 849Evo (a standard 9mm drive),you either need to shave 3mm off the face of your SSD (good luck with that) or you need a 3mm narrower/righter U-shaped USB connector (best option) to connect the SATA board and RPi. There is nothing subjective here, nobody else vcould make these parts and come to any other conclusion - so in my case, I guess they meant to ship a U-shaped USB that is 3mm narrower that what came with the SATA board, with this case (though this is not mentioned in the docs).Even without mounting the SATA board to the case bottom (not even trying to find the right standoffs yet) your RPi board will ride too high to match the holes in the case! Doh! As I said above, is that a 3mm more narrow U-Shaped USB connector would possibly allow the RPi to ride lower and match the holes in the case.What a mess this is. So close, but ZERO QA, so they wasted all this time on shipping and returns. The only solution is for me to find a 3mm narrower U-shaped connector and I am not going to do that. I could design and print my own case in that amount amount of time. I should spend $500 of my time to fix their case? I could design and print my own case in that amount amount of time but have no desire. This will open air which is fine. Not as pretty as my Argon RPi M.2 NAS case but it is functional for a RPI SATA setup.The vendor has nice ideas, and I appreciate the efforts, but there no follow-through on the product.PS: The x825 SATA board has worked for me from the start. I haven't tried all the features but it boots the SATA drive to the USB just fine, and integrates with the x735 v2.1 power hat as least basically.If you gamble buying this, at least you will know what to look for right out of the box. Please post any Q&A questions and solutions to help others!

I used this with the x735 board from geekworm to add a sata SSD to make a tiny NAS. Works great. Although if you run anything other than the rasbianOS, the fan will be pretty noisy. Looks like I need to learn a bit of python to write a script to control the fan