The basic enclosure is a 92 mm x 92 mm x 26 mm 3D printed frame with a custom PCB top cover. One of the main goals was to collect all the major connectors on one side and make the micro SD slot easily accessible. To do this [NODE] created a set of custom PCB adaptors to route the USB-C and an HDMI port to the same side as the other USB ports, and move the micro SD slot to the bottom of the enclosure. A low profile adaptor was also designed to connect a mSATA SSD to one of the USB 3 ports, and there is space inside the enclosure for one or two cooling fans. Unlike previous version of the mini server, no hardware modifications are required on the Pi itself.
The only downside that we can see is that it doesn’t allow external access to the GPIO ports, but the entire project is open source specifically to allow people to make their own modifications.
[NODE] is a big fan of turning Raspberry Pis into custom computing devices, ranging from small terminal devices and pocket servers, to complete laptops.
Image Credit: Hackaday