Raspberry Pi made a tiny $5 fan for cooling down your miniature computer

The Raspberry Pi Foundation has been on a roll this year with cool new hardware: there’s the upgraded Raspberry Pi 4; the new Raspberry Pi camera; and my personal favorite: the Raspberry Pi 400, a keyboard that’s actually a fully self-contained computer. Its latest product is a little more humble: a $5 fan and heatsink set that’s designed to keep your Raspberry Pi 4 cool, even for the most demanding overclockers.

Fan cases for a Raspberry Pi aren’t exactly new, but there’s something particularly charming to me about the official model, like the satisfying way it clips onto the existing “official” Raspberry Pi 4 case or the bespoke heatsink that’s perfectly sized for the mini-computer’s processor.

While the idea of adding a fan to a Raspberry Pi may seem a little ridiculous — after all, most people tend to look to cut down on computer fans, not add them — it speaks to the amount of power and performance that users can eke out of a Raspberry Pi these days. Consider the upgraded Raspberry Pi 4 from earlier this year, with a full 8GB of RAM that’s on par with any number of mainstream Windows and Apple laptops. The Raspberry Pi is increasingly a “real” computer, and the new fan module reflects that, even as it embraces the customizable design of the brand.

The Raspberry Pi 4 Case Fan, as the name suggests, is only compatible with the “official” Raspberry Pi 4 case designed by the Raspberry Pi Foundation, and it’s available for $5 from the various approved retailers linked on the company’s website.