From MicroSD to SSD: Ended up with a New Raspberry Pi 4 Case

Recently, my colleague and I got talking about creating smart homes with Raspberry Pi 4 and Home Assistant. You know how it is — tech lovers like comparing gadgets. Turns out, both of us were relying on microSD cards for our Raspberry Pi 4 storage. Not the best choice, though, because these cards aren’t very durable. SSDs are better for performance and lasting longer.

We both wanted to make the switch to SSDs, but the Raspberry Pi 4 doesn’t naturally support them. The newer Raspberry Pi 5 does with the introduced PCI Express, but it’s not completely supported by Home Assistant yet. Plus, getting a new Raspberry Pi 5 means spending more money.

So, instead of ditching my perfectly good Raspberry Pi 4, I thought about using a USB to SATA cable or getting a cool case to turn my Raspberry Pi into a fancy NAS station. Also, my current Raspberry Pi only had passive cooling, and I wanted the option to add an active one in case when I need more power.

I decided not to go with the USB to SATA adapter because I didn’t like the idea of having cables hanging from my Raspberry Pi. I preferred a neat and tidy look, so choosing a case was the perfect solution for me — no messy cables, just a clean and organized setup.

I narrowed down my choices to three options after a couple of hours of research:

1. Argon ONE M.2 Aluminum Case

2. Pironman Mini PC Case

3. GeeekPi Mini Tower NAS Kit

All three choices had good things like active cooling and SSD support, but I didn’t pick the Argon ONE mainly because the other two looked better to me. The Pironman seemed cool, but I saw videos that made it look a bit hard to put together, and some people said it might not be made very well.

Finally, I went for the GeeekPi Mini Tower NAS Kit. It was easy to set up, had a good price, and came with a better power supply than the original Raspberry one to support the SSD.

After a week, I got the case, and I was super happy with my choice. Setting it up was a breeze, and it looked just like the pictures online. No complaints at all.

The only tricky part was making it work with Home Assistant OS since it’s originally made for Raspberry OS. But, overall, it was a positive experience.

The GeeekPi case kept my Raspberry Pi cool, and the fan didn’t make any noise. Check out the thermal stats:

To sum it up, upgrading my Raspberry Pi 4 with the GeeekPi Mini Tower NAS Kit was a success. It was easy to set up, kept things cool, and gave my Raspberry Pi a computer-like vibe. I’m happy with my choice, but if you know of other cool solutions, drop them in the comments. The world of Raspberry Pi upgrades is big, and I’m all ears for more ideas.

This post contains affiliate links, which means I may receive a small commission, at no cost to you, if you make a purchase through a link.

Below are the links to the products mentioned in the article:

1. Raspberry Pi 4 Model B (8 GB RAM): https://amzn.to/4bds6Av
2. Raspberry Pi 5 (8GB RAM): https://amzn.to/3OisX9r
3. USB 3.0 to SATA adapter: https://amzn.to/3Sh48fb
4. Argon ONE M.2 Aluminum Case: https://amzn.to/3vLZBd0
5. Pironman Mini PC Case: https://amzn.to/3u6uyIB
6. GeeekPi Mini Tower NAS Kit: https://amzn.to/42bPZ7L
7. WD 500GB WD Blue SA510 SATA SSD: https://amzn.to/3Sxgbq8