Saka, a Modern Stylish Raspberry Pi 5 Case for Desktop Or Gaming Use

I'm open to selling a commercial license for use in your builds.  Feel free to reach out to me.

The Story of the "Saka"

The Development

I started out this design trying to build a simple case for a friend's Batocera that I set up.  I eventually went through three iterations.  The first was a simple hack job of an earlier case (which he's currently running). 

This, as you might could tell, was not good enough.

I had grand plans for the second case.  Stamped stainless panels, industrial pushbuttons, the works.  As I went down that road I realized just how much needed to be done and as a new father I simply couldn't justify the time spent.  Not to mention the price of the BOM was climbing like crazy, so I had to shelve it.

I sat and thunk on it quite a bit.  What did I want to do exactly?  I wanted to fit the active cooler, I wanted to create something that he'd be proud to display on his entertainment center, and I wanted to incorporate a neat trick or two.  I also wanted it to be easy to assemble.

I went back to the drawing board and this is what I came up with. 

The Gimmicks

• A carriage for the Pi to slide it in without visible screws

• The Pi itself is canted at an angle to give a non-rectangular shape.

• It uses a TTP223 Capacitive Touch sensor for its power button.

The construction is simple.  The outer shell is four pieces: The top, bottom, grill, and surround.  It's mostly snapped together with the exception of a single M2.5 countersunk plastic tapping screw at the bottom.  A #2 screw does the job too, if you're like me - an ANSI chauvinist.  The TTP223 clips in on the underside of the top cape, but the grill could easily be modified to add a traditional power button.

My Favorite Bit

The Top and bottom can be printed in different colors (and should be, dangit).  This will give a great little two-tone effect.

The Name

The Saka were an Indo-Scythian nomad tribe that headed east into the Caspian area.  The flowing wings made me think of fluttering banners and horseback archers.  Plus, it's a lot punchier than "Sarmatian".

Skills You Need

• Soldering OR

• Pushing in those little solderless pins

Printing

I would suggest PETG for the bottom piece.  You can get away with PLA for everything else.  Printing at a .20mm layer height creates fine results, as you can see.  I did have one problem though - an ugly line appears on the sides of the bottom piece.  I think it's where the infill begins and ends, as I've moved the z seam countless times and it shows up where I put it, in addition to these ugly lines.  My machine has a distinct oozing problem that I haven't been able to cure (Revo V6 hot end) and I'm hoping that my new Core One doesn't have the same issue.

Hardware

You'll need:

• One (1x) M2.5x10 or longer countersunk plastic thread-forming screw

  • A #2 of similar length and features does fine

• One TTP223 modified in accordance the provided instructions

  • You'll need to solder it to do it yourself

• One set of two (2) header pins to solder onto the J2 power switch jumper

To Be Added

• Cable Assembly Instructions and Lengths

• Better cable management

• Better touch sensor mounting

Updates

• 4/27/2026 - Added some assembly diagrams and instructions

Support my work

I'll update this later if there's any interest.  Believe me, I'd love nothing more than to design stuff all day, so I won't say no to money.