The MagPi - February 2020

C

reated as a means of

drawing attention

away from Raspberry

Pi 4 when used as part of a

home theatre installation, the

Flirc combines a matte-finish

silver aluminium housing with

soft-touch black plastic to the

top and underside. It’s an understated

design, but one which does compromise

efficacy: the plastic lid covers much of the surface

area of the aluminium case, reducing its ability to

bleed off heat.

The case itself makes contact with Raspberry

Pi 4’s system-on-chip (SoC) via a single hollow

pillar and a bundled thermal interface material

pad. Installation is simple, requiring only two

protective sheets to be removed from the pad, and

four screws to hold the case together.

For those not interested in attractive home

theatre setups, though, the Flirc comes with a

major drawback: it offers no ready access to the

GPIO, CSI, or DSI headers, though all external

ports are easily reached.

The plastic lid prevents the Flirc from cooling

entirely efficiently, while the hollow pillar can be

seen as a cooler spot to the centre-left.

Even with the lid in place, the Flirc case easily

cools Raspberry Pi 4 during the synthetic

workload run.

Designed to blend in with home theatre products,

the Flirc case is undeniably attractive

Flirc magpi.cc/flirc £16 / $16

Flirc Raspberry Pi 4 Case

Offers no ready access

to the GPIO, CSI, or

DSI headers

DIMENSIONS:

93.7×66×26.5 mm

MATERIAL:

Aluminium

WEIGHT (INC. ONE

RASPBERRY PI 4):

134 g

NUMBER

OF BOARDS

SUPPORTED:

1

COOLING

METHOD:

Passive heatsink

(SoC only)

EXTRAS:

Thermal transfer

material pad

SPECS

Verdict

Unless you need

the GPIO, CSI, or

DSI headers, the

Flirc’s few design

flaws are unlikely

to matter: the case

keeps Raspberry

Pi 4 well clear

of its thermal

throttle point.

8 /10

CPU Temperature CPU Clock CPU Clock (Moving Average)

Frequency

(MHz)

850

1100

1350

1600

Temperature

(Degrees Celsius)

45

55

65

75

85

Time (Seconds)

200 400 600 800

Thermal imaging Thermal load

68 magpi.cc Raspberry Pi thermal case group test

REVIEW