Can I use Raspberry Pi 4 Enclosure for Raspberry Pi 5?

Recently, the Raspberry Foundation announced the release of the new Raspberry Pi 5. For many makers and enthusiasts, this may be a long awaited news. Despite the announcement, many may have questions about the compatibility of this product with its predecessor Raspberry Pi 4. In this article today, we would like to see if Raspberry Pi 4 enclosure can be used for Raspberry Pi 5. 

From the first glance both the boards look almost identical in terms of their dimensions. The Raspberry Pi 4 measures 85 mm x 56 mm, meanwhile Raspberry Pi 5 also measures 85 mm x 56 mm as well. Even though the arrangement of the main components placement such as the power input port, the micro HDMI ports, still remains the same. There are some significant changes that makes the Raspberry Pi 4 casing not compatible for Raspberry Pi 5. First is the RJ45 or the gigabyte ethernet port. On Raspberry Pi 4 the RJ45 port is located at rigth side (looking from the sideways), wheras on Raspberry 5, it is located on the left side. Basically their location has been swapped. 

Lets see what are the other changes that may made the Raspberry Pi 4 casing incompatible for Raspberry Pi 5. On Raspberry Pi 5 there are three different dedicated port namely fan port, UART port and RTC battery port which was not available on Raspberry Pi 4. The other reason why this will not fit is because the CPU placement are different. The casing that are designed specifically for Raspberry Pi 4 would not be able to dissipiate the heat from Raspberry Pi 5 efficiently due to this changes. Also at the right side of Raspberry Pi 4, used to have a display port, wheras on Raspberry Pi 5 it has been replaced with a PCIe port.  Apart from that, you may also noticed that there is no long audio jack available on Raspberry Pi 5. It has been replaced with 2 DSI/CSI port. 

The other part is the on/off button. In the previous Raspberry Pi version there was never a dedicated power button to turn on and off the Raspberry Pi but the Rasperry Pi 5 comes with one. The on-board power button enables the user to safely turn on and off the Raspberry Pi 5 without touching the power supply plug, just like a normal PC. Using the Raspberry Pi 4 casing would definately makes it inaccessible to this button. 

This are the few reason that may have made the Raspberry Pi 4 casing incompatible with Raspberry Pi 5. At the release of the Raspberry Pi 5, the only enclosure that is available is the official Raspberry Pi 5 enclosure. The official enclosure comes with 2 color options, Red and White, Black and Grey. Definitely this enclosure will give a perfect protection and be an elegant case. The official Raspberry Pi 5 enclosure integrates a variable-speed fan, which is powered and controlled from a dedicated port on the Raspberry Pi 5 board that will keep board cool. And the best part is that everything is snap and fit. There no screw or nut is needed to assemble it. 

Later it is expected more enclosure from the third party manufacturer such as Argon, would be available in the market. In the meantime, you may get the official Raspberry Pi 5 enclosure here.