OverPi: Overpowered Raspberry Pi Media Center

The case I've designed provides ample room for the fan, Pi, ventilation and possible expansions. It has a clean, simple design with some aesthetic curves. The pi and all attached hardware (except the fan jumpers) will slide out on a small shelf for easy access. A few things to implement into the design:

• I'm considering adding an LED underneath the unit for a simple glow/status indicator
• Megadrive DP9 ports are still on the cards
• My insanity is telling me to add an X820 or X850 with a massive drive but I'm not sure yet. Doing so would change the case design substantially (which is fine)
• A push button will be added either to the top or front for power up/down
• Small rubber feet to the bottom.

Check out my first boot on Instagram here:

Testing my #Noctua fan powered by my #RaspberryPi GPIO! For 5v, this fan moves ALOT of air!
A post shared by Shin (@shinthedev) on Dec 19, 2017 at 4:01pm PST

The fan works perfectly on the 5v GPIO. It blows incredible cold and a ton of air for its size. I've no doubt that it'll keep the OverPi frigidly cold! This fan actually has PWM too, but I don't think I'll bother with it.

I love the Raspberry Pi, and while the it's for the best that they are, the HDMI, Audio and Power ports being on the side make them difficult to work with and integrate into a case. A lot of the time, projects can become a bit like spaghetti with cables coming out both sides which is something I absolutely want to avoid in the OverPi.
To solve this, I'm rerouting the HDMI and USB connector to the back of the case. Additionally, I will be redirecting the SD card there too.

For the HDMI, I purchased this interesting HDMI cable (I contacted them for a custom A-3 to A-Female cable). I'm excited to try it as it seems like an ideal, low-profile solution, way better than soldering a new connection or something.

For the USB connector, I purchased this Micro-USB breakout board. It will be very simple and cheap to connect to the Pi's GPIO 5v and ground ports. I am investigating adding some spike to this solution though, as it can be somewhat risky to power via the GPIO without it.
Finally, I purchased this interesting gadget on eBay for rerouting the SD card slot. I chose a 25cm cable, which is way too long, but I should be able to shorted it. Alternatively, I think there will be enough room in the case to tuck the excess away. I am planning to lose the plastic casing and just mount the slot itself in the case myself.

That's it for this update. I'm currently working on my case design, which I should be able to share soon.

This just in: I've found a 5v version of the Noctua fan I was going to use! Sure, lower voltage means lower RPM but this will be more than enough, and it's the one I wanted which is the most important thing in a dumb project like this, right?

Thanks to Quiet PC USA for being the only place I could find this item and for reducing the shipping cost by half for me!

I'm pretty set on that Noctua fan because of its great size, power and reviews (especially when it comes to silence). Unfortunately, it's a 12v fan, and the pi only supplies 5v. I'm considering either using a different fan (boo) or coming up with a solution to power the media center on a 12v power supply. More on this story as it develops.