Is A Case necessary?

I'm using the pi as a 'seedbox', but haven't used it for an extended time yet (which is its purpose) because I've read it might run hot and I don't want it to leave marks on the table.

Is there any such risk, or can I leave it running without any danger?


Thanks in advance,
Nan

Their seems to be a pervasive talk about the PI running hot and in most situations I have not found that to be true, So do not worry about running it in a case, I have one running in a carved out Plano box with no holes but for the connectors and it does not run hot.

You might want to place it on something non-metallic just so it does not scratch or table or desk. But it should never get hot enough to burn anything unless you overclock it, and override the safety settings that could void your warranty. Normally it should shut down if the cpu (on top of board) gets up to 85 degrees C (less than boiling). I never see more than about half that unless running quake3 where it may get into the low 50's C. But it is winter here and I have not overclocked much yet.

I have one in a clear acrylic Adafruit case and it only runs a few degrees warmer when enclosed (less if top panel removed).

using official stock acrylic case here in India. ambient temperature where i stay ranges between 23-35 Celsius over the year.

the system has now clocked uptime of two months without issues, and heavy network data copy on wired interface.

I use an Adafruit case and Pibow I have purposely set my pi next to a heater vent for more than 8 hours with each case it measured over 80f on a DHT22 sensor internal temp has not gone past 50c and it just keeps on running. Don't recommend it but it doesn't even make a difference.

I have version 1.0 that runs really hot, but it is nowhere near burning anything. It was in a wooden box and left no marks at all. I would set it on something so the protruding pins do not scratch your table as said above. You could try some small self adhesive rubber feet. It is not going to catch on fire. Mine has been running for months just fine!

Thank you everybody, I think I'll go ahead and just use it.

I've mounted my rev 1.0 RasPi vertically in an open frame so that there's air flow on both sides of the LAN9512 chip. That keeps it from getting hot. When I had my RasPi lying on an anti-static bag, the back of the board got quite warm. The rev 2.0 artwork does a better job of dissipating the heat from the LAN9512, and fixes the 1.0 bug that caused the LAN9512 to run hot on some boards.

I built a box out of leggo no issues no overheating no problem.

The original packaging was a cardboard box and there were a few people who used the box as a case.

I keep my raspberry pi in a case (a clear one) because it looks cool and prevents you from breaking it and have never had an issue with it.