Reddit mentions of Zebra Case - Raspberry Pi 3B+, 3, 2, 2B and B+ (Black Ice) Heat Sinks and Power Supply Included

I bought this one for my Pi2 to build the Emulation Station. It is super solid, came with heat sinks and looks great sitting under my TV.

Hi there, sorry for the late answer I was out for the week-end!

It will depends highly on what you expect him to do with it, and also your budget. But for the more standard it will be at least:

• The Pi
  
  
• A power cable: the "Alim" was a bad use of a french word for power cable
  
  
• A case or another (You can also build one with Legos! :D )
  
  
• a microSD card for the OS (no preference I took the first link I saw)
  
  Then there can be:
  
  
• A usb wifi adapter if the can't plug an ethernet cable
  
  
• An hdmi cable if you think he will use it on his TV or standard PC monitor.
  
  
• About the controller, if you think he will build a media center linked to his TV with the HDMI cable, some TVs allow the use of "CEC" controller, and so his TV command will be automatically compatible with the Pi. Else, he can use a classic keyboard and mouse set, or some mobile solution or even a snes usb controller if he wants to build a retrogaming console
  
  
• To finish if you have a large budget for your friend there is a lot of accessories you can find in the related articles of the Pi on Amazon, like a webcam, a motion sensor module
  
  
• You can also buy a complete bundle or a starter kit like this if you think he will have fun with all the electronic parts :)
  
  And I confirm, it can be a pretty cool gift for a friend to build :)

https://www.amazon.com/Zebra-Black-Case-Raspberry-C4labs/dp/B00M6G9YBM

Comes with heatsinks. $15.

This is my favorite case for the B+:

http://www.amazon.com/Zebra-Case-Raspberry-Black-Ice/dp/B00M6G9YBM/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1412200020&sr=8-1&keywords=raspberry+pi+b%2B+case

It's easy to build, looks great, and works great.

I've used and recommend this case for the standard model:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00ASJRMT0?psc=1

I'm in the US. This appears to be a similar case on the UK site:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Pibow-Ninja-discreet-layer-Raspberry/dp/B00LUYNYZ8/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1412200174&sr=8-4&keywords=raspberry+pi+b%2B+case

Purchase guide? You mean like a list of stuff you need?

You need the bare board, like this, not saying buy this one because the price is a bit high, but just the board like this will suffice. I don't see any reason to get the B+ that just came out, but if it's the same price as a B go ahead. Microcenter has Pi3 B on sale right now for $30. Arrow Electronic often has them for $25-$30 and free overnight shipping on orders over $25.


You need a power supply. A lot of people use phone chargers and that works, but they may not give you a real 2.5a which can lead to more heat and throttling under load. Not sure if that's a problem with Octoprint - I think the bottleneck that limits Octopring performance is elsewhere. I have used this brand of dedicated power supply on several Pi builds and never had a problem. 3a in higher than most chargers. But I normally get a version without the in-line power switch - which seems to be gone from Amazon.

And you need a MicroSD card. Class 10 is preferred, but by no means necessary. And the size of SD card you get will be the size of the library of files you can store on the Raspberry Pi. However, the interface for navigating through a large cache of files through the OctoPrint interface isn't so good, so therefor the size of the card you need may really only be 8GB or less as you'll probably delete files off the card once you print them. 8GB is a crap load of GCode files and scrolling down a list of 10 files is annoying, much less 1GB worth, much much less 6+ GB (on an 8GB card).

And you'll want a case, but you might just want to print one rather than buy one. Cases are really a preference thing. For buyable cases I love C4 Labs acrylic cases.

You might want some heat sinks. Every Pi case I've ever bought (like 7 at this point) came with heat sinks. Here's some over priced copper ones. But I have been running my Octopi for three weeks solid, printing 8-12 hours per day, and I don't have any heat sinks on it. I don't think Octoprint really needs heatsinks, but many people will tell you to get them anyway because cheap insurance and all that. The $16 Flirc case acts as a heatsink itself.

I just got this one after a lot of back and forth on what to get. It is pretty awesome, has a good clean look. Engrained Products Zebra