SerpApi.Org
One of the first accessories people make or buy for a Raspberry Pi is a case. In fact, online sellers are happy to include one with your purchase, since surely you'll need one. The truth is, most of the time, you don't strictly need a case for your SBC. Going caseless is just fine, and can sometimes be the better choice.
Cases solve problems most Raspberry Pi users don’t have
What's the point of a case for a computer? One is practical, to protect the computer from harm or make it more usable, and the other is aesthetic.
But if you're running your Raspberry Pi inside a closet, on a shelf, or somewhere cool and dry, you're not really benefiting by putting it in a case. Having no case does increase the odds that you'll accidentally short electrical contacts on the board, and there's always the chance of electrostatic discharge, but if the board is sitting on an insulated surface and you don't work on it while powered on, then the risks are minimal in my opinion. If you're using your Pi for a specific project where it won't be moved again once deployed, a traditional case probably isn't necessary.
Cases make cooling and access worse
There are many different case options out there for the various Raspberry Pi models. Some you can buy online, others can be printed on your home 3D printer, and each has different strengths and weaknesses.
The biggest issue is ventilation. By default, boards like the Raspberry Pi 5 are passively cooled. This means natural airflow is crucial to keep your computer running. Cases with enough ventilation to allow good passive cooling generally show so much skin that it's not that much different from a naked board. Still, any case for a passively-cooled Pi is going to make cooling worse to some degree, and in some cases the difference might be large enough to affect your needs.
The answer is use an active cooler with your case as I did here.
However, some projects need to work with no noise and no fan, in which case consider just running the Pi naked, or use the bottom half of a case and simply leave the top off.
This also solved the issue of fitting Pi HATs and accessing the GPIO pins. When you need to connect add-ons or use the pins with a case, it generally involves lots of modifications or finding a very specific case design. At the very least, you can hold off solving your case issue until you have everything else sorted out.
Open-air setups are how the PI is designed to run
Nowhere does it say that a Raspberry Pi has to be put in a case. The boards are designed to work as they are in the open air. They are electrically safe as long as you don't put them down on a conductive surface, such as a metal table. I know it can feel weird and wrong to run computers like this, but I've done it with a normal desktop computer too. All the components spread out on a desk and hooked up. This is the normal thing to do when building a computer to verify everything works before stuffing it into a case, and those parts weren't made under the assumption that you might run them without a case holding everything together.
The few times a case actually makes sense
I want to emphasize that while I have chosen to run Raspberry Pi computers caseless in the past, it's not like I prefer this option above the alternative. I have nothing against cases, and in fact I like them quite a lot. I just want you to know that a case is not required, and that you can worry about it later, if at all.
Raspberry Pis are hardy, they're often just stuffed in a box with all the other bits a project needs, and just the peripherals you connect are usually enough to hold the board in place.
When I need to mount them somewhere precarious, like my TV in the image above, then a case is the right way to go. If there are conductive materials around, put it in a case. Want to stop it from getting more dusty than necessary? A case with some filtered vents is just what the doctor ordered. If you're just tinkering at a desk? Let that Pi breathe as nature intended.
