# Aluminium Heatsink Case for Pi 5 + NVMe Base: compatibility question **URL:** \ **Category:** Support\ **Created:** [October 14, 2026, 5:27pm UTC](https://forums.pimoroni.com/t/aluminium-heatsink-case-for-pi-5-nvme-base-compatibility-question/29130 "2026-10-14T17:27:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![mika](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/forums.pimoroni.com/mika/32/12355_2.png) [@mika](https://forums.pimoroni.com/u/mika)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2026, 5:27pm UTC](https://forums.pimoroni.com/t/aluminium-heatsink-case-for-pi-5-nvme-base-compatibility-question/29130/1 "2026-10-14T17:27:19Z")
I’m planning a small Raspberry Pi 5 cluster (4–5 nodes) and would like to combine your Aluminium Heatsink Case for Raspberry Pi 5 with your NVMe Base. The nodes will be passively cooled, with one larger fan moving air over the whole set. The stack I have in mind, top to bottom: 1. Heatsink case top, with the included thermal pads on the SoC, RAM and USB controller 2. Raspberry Pi 5 3. Heatsink case bottom 4. Standoffs 5. A thermal pad between the M.2 SSD and the underside of the case bottom 6. NVMe Base, with the PCIe ribbon routed through the case A few questions before I order one set to try it: 1. Will the stock PCIe ribbon cable that comes with the NVMe Base reach in this arrangement, given the extra height of the case bottom and standoffs? If not, do you sell a longer cable that you’d recommend, and is it still reliable at PCIe Gen 3? 2. Can the bolts holding the case together be replaced with longer bolts or male-female standoffs, so that the NVMe Base can be mounted below the case bottom? If so, what thread size and lengths would you suggest? 3. Is the underside of the case bottom flat where an M.2 2280 drive on the NVMe Base would sit, so a thermal pad can make good contact? 4. Has anyone tried this combination? Any known issues or tips would be very welcome. This was my idea but AI helped to format the obscure idea into coherent question. ---
**Author:** ![bablokb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ee59a6/32.png) [@bablokb](https://forums.pimoroni.com/u/bablokb)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2026, 6:07am UTC](https://forums.pimoroni.com/t/aluminium-heatsink-case-for-pi-5-nvme-base-compatibility-question/29130/2 "2026-10-15T06:07:04Z")
My experience: cooling is totally overrated. So is PCIe Gen3. If you ever built your own (x64) PC, you know that you have to put a _very_ small amount of thermal paste between CPU and the cooler, just enough that there is no air gap. Now just look at how thick these “thermal pads” are that you get with typical Pi coolers. In reality, they are thermal isolators. So my recommendation is: don’t look at benchmarks. Run your true workload and measure application specific endpoints, e.g. run-time of your tasks, throughput. Start to think about cooling once you run into problems. If so, my recommended setup would be: arrange the devices vertically (long side down) and add a fan. That should be good enough. Regarding PCIe Gen 3: not neccessary. Yes, low-level bulk transfers are faster, but for real workloads you won’t have that. And it is still a single PCIe line. Regarding your whole setup: if you need 4-5 Pi5 nodes, you should better think about a different architecture given the price of the Pi5. Other architectures will also give you multiple PCIe lines per SSD and they don’t use flimsy FPC cables. ---
**Author:** ![mika](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/forums.pimoroni.com/mika/32/12355_2.png) [@mika](https://forums.pimoroni.com/u/mika)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2026, 2:35pm UTC](https://forums.pimoroni.com/t/aluminium-heatsink-case-for-pi-5-nvme-base-compatibility-question/29130/3 "2026-10-15T14:35:12Z")
Thank you for the insight. I’m not sure if thermal pads are an issue under constant load. They conduct enough heat to heatsinks. However I don’t plan on running such loads in this cluster. I wouldn’t be using Raspberry Pi’s if I would. Adding cooling if needed sounds better than premature optimization Regarding the PCIe 3. My plan was to use m.2 nvme ssd’s to keep the footprint smaller. My intention wasn’t chasing maximum performance out of the PCI lane. I haven’t bought anything yet so I can explore other options too. ---
**Author:** ![bablokb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ee59a6/32.png) [@bablokb](https://forums.pimoroni.com/u/bablokb)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2026, 7:10pm UTC](https://forums.pimoroni.com/t/aluminium-heatsink-case-for-pi-5-nvme-base-compatibility-question/29130/4 "2026-10-15T19:10:41Z")
If you do opt for a Pi5 cluster: I have a small rack for my Pi-devices and I am using one module from Labstack ([GitHub - JaredC01/LabStack: Modular rackmount solutions for Raspberry Pi's and other SBC's and accessories. · GitHub](https://github.com/JaredC01/LabStack)) for my Pi5+NVME-Base: ![LabStack-Pi5+Pimoroni-NVMe-Base](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/uploads/pimoroni/original/2X/1/16f8ea92b09b514602038360fca881a6a857b5dd.jpeg) Ok, you cannot see the NVMe base here, but it _is_ below the Pi5. And thanks to the way the Pimoroni engineers have built it, the SD card slot is still accessible, so I am able to use an extender to have it on the panel. The module is 2U high, so you can build a small and compact cluster with four of these modules.