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Most of Raspberry Pi’s single-board computers ship without a case. But the company offers official cases for folks who’d rather enclose the computer in one. And there are dozens of third-party solutions available.
Some are basic plastic shells. Others add features like fans for active cooling. And then there’s the Pironman 5 case for the Raspberry Pi 5. This aluminum and clear acrylic case basically makes the Raspberry Pi 5 look like a tiny gaming desktop, complete with RGB lighting effects, support for multiple cooling fans, and support PCIe NVMe storage. The Pironman 5 is available for $80 from the SunFounder website.
Pat of the case is made from aluminum, while there’s clear acrylic plastic on one side and part of the back of the computer, allowing you to see inside the case.
The case also comes with adapters that allow you to:
- Add an M.2 2230/2242/2260/2280 PCIe NVMe SSD
- Access the GPIO pins through an extender on one side
- Use a remote control thanks to an IR receiver in the front of the case
- View CPU, memory, temperature, and other details on a 0.96 inch OLED status display on the front
- Insert or remove microSD cards through a port on the front of the computer
- Access two full-sized HDMI ports on the back, thanks to micro HDMI to HDMI adapters
The Pironman 5 also comes with three fans: a PWM fan plus two additional fans with RGB lighting effects.
All told, the case can protect a Raspberry Pi 5 from dust, add a bit of visual flair, and offer some functional improvements including fans to lower the computer’s temperature and an IR receiver that makes it possible to use the Raspberry Pi 5 as a media center that can be controlled from your couch.
That said, the $80 case costs as much as a Raspberry Pi 5 with 8GB of RAM, which means you’re basically doubling the price of the computer if you buy a Raspberry Pi 5 + Pironman 5. And at that rate, you might be better off picking up a mini PC with an Alder Lake-N processor, depending on what exactly it is you’re hoping to do with a mini PC.
via CNX Software