If you found the Pironman 5 and Pironman 5 Max Tower PC cases for the Raspberry Pi 5 pretty cool, but had a hard time justifying paying much more for the enclosure than for the board itself, SunFounder has an update for you.
The company has now introduced the Pironman 5 Mini Tower PC enclosure with a similar, yet smaller design, fewer features, and easier assembly, bringing the price down to $45.99. That means the OLED information display, most RGB LEDs, the oversized tower cooler, the micro HDMI to HDMI adapter board, and more are all gone.
Pironman 5 Mini features:
- Compatible SBC – Raspberry Pi 5 only. The Raspberry Pi 4 won’t work, and I can’t think of another SBC with two micro HDMI ports and the exact same layout as the Pi 5.
- Storage
- MicroSD card slot
- Optional NVMe SSD via M.2 M-Key (2230/2242/2260/2280) PCIe 2.0/3.0 socket
- Video Output – 2x HDMI 2.0 micro HDMI ports
- Networking – Gigabit Ethernet RJ45 port
- USB – 2x USB 3.0, 2x USB 2.0
- Expansion – 40-pin GPIO header
- Misc
- Metal power button
- RTC battery (1220)
- 4x WS2812-5050 RGB LEDs
- PWM active cooler and RGB fan
- Opening for MIPI CSI/CSI flat cable
- Power Supply – 5V/5A via USB Type-C port
- Dimensions – 101.5 x 98.6 x 67.8 mm
- Material – Silver aluminum alloy body, transparent acrylic side panels
It’s easy to see where some of the cost-cutting went. The Pironman 5 Mini case directly relies on the Raspberry Pi 5 ports and does not use multiple adapter boards to bring all ports to one side. There’s just one “Pironman 5 Mini HAT+” board with an M.2 socket, GPIO headers, an RTC battery, and a 4-pin connector for the PWM RGB fan. The kit also includes an active cooler to add directly to the Pi 5.
In theory, there would be plenty of space inside the case for one or two HAT+ expansion boards, but the company decided to route the GPIO headers to the outside only, as it did for other Pironman 5 cases. You’ll still need to install a script in Raspberry Pi OS, Ubuntu, Home Assistant OS, and other supported operating systems to manage the RGB fan and LEDs. As usual, the assembly and software documentation look pretty good.
The table below summarizes the key differences between the Pironman 5 and the Max and Mini variants.
| Specifications | Pironman 5 | Pironman 5 Mini | Pironman 5 MAX |
|---|---|---|---|
| Compatible Devices | Raspberry Pi 5 | Raspberry Pi 5 | Raspberry Pi 5 |
| Input | USB Type C, 5V/5A | USB Type C, 5V/5A | USB Type C, 5V/5A |
| Power Button | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Exterior Material 1 | Silver Aluminum Alloy | Silver Aluminum Alloy | Black Aluminum Alloy |
| Exterior Material 2 | Transparent Acrylic | Black Acrylic | Black Acrylic |
| Cooler | Tower Cooler | Active Cooler | Tower Cooler |
| IR Receiver | ✔ | X | ✔ |
| RGB Fans Number | 2 | 1 | 2 |
| Fan RGB Mode | Sync with Fan | Independent Control | Independent Control |
| HDMI Ports | 2 Standard HDMI Ports | 2 Micro HDMI Ports | 2 Standard HDMI Ports |
| OLED Display | ✔ | X | ✔ |
| OLED Activation | Always on | Wake on Tap | |
| Support NVMe SSD | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| Dimension | 111.9x78.5x117mm | 67.8x98.6x101.5mm | 111.9x78.5x117mm |
While it’s currently only sold on SunFounder, the Pironman 5 Mini should eventually show up on the company’s AliExpress and Amazon stores, but in my experience, this may take several months.
Jean-Luc started CNX Software in 2010 as a part-time endeavor, before quitting his job as a software engineering manager, and starting to write daily news, and reviews full time later in 2011.
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