Pironman 5-MAX turns a Raspberry Pi 5 into a mini tower with a transparent case, RGB lighting, and dual NVMe SSD support

The Pironman 5 case for the Raspberry Pi makes the single-board computer look like a tiny gaming PC, complete with a clear acrylic case, RGB lighting, and more. But As Ian discovered when he tested the case, it's functional as well as funny looking: the case adds a layer of protection, enhanced cooling, and optional support for PCIe NVMe storage.

Now the company behind this case is back with a new model that offers all of those things and a few new features. The Pironman 5-MAX has a list price of $95, but it's available for pre-order now for $71 from the SunFounder website for the first 500 customers.

The new Max version of the case has a black aluminum and semi-transparent acrylic case, giving it a slightly less industrial-looking design than the original Pironman 5's case.

On the insider there's also now two M.2 slots instead of one. They can be used for two PCIe NVMe SSDs arranged in a RAID 0/1 configuration or for a single SSD + a Halio-8L AI accelerator (or presumably for other compatible M.2 PCIe add-ons).

The 0.96 OLED status display on the case also now supports tape-to-wake functionality, allowing you to save a little energy by putting the display to sleep when you're not looking at it. And there are now programmable RGB LED lights for the fans.

Most other features are pretty much the same as for the original, including breakout boards that allow you to access all of the Raspberry Pi's I/O features without opening the case: there's an extender that puts a 40-pin GPIO header on the side of the case, while the USB, Ethernet, and HDMI ports are on the back and the SD card reader on the front.

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