As the name suggests, this is a more compact case – with a volume of 0.68 litres vs its siblings’ 1.03 litres. This, along with a lower price point, has resulted in several compromises such as the lack of a mini OLED and a single RGB fan rather than two. The tower cooler has also been replaced with an (unofficial) active cooler that sits on Raspberry Pi 5 via thermal pads. Even so, the combination of fans provides good airflow and cooling.

Wear a HAT

There are case cutouts for Raspberry Pi 5’s main ports (and camera cable), rather than them being rerouted via an adapter board – so no full-size HDMI ports. The GPIO header is rerouted to the side via the supplied HAT+ board, which also houses an RTC battery and optional M.2 NVMe SSD, and has connections for the RGB fan and a power button on the case exterior.

With the case itself comprising just a single square aluminium piece and two clear acrylic panels for the sides, assembly is fairly straightforward, aided by good online documentation. As with the other models, installing the Pironman 5 software enables control of the RGB fan/lighting settings, safe shutdown with the power button, and system monitoring via a web dashboard.

Verdict

8/10

While not quite as eye-catching or feature-packed as its siblings, it’s a quality case with effective cooling.

Specs

Features: HAT+ with M.2 SSD slot, RGB fan, PWM active cooler, power button, RTC battery

Dimensions: 67.8 × 98.6 × 101.5mm