Argon ONE M.2 Aluminum Case for Raspberry Pi 4 with SATA SSD Support | Power Button and Fan | Compatible B-Key and B+M Key

First of all, this case is basically a nice way to add SSD via USB 3 to a Pi 4, if you don't mind having a USB dangling from your pi with a USB cable, you can add SSD and have it boot off of it for far cheaper (a $9 M.2 tool-free enclosure would work just fine).But if you want a more elegant design, this case is amazing. It's nicely built, with solid aluminum, full-size HDMI ports, built-in fan with custom fan control software, power button, easy magnetic door to GPIO pins, and more. Only minor downsize is that this case is not exactly stackable, and is rather large, but you know that just from looking at the photos so that was the expectation.My Pi runs (a rather large installation of) homebridge with many child bridges, pivpn, and a couple small custom things managed by pm2. The CPU temp is basically constant at around 45ºC, and the fan is silent. Only time it spun up a bit was when I compiled a sizable open source project on it.Before going SSD my pi 4 ran on MicroSD that was probably 4 years old, it got super slow and I suspected it would die fairly soon. The speedup with dd read and write of a 100M file is about 20x. I compared it with a almost-brand-new pi 5 with SD setup, and speedup is about 10x, I'm going to upgrade that pi 5 with NVMe real soon after experiencing the speed gain with this M.2 setup.Overall, it is a very nice solution to add fast SSD to pi 4, albeit a little bit pricey. But if you're not super price-sensitive, this is the way.

For starters, the product is amazing. I will give a few criticisms here. Don't take those as reasons not to buy this product, buy it anyway because it is the best case I've seen for the Pi. I am listing these downsides constructively and as a heads up to potential buyers so that you will know to mitigate these. Aside from these couple of things this product case is awesome, and even these couple of things are not a big deal at all. First, and probably the worst (though it's not that bad) is the connection for the power supply. I've been using this case for weeks now, and I move it around a fair amount. That means plugging/unplugging the power supply. I've noticed it has some movement when I connect it. It will kind of wiggle up/down after being connected. It comes from the piece that is on the inside of the case to which the USB-C power supply cord connects (not the cord itself, which is the Argon power supply, also highly recommended). I can foresee that failing, so I am very careful with it. It's possible that it will last a very long time. The movement doesn't necessarily mean it will fail, but it makes me nervous. I imagine they could make a slight change to that part to make it more sturdy. Maybe give it a slight recess or something so that any tension from moving it around would be between the USB-C cord itself and the body of the case, rather than on the little connection components themselves. Again, might last forever, but to my mind that will be the first point of failure for this product. If you move it around a lot, be careful with that part when plugging/unplugging especially. If you intend to leave it in the same place mostly and won't be unplugging it much, then this won't affect you at all. The second thing is heavily dependent on personal preference and use case, but to me the shape of it is somewhat awkward. It's not bad per se, it actually even looks nice, but the shape is not the most functional. It sits very stable and looks good, but it has that slope to it that would prevent you from sitting anything on it in a stable way and you wouldn't really be able to do things like sitting it on its side or upside down, etc. Not a huge drawback, but I can easily see reasons that you would want to position it differently. So while it looks great, being more squared would make it more functional. Related to this is that the GPIO is located on the top where you would very naturally want to sit something, but because of the slope anything attached to the GPIO and sitting on the top of the case would lean, thus putting pressure on the GPIO and maybe bending them or causing a disconnect or something. The third thing is super minor - the cover for the GPIO compartment is great but a little bit tricky to get off. That's a double edged sword, though. You want the thing to be very secure - and it is. But when you want to take it off, you have to fumble with it a bit, or at least I do. There's no notch, tab, etc. where you can easily get a grip to open it. Mine had a problem with one of the magnets that keeps that bit attached. The first time I opened it, one of the magnets that holds it in place stayed on the case rather than coming off with the lid. In other words, the magnet on the lid is supposed to stay attached inside the lid but it wasn't glued in there well. It still does it's job fine, I haven't even glued it on. The entire thing is metal (at least, all of it except the bottom part that houses the SSD), so the magnet clings to the case and the lid regardless of whether it is glued or not. I could see losing it when it stays stuck to the case when you take the lid off. Depending on what you're doing with it, you might knock it off the case, forget about it, etc. Then the lid wouldn't attach to the lid correctly without it there. I could glue it if I wanted, I suppose. So minor of an issue I haven't even bothered to do even that simple of a fix...Long story short - best case around for the Pi, great price, great construction, does exactly what you want it to do, only downsides are super minor, very picky things. Buy it.

I love that this thing exists. I needed a descent powered web server that was efficient enough to leave on continuously. I decided a pi 4 8GB was the way to go. I came across the SSD option here and couldn't resist trying. I wrote instructions for my 13 year old son to setup a LAMP server on it, and with a little Linux help he got it up and running with me. Pluses about this case: passive and active cooling. Dual full size HDMI adapters. Very sleak design. The power button is a great addition. It's nice that if I decide I'm done with the server, I could use it for a media server with the IR receiver. Seriously, for $45 think about all you're getting here! It's nice and heavy with rubber feet so it doesn't slide around, and the accessible GPIO pins are a plus for reuse as a bench pi later. Here's a tip: the m.2 board on the bottom is just a USB m.2 reader. If you want to install Raspberry Pi OS on an SSD from a desktop, find a USB to USB cable (I used a USB-A 3.1 to USB-C cable and plug it in like an external drive. Raspberry Pi's automatic card writing tool actually identifies it as an Argon drive. HOWEVER my Pi 4 needed an SD card with the same image to enable USB boot. A couple of settings later, I've removed the SD and have only the WD blue SSD. It boots directly to the SSD. I never needed a separate m.2 reader. Overall this is a great little box. My server (not overclocked) runs in the 60°c range. Remember not to install the thermal pads until you're ready to screw everything together permanently. It's very convenient that the bottom SSD board can easily separate without disrupting the heat sinks for access to the drive as well as the SD card!

This is an awesome little case and I have bought several of these.My complaints are:1) The SSD still is routed through the USB port so don't expect any blazing speeds or the ability to boot off the SSD.2) The fan is cheap and gets really noisy. I disconnected it and it's running fine.Otherwise, this is a great little case.