For some time I've been looking for a better case for my Raspberry Pi 3 Model B+ than the typical plastic offerings. In particular, I wanted significantly better cooling (like many people I'd fitted a small aluminium heatsink, but frankly it did very little to help cool the CPU), and if possible a power button.
While researching the various options, I came across the Argon ONE case which appeared to offer all the items on my wish list and more (although see my comments on the power button below). I came across various reviews of the Argon ONE on the Web, but many of them just focused on unboxing and assembly, and even the better ones missed out some key information - so I've provided a fairly lengthy review which I hope people will find useful.
The key features of the Argon ONE case are:
- Passive and active (temperature-controlled) cooling
- Power management including a power button that provides: on, off, reboot & forced power off
- All ports are available on the rear of the case
- Full access to all 40 GPIO pins (including the power pins normally used by a fan)
- Status LEDs visible from the front of the case.
The case comes in a small, fairly elegant looking black cardboard box, which fits the case exactly. Upon opening the box, all you will find is the case itself (wrapped in a soft plastic bag) and a small, well produced user guide. The box is made of thin cardboard so it doesn't offer much protection to the case, but since this box will typically be sent inside more robust packaging this shouldn't matter. Also, it's good to see that there was absolutely no superfluous packing material used.
When you take the case out of the plastic bag, you find that the case itself consists of an aluminium top and a plastic base. Inside the case, there are a couple of small anti-static bags. One bag contains a small daughter board (more of which later) and the other contains various items used in assembling the case (4 small flat-head engineering screws, 4 longer round-head engineering screws, two small thermal pads and a set of self-adhesive rubber feet).
It was really nice to see that the user guide was quite well illustrated and written in pretty good English so that it generally provided clear instructions. However, it did miss out some key information at a couple of points: it says to attach a "Silicon thermal pad" but doesn't say why there are two thermal pads to choose from nor which pad should be used when. For people familiar with the differences between the Pi 3 B and Pi 3 B+ that's not a problem (the thicker pad is for the 3 B and the thinner pad for the 3 B+) but for newcomers to the Raspberry Pi it could prove confusing. Similarly, there's no mention of attaching the self-adhesive rubber feet - but again it's obvious how and where to fit them.
Assembly is actually quite straight forward and well illustrated in the user guide:
- Connect the small Ar1 daughter board to the Pi (the Ar1 replicates the HDMI and audio/video sockets so that they line up with the - - Ethernet and USB ports on the back of the Pi). Connecting the Ar1 requires a bit of force but it is important to fully insert the plugs into the Pi sockets - just take your time and be careful
- Attach the appropriate thermal pad to the heat sink on the aluminium case top
- Plug the Pi/Ar1 assembly into the aluminium top case by inserting the Pi's GPIO pins into the socket on the case and then secure the Pi and Ar1 to the case with the 4 small flat-head screws
- Complete the assembly by attaching the plastic base to the aluminium top using the four round-head screws, and attaching the small rubber feet.
After this, simply power on the Pi (at which point you'll notice that the base is actually made of dark transparent plastic that allows the Pi's power and activity LEDs to be seen from the front of the case), follow the simple instructions for installing the scripts which manage the power button, fan speed configuration and uninstall of the software if needed - and after a reboot you're ready to go.
The power button functions work as expected, and in particular, shutting down the Pi with the power button really does do a full power shutdown, i.e the OS shuts down and the Pi's red power LED goes out. However, I was tempted to drop my review down to four stars because with my case at least, the power button is a somewhat unreliable or perhaps over sensitive regarding power on and reboot - but it does eventually work so I decided to leave the review at five stars. The problems I've experienced are that it inevitably requires several tries in order to power on the Pi, and I also have to get the timing of the double-click for reboot just right before it will activate.
That small disappointment aside, one of the great things about this case, is that the power adapter is actually plugged in to a Micro-USB socket attached to the PCB inside the top of the case rather than directly to the Pi - so in addition to supporting the power button, the Argon ONE provides managed power to the Pi and the internal fan which also supports thermal monitoring of the CPU to control the fan speed.
It's important to use a strong enough power supply in order to provide sufficient power for the Argon ONE itself plus the Pi - and the recommendation is to use a 5.25V 3A power supply (note the voltage of 5.25V rather than 5V). Although Argon themselves offer a suitable power brick, all the pictures show it having a US plug, and there was nothing that indicated that the one supplied by Amazon UK would have a UK plug. So, rather than take the chance, I purchased a suitable power supply separately from the Amazon site.
Another great feature of the Argon ONE is that unlike with most other cases with cooling fans, fan power is not supplied by connectors attached to Pi's GPIO pins, but is supplied directly by the Argon ONE's PCB itself - which in turn means that all 40 of the Pi's GPIO pins are available for use. The Pi's GPIO pins are actually exposed as a set of pins hidden under a magnetically attached cover on the top of the case. Also, these pins are colour coded as well as being labeled on the case - but as they are slightly recessed, it will probably be necessary to use an extension block/cable in order to use them.
To check on the effectiveness of the Argon ONE's cooling, I ran some sysbench tests with the Pi installed in a standard plastic case (with a small heatsink on the CPU) and then again with the Pi installed in the Argon ONE. I ran two sysbench tests with the Argon ONE - the first using the default fan speed configuration and the second with a customised fan speed configuration (customisation can be easily done using a supplied script which is accessible as an icon on the Pi desktop).
With the Pi in the standard plastic case, the CPU temperature settled at around 75C - which means the CPU was heat throttling and its frequency was reduced from 1.4GHz to 1.2GHz. With the Argon ONE and the default fan speed configuration the CPU temperature settled at around 55C and with the custom fan speed configuration, the CPU temperature settled at around 50C. This reduction in CPU temperature has a direct effect on processing speed, and on average, the sysbench tests run on the Argon ONE were 16% faster than those run with the standard Pi case.
Best of all, I then overclocked the Pi to 1.55 GHz, ran the tests again, and got a further 10% improvement in performance. So, with the Pi running in a standard plastic case, the test ran in 270.31s with a final CPU temperature of 75C, and in the Argon ONE with the Pi overclocked to 1.55 GHz, the test ran in 209.10s with a final CPU temperature of just under 55C - an overall saving in run time improvement of 61s or 23%.
Some final comments:
The Argon ONE case looks great, and I really like having a "mini desktop" Pi where all the cables plug neatly into the back of the case rather than having cables coming out of three sides.
There is a small drop in WiFi signal strength, but this was not a problem for me as the Pi still achieved a good signal strength and wireless speeds that would support several HD video streams at the same time.
There are IR headers on the Argon ONE PCB, and although they are not currently enabled, this feature will hopefully be made available in the near future.
Finally, it's not lost on me that the Argon ONE case and power supply (when bought from Amazon UK at least) cost more than the Pi 3 B+ itself - but in my case I was happy to spend the money in order to get the features provided by the Argon ONE.
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Argon ONE Mini Computer Case for Raspberry Pi 3 B+ / B (Case ONLY)
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Argon Forty
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- SLEEK MULTIMEDIA CASE | This sleek aluminum case not only brings out stunning aesthetics, but it's also highly functional by protecting the Raspberry Pi from harm and being usable for pastimes such as retro gaming, watching movies, or even playing music. This case supports Raspbian, LibreElec, Retropie, Recalbox, and OSMC.
- PASSIVE & ACTIVE COOLING | The Argon One itself acts as the Raspberry Pi's heatsink for passive cooling. A proprietary software controls the fan inside the case for an active and improved temperature management.
- EASY ASSEMBLY & NEAT CABLE MANAGEMENT | Assembling the case with the Raspberry Pi is easy. Installing the Argon ONE Script that unlocks the full functionality of the Argon ONE in one line. All of the ports are accessed at the back, making the mini-computer manageable with minimal cable clutter and easy cleaning.
- PROPER SYSTEM SHUTDOWN | A proper power button is installed on the case to prevent file damage. Safe Shutdowns, Reboots, and Forced Shutdowns are built in features.
- MAGNETIC REMOVABLE TOP & ACCESS TO GPIO | The PCB Board built into the case provides separate power sources to the fan and power switch, as well as extending the GPIO pins to use the case in multiple projects. A magnetic removable top makes the pins safe when they aren't in use.
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Top international reviews
Highlander
Schönes Gehäuse, aber...
Reviewed in Germany on 15 February 2020Verified Purchase
Amazon Customer
Low power to rpi even with 5.25v 3amp psu
Reviewed in Canada on 2 August 2019Verified Purchase
Crazy @be
sehr viel Licht und ein für mich zu großer Schatten
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Bastet
Geniales Gehäuse für Raspberry 4!
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derberber
gutes Case mit einem kleinen Manko
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Gutes case mit einigen schwächen.
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Das beste Raspberry 4 Gehäuse überhaupt.
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Optisch ansprechendes Case
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Schick, schwer und kühlt gut.
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HKSW
eine gute Lösung
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S. Schmitz
Schönes Gehäuse
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Jim McKinnon
Great product!
Reviewed in Canada on 2 April 2020Verified Purchase