Argon ONE V5 M.2 Case | Raspberry Pi 5 Aluminum Case with M.2 Single NVME PCIE Slot | Passive and Active Cooling | Dual Full HDMI Port

I didn’t have any major problems with my unit. I purchased the full set with all available accessories for this case — besides the case itself and the M.2 SSD expansion board, I also bought the Zigbee module and the OLED screen.Overall, it left a very positive impression. However, I agree that the connection between the Raspberry Pi board and the expansion board is a bit tricky. Tactile-wise, it’s unclear how much force you need to apply for the connection to lock in place and be stable. The first time I assembled the case, the Raspberry Pi didn’t boot. I’m not sure what exactly caused it — poor contact between the two boards (less likely), or a short circuit somewhere. After this initial failure, I disassembled the case and made two changes:1) pressed the boards together more firmly (although I was afraid of breaking something by applying too much force), and it turned out there was indeed some extra room to connect them further;2) repositioned the fan cable from underneath the heatsink to the top (visible in the photo). This cable is already arranged at the factory, but as some commenters have correctly pointed out, it’s better to route it over the surface of the heatsink. Because this cable can interfere with proper placement of the Raspberry Pi, which might cause shorting of contacts.I don’t know which of these changes helped, but after reassembly everything worked fine.The case is quite prone to fingerprints, as others have noted in the comments, but I’m still satisfied with it.

I’ve run one of these continuously for months and I think the negative reviews might be from people with weak nerd arms (or incompatible SSD’s).Short story is that I have two of these things, one from Amazon and one of them imported from Pimoroni (UK/GB Raspberry Pi shop) months ago. I have four Argon cases total among my pile of Pi servers, and I’ve never had issues with any of them.The daughter board you have to plug in the Pi’s power and HDMI slots into has stiff inputs and if you don’t push with some force, the connection might be inconsistent. You need to summon all the strength your weak nerd arms have to make sure it’s inserted properly (or just go to the gym).My long-running case has a 16GB Pi in it with a 2TB Samsung 990 Pro SSD, which is an absolute powerhog of an NVME drive and quite obviously overkill for a PCIe Gen 3 slot.But the point is that it’s been on continuously for months with a DRAM SSD that peaks at 8 Watts without issue, serving as a combination server and small form factor ARM dev station.I’ve had no issues and it’s easily the (literally) coolest and quietest Pi case I have, since it’s a huge aluminum block. Notably, it doesn’t block access to the camera slots while still providing access to the PCIe slot, which was important for me so that I could use it to develop camera apps.The case is great and I bought another a few weeks ago that also has no issues. Work out more, nerds.

I really thought this case was going to be perfect for one of my projects. It had everything going for it - the Argon brand name, included M.2 NVME add-on board, PWM fan, port extension board, audio DAC, and space for an optional small OLED display. Argon cases are usually easy to assemble, thanks to the excellent instructions. HOWEVER, in my case this product does not work!!!So, I unboxed a brand new 8GB Raspberry Pi 5 board and verified that it boots. I then followed the instructions that came with the Argon One case. I put it all together, plugged in the power, and it doesn't power on (red LED on RPi5 circuit board does not light. After ensuring I had it assembled correctly and all cables (especially the flex cable) were plugged in correctly, I decided to reverse the assembly process while trying to determine which step in the process caused the RPI5 to not power on.I removed the top and bottom of the case because I saw that others complained that something was grounding out the RPI5 when the case was screwed down. No, removing the top and bottom of the case did not cause the RPi5 to power on. The next step was to remove the flex cable that supplied communications with the M.2 NVME add-on board. No, that did not work either. Next, I removed the port extension board. Voila! My RPi5 now powered on. The only problem now is that all I'm left with my original RPi5 and no working case. I can't even use the case by itself because the cutouts for the ports are meant for the port extension board. So there's no part of this case that I can use. I could possibly use the M.2 NVME add-on board, but I would have to have a case that would fit this board alongside my RPi5 because you can't just simply plug it on top of the RPi5 like a normal HAT.In summary, this product is just one useless pile of parts. Nothing salvageable! For me, the Argon brand is now tarnished badly and I do not expect to ever touch another of their products again. Further, even though I received this board free of charge (except for paying the income tax on its value), I really lost out because I used my own money to purchase the optional small OLED module that fits into the top of the case. Thanks for all the fun Argon!NOTE if Argon would like to send me a replacement then I would be glad to try this experiment again. Otherwise, this product is going to be recycled at my nearest big box electronics retailer.

Ignore the negative comments and purchase. This is the first time I will use a case like this yet was able to set it up on my initial attempt.Mine is located in my network closet with no additional ventilation of fan but it’s still cool and the fan has never pickup up except for 2 seconds during raspberry pi 5 startup.Case is premium and almost doesn’t heat up at all.

Very sweet. best in class solid metal. Instructions show additional Oled screen and antenna hat available, I wish i could have found them or a more complete version of this case at their website or online.... Would buy right now. SSD cooling very nice.