“A slick-looking, beautifully engineered, robust enclosure for a Raspberry Pi 5. Actually I used the three thermal pads that come with the official Pi 5 Active Cooler, as they are thicker and larger than the two thermal pads that come with the Argon Neo NVMe case. My only (minor) complaint is that the screws holding the two halves of the case together are a little short, and you have to press the cases together (compressing the thermal pads) in order to get the threads to bite.
The NVMe slot performs very well compared to other storage - here are some quick-and-dirty read speed tests:
# hdparm -t --direct /dev/mmcblk0 (a 128GB Sandisk ExtremePlus microSD card)
Timing O_DIRECT disk reads: 256 MB in 3.02 seconds = 84.69 MB/sec
# hdparm -t --direct /dev/sda (a 1TB Samsung T7 USB 3.2 Gen.2 SSD)
Timing O_DIRECT disk reads: 1024 MB in 3.00 seconds = 340.90 MB/sec
# hdparm -t --direct /dev/nvme0n1 (A 2TB Crucial P3 Plus M.2 PCIe Gen4 NVMe SSD)
Timing O_DIRECT disk reads: 2446 MB in 3.00 seconds = 814.66 MB/sec
The aluminium case body provides efficient passive cooling, resulting in a quiescent (minimal load) temperature of 35°C as compared to a reported* 65°C with no cooling whatsoever. A quick-and-dirty CPU stress test (running all 4 cores at 100% continuously for 20 minutes) shows reasonable thermal performance (results at two-minute intervals starting from a quiescent state):
Ambient temp=
Quiescent temp=35.1°C
After 2 mins temp=37.8°C
After 4 mins temp=38.9°C
After 6 mins temp=39.5°C
After 8 mins temp=39.5°C
After 10 mins temp=39.5°C
After 12 mins temp=38.9°C
After 14 mins temp=41.7°C
After 16 mins temp=40.6°C
After 18 mins temp=42.2°C
After 20 mins temp=41.1°C
Pi 5 CPU thermal throttling starts at 80°C with a further clock speed reduction at 85°C, so as you can see, the CPU gets nowhere near the 80°C threshold and there is no thermal throttling.
Nevertheless, it has to be said that when the same test is performed on an uncased board with the official Pi 5 active cooler fan fitted, the temperature only got to around 38°C compared to 42.2°C inside the Argon NEO NVMe case.
* https://www.raspberrypi.com/news/heating-and-cooling-raspberry-pi-5/
In summary, 100% satisfied and would thoroughly recommend.”
“Having got an 8GB Pi 5, I wanted to run it from and NVMe SSD. Enter the Argon NEO 5 M.2 NVME PCIE Case which allows me to access all the interfaces and install an NVMe M.2 SSD. Overall, it's a really nice case but unfortunately, the NEO 5 loses a star owing to a few design/QA shortcomings:
- When first switched on, the case fan seems to run at full speed for a few seconds and makes quite an unpleasant sound. Fortunately it settles down and runs silently most of the time (hopefully the noise is not an indication faulty fan).
- One of the retaining screws for the base simply won't engage (I had this problem once before with an Argon One case). It appears to be a problem with the retaining screw location near the USB-C port as all screws work fine in the other three locations (fortunately what appears to an almost identically sized screw from a Pi standoff kit works in that location).
- An earlier Neo case for the Pi 4 had a much more convenient magnetic system for holding the case cover on rather than screws, and I can't see why a similar magnetic system couldn't have been used for the NEO 5.”
“I have in mind to build a server for an extensive media collection, icluding a large set of e-books managed with Calibre. Big enough overall to need the speed of an SSD to make it workable, so the Argon Neo 5 M.2 PCIE came up early in my searches. Sleek storage for the SSD, housing the Pi 5 while leaving the GPIO exposed if I leave the lid off (while still looking good) and the built in cooling outstripped anything I could do with the 3d printer. It arrived quickly, I was able to assemble it fast, and it runs silent (and fast), stays cool and looks like it means business. Build quality and appearance are excellent. Cheaper options for adding SSDs via PCIE are available, but this is the road I took and I have no regrets. Watch some of the YouTube reviews too for detailed benchmarking - the Argon Neo 5 M.2 PCIE housing has ticked all the boxes I needed it to.”
“I really want to like this NVMe case as it's the perfect solution combining NVMe and case. Unfortunately after a few days of use I experienced hung and crashes so went back to Pimoroni NVMe board which never gave me an issue from day 1. For me the most stable NVMe boards are Pimoroni which is my daily driver, 52Pi NVMe and Pineberry NVMe boards. The others I've tested did not work or is stable enough to be a daily driver. I keep it at PCIe Gen2 since that's what's officially supported.”
“It is well made and went together with no difficulty. Works well with an NVME card. I was worried WiFi and Bluetooth range may be reduced by the metal case/heatsink, but the bottom section is plastic so WiFi and Bluetooth are not affected.”
“This is a metal case, so if you only use a wifi connection you may need an externai aerial added to pi5 board. Using it with XUM M2.SSD 128GB NVME.PCIE. Great product and instructions.”
