I’m a bit late to the party, but I finally picked up a Raspberry Pi 4B 8GB board to use with VMware’s new ESXi on Arm technical preview. I initially tested it without a case, and a small USB 3.1 flash drive. It wasn’t long until I realized the system was pretty much unusable without decently performing storage attached. It did a lot better with an external USB drive I had lying around, but I didn’t like the mess of cables and having devices larger than the Raspberry Pi attached just seemed wrong.
After looking around for a suitable case, I was immediately drawn to Argon Forty’s new Argon One M.2 case.
I had seen the original Argon One, which ticked many of the right boxes, but this one adds one feature I really wanted – built in storage. As the name implies, there is an M.2 SATA storage adapter that is enclosed within the case. If you have already bought an Argon One, you can buy the M.2 bottom kit as a standalone option to convert yours as well!
Along with the Argon One M.2, I purchased their 18W 5.25V power supply, which came highly recommended. I also picked up a very inexpensive 240GB M.2 SATA drive on Amazon made by Asseno. The case itself is comprised of a top and bottom shell with attached circuit boards. An additional board is included that attaches to the Pi as well as a USB to USB bridge.
A small circuit board attaches to the ports at the side of the Raspberry Pi and redirects them toward the rear. I absolutely love this feature as the default placement of ports on the Pi can make wiring a bit of a mess. As an added bonus, the adapter converts the two micro-HDMI ports to full size HDMI connectors. The larger connectors are a much more popular connector type, and this could save you from having to buy a micro-HDMI cable or adapter. You’ll also notice that the USB Type C power connector is not attached and left unused. This is because power input is provided through the pin bank once the top of the case is attached.
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