Quad-bay Raspberry Pi NAS starts at $127

Argon40 has gone to Kickstarter with a $127 “Argon Eon” NAS server for the Raspberry Pi 4 equipped with 2x 2.5-inch and 2x 3.5-inch SATA bays for up to 40TB plus a 12V/5A supply, fan, RTC, and OLED display.

Hong Kong based Argon40, which makes Raspberry Pi accessories including the Argon One, Argon One M.2, and Argon Neo, has won over $30K on Kickstarter to fund its first network-attached storage (NAS) case for the Raspberry Pi. The Argon Eon Pi NAS offers up to 40TB of shared storage via dual 2.5-inch bays with SSD and HDD support and dual 3.5-inch bays for HDDs. The system is available for $127 or $181 with a built-in Raspberry Pi 4 Model B with 4GB RAM. Shipments are due in December.

Argon Eon and exploded view
(click images to enlarge)

Like the Argon cases, the Argon Eon redirects some of the Pi’s ports so they all face a single side. In this case it is the single side of a triangular prism. You can access the 40-pin GPIO and microSD slot by removing a cover under the ports. The Pi’s dual micro-HDMI ports have been converted to two full-sized ports, and the composite AV jack is also accessible.


Argon Eon portside view
(click image to enlarge)

As you can see from the photo, one of the USB 3.0 ports is capped and redirected for storage duty. As noted in some of the Kickstarter comments, there is presumably a performance bottleneck using USB 3.0 via a shared PCIe interface rather than using direct PCIe interface from a Raspberry Pi Compute Module 4. Wiretrustee is still working on its quad-slot SATA Board for Raspberry Pi CM4, which it teased earlier this year. The company recently launched a Crowd Supply notification page for the NAS board.

The USB 3.0 interface appears to be why Argon40 recommends a 10TB, rather than 12-16TB, limit per drive to ensure that throughput is acceptable. In the comments, Argon40 says that the CM4 was not used due to short supply. In addition, the design is essentially a souped-up case for the RPi 4, enabling you to use your existing SBC for other tasks.

Argon Eon interior views
(click images to enlarge)

The Argon Eon ships with a 12V/5A power supply with a 100-240V AC input. A real-time clock enables scheduled on/off controls. The multifunction power button, which offers a safe shutdown mode, also houses an OLED display for information such as IP address and CPU usage.

The mostly aluminum constructed device is equipped with a fan powered by a 50 x 50mm brushless motor, and offers software controlled multi-mode functionality. The fan is strong enough to cool the Raspberry Pi.

Further information

The Argon Eon is available on Kickstarter through Oct. 25 for $127 (980 HK$) or $181 with a built in RPi 4. Shipments are due in December. More information may be found on the Argon Eon Kickstarter page. More should eventually appear on the Argon40 website.