By default, the fan in the Argon Eon is triggered by CPU temperature. However, it’s possible to run an IO-intensive workload that gets the hard drives hot without stressing the CPU - particularly if you’ve jammed two 3.5" drives in there, as there isn’t much room for them to breathe.
I’ve popped a pull request across to Argon40 which adds hard drive temperature monitoring to the fan system. With that, the temperature triggers in your fan configuration will activate when either the CPU or the hottest-running hard drive in the Eon reaches the target - whichever comes first.
Should hopefully prevent any toasted-drive catastrophes!
If you’re looking to try it yourself before it’s merged (assuming it gets merged), my fork is here - you’ll need to install hddtemp, which you can do with sudo apt install hddtemp or by running the install-dependencies.sh script in the tutorials/ directory.
First we would like to acknowledge the support and feedback of @NHHiker and @ghalfacree, which was very helpful as we continually improve on the Argon EON. Your input to this Forum is well appreciated by Argon40 and I am sure the community at large.
Regarding the Hard Disk Temperature, we did some tests and with the Raspberry Pi 4 in IDLE the CPU temp remains at 50C or below (even at our 30C ambient temp) and the mechanical drives were running between 40C-45C. At these temp ranges most manufacturers would rate their HDDs to work safely.
In light of the discussion in this FORUM we made the following changes:
(1) FAN Direction - Based on more recent test it is better for the FAN to blow outwards/upwards. Thus we recommend that Kickstarter Backers flip the FAN. Future buyers will receive their units blowing outwards.
(2) Argon Config - We have added a sub-menu for Users to SET the FAN Triggers based both on the HDD and CPU temperature. Thank you for suggesting this @ghalfacree .
We do not expect the EON case to cool the HDDs down to 30C as the EON’s cooling works like a system, wherein the RPI CPU temp will always factor in terms also in cooling the HDDs. But with ambient temperatures in the 25C or below we still expect the EON to run the HDDs in the low 40C and the RPI below 50C, which would not affect its long term performance of the attached devices.
Thanks to all for the suggestions concerning fan speed and direction. Decided to reverse the fan direction. Removed the drives (2x Seagate IronWolf, 4TB, SATA III HDD), then removed the fan and refitted it “upside-down”. Unfortunately, that caused the fan to stand more “proud” of the case and made it impossible to refit the drives safely. Any suggestions would be welcome.
My understanding is that optimal temperatures for hard drives are around 25-45C, and anything above will start to shorten the life of the drive. I only have a single WD Red hard drive, but most of the time it is running around 45C in the EON, which is right at the top of that limit. I program my fan to come on at 45C. When it does come on, of course, it’s noisy.
Seems to me that the design of the EON is probably best running 2.5" drives, that are both cooler, quieter and draw less power.
It’s a little scary, but you can get the 3.5" drives back in with the fan flipped over (assuming they’re the same dimensions as WD Gold 4TB drives). I tilted mine in, very carefully, and nothing broke.
I’m really starting to agree that 2.5" SSDs are the way to go with this thing, though. The fan combined with the lack of ventilation makes it unsuitable for being on my desk, and I can’t put it in my office closet for Reasons.
Either that, or I need to find someone who can cut vent strips and some fan mount screws into the plastic sides. I wouldn’t mind mounting some 5V fans to the side panels and powering them off the USB 2 ports.
My unit, purchased from Amazon and received in late June, has a downward blowing fan. To make matters worse, the fan does not shut off, no matter what settings I choose in argon-config, and no matter how low the CPU or HDD TEMPS…
Do I have a faulty unit? After tinkering for a days, it’s getting very hard to justify keeping it.
Sorry for one more question: Would it be possible to extend the functionality of the hdd part of the script a bit, so that it checks:
If the hdd is in sleep mode - no temp check will be done, therefore not waking up the disks
If the hdd is active, a temp check will be done and the triggers might start the fan
I’m bought an EON as a file server. After all sorts of disappointments with Pi OS and OMV6 I resorted to HAOS as my other machine was working fine running it was quietly working as I wanted it to in the background.
The Fan Control doesn’t work for me on HAOS despite fiddling with the Argon One script so I just pulled the plug on the Fan and found the CPU Temperature levels out at about 50DegC. Even when forcing the RPi to work a bit harder it raises to 55DegC then drops back down to around 50 again thanks to that big heat sink.
I checked the operating Temperatures of the RPi 4 and the two SSD I have fitted and can’t say I’m too worried as it is at the moment:
RPi 4B
CPU Temp 80 DegC max then throttles back
Samsung EVO:
Operating Temperature is 0 - 70 ℃
Critical temp is 85 °C
