Raspberry Pi launches NVMe SSDs for Raspberry Pi 5 users

These SSDs are available for individual purchase or as part of ready-to-use kits that include the company’s M.2 HAT+ adapter.

Eben Upton, Founder and CEO of Raspberry Pi, highlighted the motivation behind the launch: “When we launched Raspberry Pi 5, almost exactly a year ago, I thought the thing people would get most excited about was the three-fold increase in performance over 2019’s Raspberry Pi 4. But very quickly it became clear that it was the other new features – the power button (!), and the PCI Express port – that had captured people’s imagination.”

The PCI Express port on the Raspberry Pi 5 has opened up various expansion possibilities, including the use of Ethernet adapters, AI accelerators, and even PC graphics cards. According to Upton, however, the most popular application has been connecting an NVMe SSD to the port: “If no-compromises performance is your goal, you’ll want to run Raspberry Pi OS from an SSD, and Raspberry Pi SSDs are the perfect choice,” he added.

The new SSDs come in two capacities: a 256GB drive priced at $30 (or $40 as part of a kit), and a 512GB model for $45 (or $55 as a kit). Both drives offer high-speed 4KB random read and write performance, with 40,000 and 70,000 IOPS respectively. The 256GB model is available for purchase immediately, while the 512GB version is available for pre-order, with shipping expected by the end of November.

With these new SSD offerings, Raspberry Pi aims to provide users with a cost-effective way to maximise their Raspberry Pi 5's performance.

Images courtesy of Raspberry Pi