Eben Upton, the creator of Raspberry Pi, brought something up a few days ago on the project’s official blog. He said that when the Raspberry Pi 5 launched a year ago, he expected people to get excited over its increased power, but instead, the power button and PCIe port generated far more anticipation.
The PCIe port was particularly significant because many users wanted to connect an SSD to these small mini-PCs. Although it has long been possible to do so indirectly, the Raspberry Pi Foundation has now made that option much more accessible.
A few months ago, the company introduced a small board in HAT format that docks directly on top of the main board, featuring an SSD slot. This board, called the M.2 HAT+, supports M.2 “M” drives in 2230 or 2242 format. With this accessory, you can achieve transfer rates of up to 500 MB/s.
The company has now introduced two different SSDs compatible with the M.2 HAT+. The variants offer 256 GB and 512 GB capacities and provide significantly better transfer rates than traditional microSD cards, including the official A2 cards available in the Raspberry Pi store.
The 256 GB drive costs $30, or $40 when purchased with the M.2 HAT+ kit, while the 512 GB drive is priced at $45 on its own or $55 with the kit.
Both options are particularly appealing for users looking to utilize this type of storage, which is much more effective for various applications compared to the traditional reliance on microSD cards. If you need good transfer speeds, this device is certainly a dream come true.
Image | Raspberry Pi
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