I Found the Best NVMe Hat for the Raspberry Pi 5

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In this video I test every NVMe hat I can get my with my Raspberry Pi 5.

Maximize your Raspberry Pi 5's performance with a 1 TB EVO NVMe SSD, overclocked to Gen 3 speeds for accelerated functionality across all tasks. This setup, inclusive of a CORAL AI edge TPU and webcam for Frigate real-time person detection, displays on an external HDMI monitor while maintaining an impressive low power consumption of about 7 watts—a stark contrast to the 30 watts drawn by a standard LED light. Traditional SD cards, despite being a staple since Raspberry Pi 1, fall short in speed, storage capacity, and reliability, with even high-end options like the SanDisk Extreme capped at 80MB/s read speeds. The introduction of NVMe support on Raspberry Pi 5 revolutionizes storage solutions with significantly faster speeds and higher reliability. Our in-depth performance analysis explores the best setups, covering installation, overclocking to PCIe Gen 3 speeds, boot time benchmarks, read/write speeds, general performance via Geekbench, and power efficiency. Additionally, a comparison with previous Raspberry Pi models highlights noteworthy enhancements. This guide includes practical insights on setup configurations, from physical assembly to making the SSD bootable, alongside considerations for choosing the right SSD size to avoid partitioning issues. Discover the transformative impact of NVMe on Raspberry Pi 5 and unlock unparalleled performance and efficiency for your projects."

### Key Highlights:
- **Enhanced Raspberry Pi 5 Performance:** Leveraging 1 TB EVO NVMe SSD and Gen 3 overclocking.
- **Innovative Use Cases:** Incorporating CORAL AI edge TPU and real-time detection on minimal power.
- **SD vs. NVMe:** Transitioning from slow SD cards to faster, more reliable NVMe storage.
- **Comprehensive Performance Analysis:** Detailed setup guides, benchmarking, and comparison with prior models.
- **Optimal Configuration Tips:** Insights on physical setup, software configuration, and SSD size considerations.

[dmitryni]

How will you cool the nvme card during active operation? With this arrangement in the HAT, installing a heatsink is almost impossible, and the heating there is significant and the nvme card will also heat the processor.

[KevinBond-qk]

Since the NVME runs hot, why not add the cooling pads too? It will run even faster.

[SirHackaLt.]

I have the Pimoroni board but I experience pauses every so often. It’s as if the SSD has disappeared and then reappears again. Most odd. Using a Crucial NVMe 1Tb drive.

[chrisumali]

thanks for the demo and info, have a great day

[Rob_]

I bought the NVMe hat from Waveshare and that one also ticks the 800 something MB/s with my Samsung EVO 980 Pro.
One thing I don't like on most hats is that there is no way to have cooling on the NVMeEven worse, it's sandwiched such that there it hugs the (fairly hot) Pi5 board without any proper airflow between the boards ...
This is screaming for a larger case where we do not sandwich the two boards but put them next to each other

[iblackfeathers]

awesome helpful video.
i am still waiting for a decent rpi 5 case that can house an nvme board and is readily available. so far, that argon case is on my radar but hoping for better, readily available options with awesome cooling. maybe even keep the official cooler in the case since it beats most third party cooling options.

[akam]

all i want now are doubled pcie lanes...then my dream of a tiny portable, raid 1, nvme NAS with over 10TB of data is complete

[omeryehezkely]

I find the Orangepi 5 plus a better option if you want an NVME SSD.

[srwx]

Any recommendations for a case? I figure most of the usual cases are not designed for the bottom hat so adequate space and thus cooling could be an issue. The argument of NVMEs being more reliable than SD cards is often made in this context, but I suppose the SSD needs to "breath" in order for that argument to hold true.

[ozpilot]

I just bought the dual NVME M.2 version - so I can boot to Rasbian or Kali.

[luigiprovencher]

It's not at HAT. It's a Base but it actually works better as a HAT because when I was using it with the official raspberry pi case the cable was blocking access to the sd card port and I actually had to modify the case to work with the base as a base. That should've given you a longer cable with it and they should've put a input and out on it of some kind so that you could format the drive from a computer if you had to because otherwise you have to keep on switching the boot order and using a sd car or flash drive to do it if you want to try different OS's because I haven't figured out how to do network installations, yet.

[superangrybrit]

Very good video! Seems the NVMe hat was the killer addons after all. Cheers! 👍

[roberthapunkt]

Using a PIMORONI I keep having issues with WIFI... it is very weak and constantly loses connection. Does anyone have a solution for this problem?

[cmdrwhiskeygalore]

AI Bundle (Hailo 8L) for Raspberry Pi 5 card now the best. Seems 5 months is a long time in the Raspberry Pi world

[cx]

Most top hats interfere with the cooling. Still big issue with Pi5 and these hats, either top and/or bottom is good case. More & more cases are coming.

[nathanchilds]

New to RaspberryPi and this OS. I have my pi5 using a server/lite OS edition. How can I copy the sd card to the new drive via command line?

[bsbhro]

My score is 49411 with Pineberry Bottom HAT and Intenso 256GB-Nvme

[Bloodysugar]

OK, now is time for me to build a 1To jukebox for my car player. ^^

[PaulGrayUK]

Starts watching having ordered Pimoroni NVMe base the other day and still awaiting that and pi5 and case, so be fun. Thinkers crossed, though was cheap so it won't matter if it works.

[galdakaMusic]

Is posible a metalic case for all? Google coral included