Giving your Raspberry Pi 5 speedy data transfer and super-fast boot!

Introducing the X1000 NVMe SSD shield, the perfect solution for expanding storage capacity on your Raspberry Pi 5. With its sleek and compact design, this shield allows for easy attachment of two M.2 SSD lengths (2242 and 2230) to your Raspberry Pi 5. The PCIe 2.0/3.0 interface enables lightning-fast data transfer rates of up to 8Gbps, allowing you to transfer large amounts of data in seconds.

The X1000 is specifically designed to fit on top of the Raspberry Pi 5, similar to a traditional HAT, and provides a 40-pin header for easy access to the GPIO. You can continue using your favorite HATs while also taking advantage of this NVMe shield. Its compact design ensures full compatibility with the Raspberry Pi's official passive cooler, without compromising on heat dissipation. The mounting holes and standoffs offer protection for the solid-disk drives while effectively dissipating heat for optimal performance. Additionally, the built-in LED light indicates the reading or writing status, eliminating any guesswork.

The X1000 is the perfect storage solution for creating a home media center or building a network-attached storage (NAS) system. You can store and stream your own videos, music, and digital photos within your home or even across the globe. Furthermore, the X1000 supports booting the operating system from your SSD, resulting in faster app launches, web serving, and file copying.

Compatible With
- Raspberry Pi 5B

- Ideal PCIe storage solution for Raspberry Pi 5 - M.2 NVMe SSD Shield
- Supports up to 4TB M.2 NVMe solid-state drives
- Supports two M.2 NVMe SSD form factors: 2242, 2230
- Supports PCIe 2.0 5Gbps / PCIe 3.0 8Gbps for speedy data transfer and super-fast boot
- Compatible with the official active cooler without affecting cooling performance
- LED indicator (blue) displays power and drive status
- Integrated high-efficiency DC/DC step-down converter, providing a maximum of 3.5A to power your SSD
- Stackable design allows for attachment on bottom of other HATs
- Powered through the 40-pin GPIO header and PCIe FFC
- Compatible with the HAT+ STANDBY power state (automatically turns off after the Pi 5 shuts down)

* NVMe SSD Incompatibility list on the bottom of the page.

Test Conditions

-System board details: Raspberry Pi 5 Model B Rev 1.0 , 4G RAM

-Interface board details: X1000, X1001 and X1002 NVMe Shield

-Operation system: Raspberry Pi OS with desktop (Debian12 (bookworm), 32bit, Release date: October 10th 2023)

-Storage details: Netac N930E-PRO M.2 NVMe 128GB

Testing the SSD speed from command line with dd

1) To test the write speed, writing 1 GB of data in 10 blocks of 100 MB.

2) To test the read speed, use dd to read our entire TestingFile file generated from the last command, in 10 blocks of 100 MB each.

Run at PCIe 2.0

Run at PCIe 3.0
 

As seen above, the final results with the dd command are:

  -Write speed: 379 MB/s at PCIe 2.0, 603MB/s at PCIe 3.0
  -Read speed: 415 MB/s at PCie 2.0, 781MB/s at PCIe 3.0

Testing disk drive read speed with hdparm

Run at PCIe 2.0, average read rate: 395.5 MB/s (3 samples)

Run at PCIe 3.0, average read rate: 768.3 MB/s (3 samples)

-  X1000 V1.5 NVMe shield x1

-  Screw pack x1