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

Introducing the X1003 NVMe SSD shield, the perfect solution for expanding storage capacity and enhancing performance for your Raspberry Pi 5. With its elegant and ultra-compact design, this shield allows you to install the SSD inside the Raspberry Pi official case, providing both protection and a sleek appearance.

The X1003 supports two M.2 NVMe SSD form factors: 2242 and 2230. Its PCIe 2.0/3.0 interface ensures lightning-fast data transfer speeds of up to 8Gbps, enabling you to transfer large amounts of data within seconds. Additionally, it seamlessly integrates with the Raspberry Pi official passive cooler, minimizing any impact on cooling performance. The inclusion of mounting holes and standoffs provides added protection for your solid-disk drives while effectively dissipating heat. The built-in LED light indicates the current reading or writing status, eliminating any guesswork.

Whether you're creating a home media center or building a Network-attached storage (NAS) system, the X1003 is the perfect storage solution. It allows you to store and stream your own videos, music, and digital photos within your home or even across the globe. Furthermore, the X1003 supports operating system booting from your SSD, resulting in faster application launches, web serving, and file copying.

Compatible With
- Raspberry Pi 5B

- Ideal PCIe storage solution for Raspberry Pi 5 - M.2 NVMe SSD Shield
- Install inside the Raspberry Pi official case for a sleek and protected setup
- Supports high-capacity M.2 NVMe solid-state drives up to 4TB
- 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
- Features a blue LED indicator that displays power and drive status
- Equipped with an integrated high-efficiency DC/DC step-down converter, providing up to 3.5A of power for your SSD
- Powering via both GPIO pin header and FFC, ensuring sufficient power supply without any worries

- Compatible with the official active cooler with minimal impact on cooling performance

* 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/X1002/X1003 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)

- X1003 V1.1 NVMe shield x1

- FFC 22mm x1

- Screw pack x1