Best SSD for Raspberry Pi 5 ?

Question

I've recently upgraded to the Raspberry Pi 5 and I'm looking to boost its performance with an SSD. I've heard that the Pi 5 supports NVMe SSDs via its PCIe interface, which is exciting. I'm wondering what experiences you've had with different SSDs on the Pi 5.

What's the best SSD you've used in terms of speed, reliability, and compatibility? Are there any specific brands or models you'd recommend? I'm also curious about power consumption and heat generation – are there any SSDs that run particularly cool?

Additionally, has anyone compared the performance difference between using an SSD and the traditional microSD card on the Pi 5? Any insights on setup, configuration, or potential pitfalls would be greatly appreciated.

Donna_Lily · Accepted Answer

Get the Geekworm X1001 PCIe to M.2 HAT KEY-M NVMe SSD PIP PCIe Peripheral Board for Raspberry Pi 5, and you can use NVMe SSDs such as Samsung 990 EVO SSD.

WillardNonar · Answer

Re: "Get any PCIe to M.2 HAT, then get..." - yeah pretty much. Most of these hats are just simple pass-through boards so they dont really affect performance that much. If you care about reliability tho, just remember:

Pi power supplies can be a bit finicky with high-power drives

Heat will throttle you if you dont have decent airflow

Even a cheap ssd is gonna outlast a microsd card by years I totally agree with the move to nvme. MicroSD cards are fine for basic projects but they always seem to corrupt at the worst possible time lol. Getting off the sd card is the single best thing you can do for a pi 5 tbh.

Ma Mama · Answer

Get any PCIe to M.2 HAT, then get any M.2 SSDs.