Raspberry Pi just released its own high-performance SSDs and SSD kits

Looking for high-performance storage for your Raspberry Pi 5 project? You’re in luck because the Raspberry Pi Foundation has released SSDs and SSD kits for its latest single-board computer. 

The SSDs — which can work in other hardware that uses of M.2 drives — are high-performance PCIe Gen 3-compliant SSDs capable of fast data transfer and are available in 256GB or 512GB capacity. 

Also: The best M.2 SSDs of 2024: Expert tested and reviewed

When making use of the 1-lane PCI Express 2.0 bus on Raspberry Pi 5, they can hit the following read/write performance figures:

To use this drive, you’ll need an M.2 HAT+, such as the official Raspberry Pi M.2 HAT+ or the Geekwork X1001 Alternatively, you can buy the kit that comes with the SSD and the M.2 HAT+, which represents a very good deal.

The official Raspberry Pi M.2 HAT+ also supports other SSDs as long as they have an M key edge connector and the 2230 or 2242 form factors. However, I have heard from users of the HAT that some third-party drives can be unreliable, so it’s good to see an official drive designed to work with the platform.

Also: How to add AI superpowers to your Raspberry Pi

The 256GB drive is priced at $30 on its own or $40 as a kit, while the 512GB drive costs $45 on its own or $55 as a kit. 

The 256GB SSD and SSD Kit will be trickling into stores starting today, while the 512GB variants are available to pre-order now for shipping by the end of November. You can pick up the drives from outlets such as CanaKit, SparkFun, and PiShop.us.