Tiny $10 Raspberry Pi 5 PCie board brings low-cost, high-speed storage – the end of micro SD is nigh
PCIe speed, micro SD prices.
The Raspberry Pi 5's PCIe connection is proving to be the inspiration for a plethora of Pi products and super-fast storage is leading the charge. Pineboard's (formerly known as Pineberry Pi) latest PCIe-powered add-on is the HatDrive! Nano, a smaller footprint board for NVMe storage and other PCIe boards. The board goes on sale today for €9 (approximately $10) plus taxes.
We are launching a new board today 🫡Good things come in small packages and to prove that point, today we’re launching the Pineboards HatDrive! Nano, offering a 2230/2242 M-Key M.2 HAT for the Raspberry Pi in a tiny 55x34mm footprint!It is available for 9 EUR (+ VAT) from our… pic.twitter.com/u8QPdBPZAYJuly 8, 2024
We've reviewed the HatDrive! Top and HatDrive! Bottom and they are both excellent platforms on which to base a project, but at $10, the HatDrive! Nano is an enticing product.
The board design ensures it clears the heatsink of the official Raspberry Pi Active Cooler (and it should also clear the Argon THRML Active Cooler) but the cooling fan is kept clear. This means that the fan can pull cool air over the SoC (System on Chip), and push it through the cooling fins of the heatsink. The team has thought a lot about heat, and includes a 3-Amp buck converter (a step-down converter that decreases voltage while increasing current) which provides high-efficiency, low-heat output.
Living up to the "Nano" part of its name, the board measures just 55 by 34mm which could make it the smallest M.2 HAT available. Certainly, the smallest that we will soon have in for review. Compatible with 2230 and 2242 M.2 M-key boards, the HatDrive! Nano offers a significant speed boost over even the best MicroSD cards for the Raspberry Pi, while keeping the build small.
The small size means that this isn't a HAT compliant board. To meet that requirement the board must match the footprint of the GPIO and the four M2.5 mounting posts. But don't let that put you off, as the HatDrive! Nano is secured using two screws and provides access to the GPIO. A quick look at the blog post announcing the new board and we can see that all of the GPIO is accessible (HATs will need a header riser, but that is an easy fix. Access to the dual camera / display connectors is unfettered, handy for those of us who want to play with the official Raspberry Pi Camera Module 3. In fact, we don't need to connect an NVMe SSD to the HatDrive! Nano, we could add the Hailo-8L NPU, as used in the official Raspberry Pi AI Kit, or any other PCIe-based board.
Pineboards is also keen to point out that the HatDrive! Nano easily fits inside the official Raspberry Pi 5 case. This may not be a case that features on our best Raspberry Pi cases page, but it offers protection for your Raspberry Pi 5, and now your HatDrive! Nano too.
We've got a unit on the way for review, which will detail all of the information that you need to know before parting with your cash.
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Les Pounder is an associate editor at Tom's Hardware. He is a creative technologist and for seven years has created projects to educate and inspire minds both young and old. He has worked with the Raspberry Pi Foundation to write and deliver their teacher training program "Picademy".
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watzupken Overall, I think it is probably better to stop all the other small storage standards like CF cards. They cost ridiculously high while offering very mediocre performance. A mini SD card is very small as compared to a 2230 SSD, but I think it is possible for manufacturers to make some space in their device to accommodate the M2 SSD. I understand it will cost more because it is not just about having a M2 card slot, but I think it may be more cost efficient in the longer run.Reply -
NedSmelly
You’ve just reinvented CFExpress. CFExpress is basically PCIe with proprietary validation certifications applied, and packaged in a durable case/interface. There are hacky adapters that let you use 2230 SSDs but the user still needs to run validation testing to confirm it works in their camera/device etc - which is what they’re paying for in a plug and play product.watzupken said:Overall, I think it is probably better to stop all the other small storage standards like CF cards. They cost ridiculously high while offering very mediocre performance. A mini SD card is very small as compared to a 2230 SSD, but I think it is possible for manufacturers to make some space in their device to accommodate the M2 SSD. I understand it will cost more because it is not just about having a M2 card slot, but I think it may be more cost efficient in the longer run. -
FoxTread3
July 9, 2024 - I'm not all that Tech savvy so I would have like to see one of those things hooked up to a system or device. Seeing a postage stamp all by its lonesome, doesn't show how it's used on a piece mail. Just sayin..😏Admin said:Pineboard's latest PCie based product shrinks what you need for M.2 storage and AI add-on boards into $10 package.
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