Geekworm X1001 PCIe to M.2 HAT Key-M NVMe SSD PIP PCIe Peripheral Board for Raspberry Pi 5 Support M.2 2230/2242/2260/2280 SSD

Review of M.2 Hat on the Raspberry Pi5. All parts came carefully packaged, and the Hat was installed without any issues. But of note is that the standoffs used to hold the Hat (3) tie up the screw holes you'd normally use to hold the RPi5 in a case. So you'll have to consider how best to overcome this, either longer screws that pass through the case, or alternate method. You may also need to adjust or come up with an alternate case as the Hat adds to the overall height of the RPi5.

Super solid, works great. As it's HAT+ specification you might not actually need to add to these lines to /boot/firmware/config.txt but I did anyways:# Enable the PCIe external connectordtparam=pciex1# Force Gen 3.0 speedsdtparam=pciex1_gen=3And what I'm getting with a Sabrent 1TB PCIe 4:jazzy@pi-five:~ $ sudo nvme listNode Generic SN Model Namespace Usage Format FW Rev--------------------- --------------------- -------------------- ---------------------------------------- --------- -------------------------- ---------------- --------/dev/nvme0n1 /dev/ng0n1 48790459505660 Sabrent SB-ROCKET-NVMe4-1TB 1 1.00 TB / 1.00 TB 512 B + 0 B RKT4B5.1jazzy@pi-five:~ $ sudo hdparm -Tt /dev/nvme0n1p2/dev/nvme0n1p2:Timing cached reads: 4322 MB in 2.00 seconds = 2164.56 MB/secTiming buffered disk reads: 2244 MB in 3.00 seconds = 747.52 MB/secjazzy@pi-five:~ $ fio --name=writefile --size=1G --filesize=1G --filename=/tmp/fiotest.tmp --bs=1M --nrfiles=1 --direct=1 --sync=0 --randrepeat=0 --rw=write --refill_buffers --end_fsync=1 --iodepth=200 --ioengine=libaiowritefile: (g=0): rw=write, bs=(R) 1024KiB-1024KiB, (W) 1024KiB-1024KiB, (T) 1024KiB-1024KiB, ioengine=libaio, iodepth=200fio-3.33Starting 1 processJobs: 1 (f=1)writefile: (groupid=0, jobs=1): err= 0: pid=3385: Sat Jan 20 22:33:28 2024write: IOPS=773, BW=774MiB/s (812MB/s)(1024MiB/1323msec); 0 zone resetsslat (usec): min=31, max=5255, avg=42.96, stdev=163.15clat (msec): min=54, max=512, avg=251.31, stdev=94.73lat (msec): min=54, max=512, avg=251.35, stdev=94.72clat percentiles (msec):| 1.00th=[ 55], 5.00th=[ 55], 10.00th=[ 104], 20.00th=[ 209],| 30.00th=[ 257], 40.00th=[ 257], 50.00th=[ 257], 60.00th=[ 257],| 70.00th=[ 257], 80.00th=[ 257], 90.00th=[ 380], 95.00th=[ 447],| 99.00th=[ 498], 99.50th=[ 506], 99.90th=[ 510], 99.95th=[ 514],| 99.99th=[ 514]bw ( KiB/s): min=790528, max=794624, per=100.00%, avg=792576.00, stdev=2896.31, samples=2iops : min= 772, max= 776, avg=774.00, stdev= 2.83, samples=2lat (msec) : 100=9.67%, 250=14.36%, 500=75.20%, 750=0.78%cpu : usr=18.15%, sys=3.10%, ctx=1033, majf=0, minf=8IO depths : 1=0.1%, 2=0.2%, 4=0.4%, 8=0.8%, 16=1.6%, 32=3.1%, >=64=93.8%submit : 0=0.0%, 4=100.0%, 8=0.0%, 16=0.0%, 32=0.0%, 64=0.0%, >=64=0.0%complete : 0=0.0%, 4=99.9%, 8=0.0%, 16=0.0%, 32=0.0%, 64=0.0%, >=64=0.1%issued rwts: total=0,1024,0,0 short=0,0,0,0 dropped=0,0,0,0latency : target=0, window=0, percentile=100.00%, depth=200Run status group 0 (all jobs):WRITE: bw=774MiB/s (812MB/s), 774MiB/s-774MiB/s (812MB/s-812MB/s), io=1024MiB (1074MB), run=1323-1323msecDisk stats (read/write):nvme0n1: ios=3/972, merge=30/0, ticks=16/217358, in_queue=217374, util=84.17%jazzy@pi-five:~ $ fio --name=readfile --size=1G --filesize=1G --filename=/tmp/fiotest.tmp --bs=1M --nrfiles=1 --direct=1 --sync=0 --randrepeat=0 --rw=read --refill_buffers --end_fsync=1 --iodepth=200 --ioengine=libaioreadfile: (g=0): rw=read, bs=(R) 1024KiB-1024KiB, (W) 1024KiB-1024KiB, (T) 1024KiB-1024KiB, ioengine=libaio, iodepth=200fio-3.33Starting 1 processJobs: 1 (f=1)readfile: (groupid=0, jobs=1): err= 0: pid=3392: Sat Jan 20 22:33:36 2024read: IOPS=828, BW=828MiB/s (869MB/s)(1024MiB/1236msec)slat (usec): min=21, max=532, avg=58.84, stdev=73.93clat (msec): min=35, max=476, avg=236.92, stdev=86.88lat (msec): min=35, max=476, avg=236.98, stdev=86.83clat percentiles (msec):| 1.00th=[ 37], 5.00th=[ 58], 10.00th=[ 109], 20.00th=[ 211],| 30.00th=[ 241], 40.00th=[ 241], 50.00th=[ 241], 60.00th=[ 241],| 70.00th=[ 241], 80.00th=[ 241], 90.00th=[ 355], 95.00th=[ 414],| 99.00th=[ 464], 99.50th=[ 472], 99.90th=[ 477], 99.95th=[ 477],| 99.99th=[ 477]bw ( KiB/s): min=839680, max=849920, per=99.58%, avg=844800.00, stdev=7240.77, samples=2iops : min= 820, max= 830, avg=825.00, stdev= 7.07, samples=2lat (msec) : 50=4.30%, 100=4.88%, 250=72.36%, 500=18.46%cpu : usr=0.00%, sys=5.43%, ctx=994, majf=0, minf=12808IO depths : 1=0.1%, 2=0.2%, 4=0.4%, 8=0.8%, 16=1.6%, 32=3.1%, >=64=93.8%submit : 0=0.0%, 4=100.0%, 8=0.0%, 16=0.0%, 32=0.0%, 64=0.0%, >=64=0.0%complete : 0=0.0%, 4=99.9%, 8=0.0%, 16=0.0%, 32=0.0%, 64=0.0%, >=64=0.1%issued rwts: total=1024,0,0,0 short=0,0,0,0 dropped=0,0,0,0latency : target=0, window=0, percentile=100.00%, depth=200Run status group 0 (all jobs):READ: bw=828MiB/s (869MB/s), 828MiB/s-828MiB/s (869MB/s-869MB/s), io=1024MiB (1074MB), run=1236-1236msecDisk stats (read/write):nvme0n1: ios=949/0, merge=0/0, ticks=200810/0, in_queue=200811, util=92.38%

It was easy to install I added a heat-sink to mine, since it was getting pretty warm when I used it! Less than 5 minutes to install. I cloned my SD Card and now boot from the M.2 SSD. It's faster than the SD card.

Easy fit. Cable was not difficult to install. Holds the 1TB SSD and easy to configure in the boot.config.Loaded the OS on it and made it the boot drive.

If you are running an OS other than RaspberryOS, you will need help.I got this HAT to use an M.2 SSD with Kali. I did all of the directions and instructions provided by the Geekwork Wiki page, but I need help getting the SSD to be detected. So I swapped SD cards to my RaspbienOS install and THEN was able to update the EEPROM and THEN was able to get the SSD HAT to work and the drive to be recognized. I then used the Raspberry Pi Imager App to install Kali to the SSD, changed the boot settings, and was off to the races. Not an easy setup/install by any means, but you can get to where you want to go, if you take the right steps.

This really made a difference in my Raspberry Pi 5's performance! I saw my score jump from 2K all the way to 30K. Definitely worth it if you're looking to get more out of your Pi 5.

Works great, leaves access to GPIO

This NVME hat thing works well with my Pi5. It rightfully urges you to use the 27W Pi5 charger that can do 5a at 5v so don't overlook that. The obvious great thing about this mod is how much faster the Pi5 runs, loads, transfers etc. It really makes a difference, at least with the 8GB Pi5.Couple things to watch out for. If you are thinking this will fit in a case, it probably won't because of the chonk 5v input on top of the board. It sticks out higher than the rest of the board and prevents me from putting the lid back on my case by a micron. Also know that the LED indicator light flashes like a strobe light with a brightness equal to 1000 suns.