PCIe M.2 HAT+ for Raspberry Pi 5, NVMe SSD PIP PCIe Peripheral Board With Extra Screw Sets for 2280/2260/2242/2230 NVMe SSD

If you’ve upgraded to the Raspberry Pi 5 and want to take full advantage of its new PCIe capabilities, the iUniker PCIe M.2 HAT+ is the expansion board you need. It brings fast, reliable NVMe SSD storage to the Pi in a compact, well-designed form — perfect for makers, DIY server builders, or anyone using the Pi 5 as a desktop replacement.Why It’s a Game Changer:⚡ Full NVMe SSD Support: Add an M.2 M-Key NVMe SSD (2230–2280) directly to your Pi 5. Say goodbye to slow microSD cards — this HAT+ makes booting and data transfer blazing fast.🔧 Plug-and-Play with Minimal Fuss: Setup is straightforward. Just connect it to the PCIe FFC port on the Pi 5 and you're good to go (with a little help from the Pi 5’s firmware updates).🌡️ Built-in Heatsink & Active Cooling: Includes a well-sized aluminum heatsink and small fan to keep both the SSD and Pi cool under load. It’s efficient and super quiet.🔩 Stackable HAT+ Design: Keeps a low profile and integrates cleanly with official Raspberry Pi 5 cases (with minor modifications).💡 LED Activity Light: Handy indicator for SSD activity so you know your drive is working properly.Use Cases:Perfect for Raspberry Pi NAS builds, home servers, media centers, and power users who want the performance of a full SSD setup without the size or noise of a traditional PC.Final Thoughts:The iUniker PCIe M.2 HAT+ is one of the best upgrades you can add to your Raspberry Pi 5. With its clean design, active cooling, and support for fast NVMe drives, it turns your Pi into a serious performance machine.

Plug and play. You need to choose the nvme drive carefully to assure compatibility. Look for a list of drives that work with the official HAT.

I got this to use an NVMe drive that I had lying around, to balance some loads in some video production work that I was setting up a little server LAN for. I didn't need it to perform as advertised, and I fully expected an especially slow SATA transfer rate. That being said, it is an actual PCIe-3.0 device, which performs at PCIe-3.0 speeds. Considering there are no moving parts, the spacer positioning doesn't matter on the posts - so it was also very easy to screw down with the (lacking) provided guidance.That said, it wasn't at all obvious that you need to keep the port plug in order to install it. You're not SUPPOSED to need it by the design of the Raspberry Pi 5 - but if you threw that little plastic piece out, you won't be able to install the connector properly.Overall I am pleasantly surprised. Even though the documentation is terrible, this is a fantastic peripheral!

I own both the official Raspberry Pi PCIe Hat and this one from iUniker. To me, this model has three advantages over the official hat, and one minor downside:Advantages:(1) It can take any size NVME drive up to the most common 2280 length, while the official hat is restricted to 2230 and 2242 lengths only. It's much easier for me to swap between different builds because I have more of these longer 2280 models, which are also often a bit cheaper and more plentiful than the smaller sizes.(2) Even though this iUniker hat accommodates the longer NVME drives, it covers a bit less overall surface area than the official one. It also has some cutouts that allow more air from the fan to circulate around and upwards.(3) Additionally, there is easier access to the 40-pin connector on the Pi 5, since the board has a cutout around that area. So there is no need to buy extension pins, which are not included with the official hat.Downside:The only negative I have found is that the board extends further in the direction towards the USB and Ethernet connectors. This can cause interference with various cases. I usually use my Pi 5's with just a base, or mounted on something else, so this isn't a big deal for me, but you may want to consider it if you intend to put it into one of the standard cases. It should be easy enough to modify one with a Dremel tool or knife.Photos:As you can see in the photos, I own both models, and took these side-by-side shots so that you can compare them visually. Note that I happened to have swapped the official Raspberry Pi 256 GB 2230 NVME with another ORICO 2230 drive. I programmed the same image into both of them, so that doesn't matter. I bought the official NVME and hat from Canakit as part of a complete Pi 5 package.Here is the Amazon listing for the 256 GB ORICO drive shown in my photos. I bought it at the same time I bought this iUniker hat. This drive is a few dollars cheaper than the official Raspberry Pi NVME, but the official one does come pre-programmed. It includes a cute little metal heat dissipation plate that adds some bling to it: https://a.co/d/fDcfx7dYou can also now use the Raspberry Pi SD Card Copier program included in the newer Raspbian builds to clone your SD card image to the NVME. It's located in Accessories/SD Card Copier. Just select the SD card as the "From" device, and the NVME as the "To" target.After cloning to the NVME, see the included iUniker foldout sheet that shows you the simple edits you need to use to set the bootloader to boot from the NVME instead of the SD card. Power down, remove the SD card, reboot and you're up and running on the NVME card.

Booted first try with a Samsung 990 EVO Plus 1TB. Had trouble with other hats. LED indicator would have been helpful if I had problems, which I did not. Other HATs did not have LEDs and royally sucked for troubleshooting and never worked anyways.10/10 would recommend.