wavesharePCIe to M.2 Adapter for Raspberry Pi 5, Supports NVMe Protocol M.2 Solid State Drive, High-Speed Reading/Writing, HAT + Standard

I had no problem assembling the Waveshare PCIe to M.2 Adapter for my Raspberry Pi 5 following their video and website tutorial and had it up and running with my RPi 5 4GB in less than half an hour.The Bookworm OS now boots up off of the SSD module and I have upped the PCIe speed to the 'PCIe 3' mode from the 'PCIe 2' mode without any issues.I used a quality Transcend 256GB SSD module with the Waveshare adapter, but not all brands of SSDs will work with the Waveshare adapter. Research your SSD selection carefully.

Works great w/ PCIE Gen3 M2 drive. Just a note: standoffs won't fit with my heatsink and still have enough room for airflow, but easy to find another screw.

These do not come with a marker to show you the correct orientation despite the picture. There's a misleading mark on the board that actually leads you into believing that inserting the cable backwards is the correct way. The item is not as pictured because it's missing the arrow indicating proper orientation!I like the cutout for the fan and mounting is very solid. I can boot my Pi 5 without a problem... even a pre-packaged image from a vendor boots without a problem. I flashed the drive in a USB NVMe enclosure with Windows Raspberry Pi Imager, and then moved it to the Pi and it booted instantly.

1. It works flawlessly2. I wish the Pi boards used this coating. Suoer high quality.3. The cutout for the fan is key.I couldn't be happier.

The Waveshare PCIe to M.2 Adapter allows me to see the NVME drive, and even read and write to it (the Raspberry Pi Imager is able to see the drive and write the OS partitions to it). However my Pi will not boot from NVME with the Waveshare device.Waveshare support says it's a connection issue (despite my photo showing the correct cable orientation) and sent me a video, where the cable orientation was wrong in the beginning of their video, but correct by the end of the video.2 other oddities about my Waveshare product:it does not have the arrow on the PCB showing the correction cable orientation.The activity light (ACT) does not blink during read/write operations.This device is useful for additional storage but not for boot storage, which makes it useless for me.

Screw head in the 2242 size mount position doesn't loosen and strips immediately.

I have had this for awhile now though I didn't have access to a 2242 nvme pcie to really give this a good test to see how it worked with my raspberry pi 5.Setup was pretty easy though I did end up putting the cable backwards even though it said many times to match it with the arrow on the device. For some reason I mistook the advice for matching it with the white dot.Pretty simple setup with the drive I got that was recommended in this listing. Its getting around 810.41 MB/sec transfer speeds in gen=3 mode.There are a lot of tutorials out there, one simple one you can check is by Explaining Computers to get you setup real quickly.Overall it was an interesting experience as I have not used a hat for my pi before and it was interesting to know I can add on a lot more now.

This Waveshare PCIe to M.2 Adapter is a fantastic upgrade for any Raspberry Pi 5 owner seeking the ultimate storage performance. It allows you to connect NVMe SSDs, which are significantly faster than traditional microSD cards or SATA-based SSDs. This translates to quicker boot times, faster application loading, and a more responsive overall experience.The compatibility with the Pi PoE HAT is a huge plus. You can power your Pi and connect the NVMe drive simultaneously using a single Ethernet cable – a clean and efficient setup perfect for projects with limited space.