HackerGadgets has launched a few Raspberry Pi 5 PCIe HAT+ boards including one M.2 NVMe 2230/2242 HAT+ that fits into the official Raspberry Pi 5 case with proper cooling.
We’ve seen many M.2 PCIe HAT+ boards of the Raspberry Pi 5 boards from companies such as Pineboards, Waveshare, or Geekworm, but none of them won’t fit in the official red and white case, at least if you’re not ready to sacrifice active-cooling, but HackerGadgets “NVME Hat for Raspberry Pi 5” keeps the fan by simply allowing users to mount it on the bottom of the board.
HackerGadgets “NVME Hat for Raspberry Pi 5” specifications:
- Compatible SBCs – Raspberry Pi 5 and other compatible SBCs with a 16-pin PCIe connector and mounting holes
- PCIe interface – 16-pin PCIe FPC connector up to PCIe Gen3 speeds
- M.2 socket – Support PCIe Gen2/Gen3 x1, M.2 2230 and 2242 SSDs
- Cooling – PWM fan support with mounting on the bottom side of the board.
- Dimensions – Designed for the official Raspberry Pi 5 case with cutouts for the enclosure lid allowing it to snap securely into place.
The HAT has also been designed to make it easy to replace the M.2 SSD when in the case, as the user simply needs to pop up the top lid to replace the SSD without having to tear down the complete case. HackerGadgets says they provide an FPC cable meeting the 90-ohm impedance requirement from the official Raspberry Pi PCIe cable specifications to enable PCIe Gen3 speeds.
The first time I looked at the design, I thought they had to completely remove the fan from the enclosure, but instead mounting holes on the bottom side allows the users to reuse the fan from the official case to keep the system cool even with an M.2 SSD.
The HAT+ board ships with a short FPC PCIe cable, M2 standoff and M2 screw for SSD mounting, several M2.5 standoffs, screws, and nuts for mounting the HAT to the Raspberry Pi 5 and to attach the fan.
As mentioned in the introduction, HackerGadgets also developers other PCIe HATs: one for M.2 2280 SSDs, and two “NVME+LTE/5G Hat” for SSD and 5G or 4G LTE connectivity with or without SMA connectors. We had previously written about the Sixfab 5G Modem HAT for Raspberry Pi 5 using a USB 3.0 connection, but that’s only for cellular connectivity, while the “NVME+LTE/5G Hat” offers both NVMe storage (Key-M) and 5G connectivity via Key-B module.
The NVME Hats for Raspberry Pi 5 sells for $12.99, while the NVME+LTE/5G Hat goes for $32.99 obviously without a 5G modem and antennas… You’ll find all four HAT+ expansion boards on the company’s online store. The website is completely new and without contact details, so it looks dodgy, but the developers pinged me on Twitter, and the team is behind the PiCast KVM, so it’s not their first project.
Jean-Luc started CNX Software in 2010 as a part-time endeavor, before quitting his job as a software engineering manager, and starting to write daily news, and reviews full time later in 2011.
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