Raspberry Pi 500 keyboard PC has been modded with an NVMe M.2 slot leveraging the device's conspicuously empty PCB header

News
By
published

Limited to NVMe Gen 3 speeds like Pi Compute Module 5, though.

Raspberry Pi 500
(Image credit: Tom's Hardware)

Earlier this month, Raspberry Pi launched the Pi 500 keyboard PC, which takes the internals of a Raspberry Pi 5 and slaps them into a keyboard enclosure doubling as a PC once the user adds power input and a monitor. As noted in our review, this launch came with a baffling omission of NVMe M.2 storage support, an issue that modders are now fixing. Thus, it's no surprise to see that the Raspberry Pi 500 has been modified to allow NVMe Gen 3 capabilities akin to those in the Raspberry Pi 5, with that in mind — SD card storage is fairly slow, and entry-level working/casual PCs like Pi 500 can still benefit from NVMe storage snappiness.

Raspberry Pi 500

(Image credit: Tom's Hardware)

An unnamed Raspberry Pi 500 modder speaking to developer and TechTuber Jeff Geerling was quoted in a December 13 blog post clarifying the nature of the empty, deactivated M.2 header present on the original Pi 500 board and explaining the steps needed to restore full functionality. Be mindful that if you're looking to take on this project for yourself, you will need to have appropriate soldering equipment and a microscope to do the job properly — but readers already comfortable with high-end tweaking and repair tasks may be willing to make that trade-off. Jeff Geerling is on the record hoping for a more powerful "Pro" or "Pro Max" Raspberry PI 500 kit outright, that will "give us everything", including the M.2 slot and PoE+ support apparently cut from the Pi 500 PCBs prior to release.

Considering the fact we already rate the Raspberry Pi 500 a clean 4.5/5 stars, we do agree that a "Pro or Pro Max" version of the Raspberry P 500 would be ideal for users who may otherwise be deterred by its few downsides, like lacking NVMe Gen 3 support without modding. For pretty much any workload we could reasonably imagine on a Raspberry Pi 500, NVMe Gen 3 support should provide more than enough throughput, particularly compared to slower, past forms of flash storage like SD cards.

Overall, it's an honest shame that M.2 isn't already included with a native empty slot on the final Pi 500 board...but the parts remaining still make it possible for a determined modder, and of course we can't expect everything users demand from a small form factor PC in this pricing range.

See more Raspberry Pi News
TOPICS
Christopher Harper
Christopher Harper
Contributing Writer

Christopher Harper has been a successful freelance tech writer specializing in PC hardware and gaming since 2015, and ghostwrote for various B2B clients in High School before that. Outside of work, Christopher is best known to friends and rivals as an active competitive player in various eSports (particularly fighting games and arena shooters) and a purveyor of music ranging from Jimi Hendrix to Killer Mike to the Sonic Adventure 2 soundtrack.

4 Comments Comment from the forums
  • Notton
    I can understand PoE being optional, but the lack of NVMe slot (and power circuitry) is questionable.
    How much would that have added to the BoM? $1 to 5?
    Reply
  • Conor Stewart
    What components do they actually need to add for the M.2 slot to be functional? I would imagine it isn't much and isn't expensive in bulk. On something designed to be as close to an all in one desktop as possible leaving out the M.2 slot just seems like a really bad idea especially considering how easy it is to add one to a pi5.

    Having the space on the PCB for it and not including it makes it seem very half baked.

    It would have been better if they just used a connector like on the pi5 and left space in the pi500 for an M.2 module to be added later if needed, like the hats for the pi5. The same could have been done for POE. Instead they decided to add the footprints and circuitry needed to make these features work but decided not to actually include them for some reason.
    Reply
  • subspruce
    This feels like a computer in need of a higher-end counterpart or a refresh once pressure mounts
    Reply
  • eye4bear
    I doubt anyone would be upset if they had gone ahead and included the hardware etc. for the M.2 and upped the base price, say $5 to $7, even $10. Why in the world did they not just do this? This has pushed me into not considering buying a 500 and going with a standard 8gb Pi5 and adding the needed M.2 hat. I will not be as happy with it.
    Reply