Raspi SSD: Fast in the Raspberry Pi 5, but still too expensive
The Raspi manufacturer has sent out the first samples of its own SSD for the Raspi's PCIe interface. We put the 256 GByte model to the test.
The Raspberry Pi 5 does not have a direct M.2 connection. A HAT adapter is required for an SSD.
(Image: heise online)
- Lutz Labs
The 256 GByte SSD in 2230 format for the Raspi will cost 30 US dollars, the larger one with 512 GByte 45 dollars. Some German retailers are currently listing the small SSD at higher prices (ab 55,99 €), but shipping is not expected to start until next week.
We already have an SSD with PCI Express adapter for the Raspberry Pi 5. The Raspberry Pi SSD kit comes with the SSD already installed; the box also contains the spacers, screws and the pin header for the power supply.
Test in the PC
We put the SSD through our usual test course. First, we can confirm that it is a normal PCIe 3.0 SSD with four lanes in M.2 2230 format: The SSD reports itself as a Samsung SSD with the type designation MZ9LQ256HBJD-00BV. Including the firmware version, this appears to correspond pretty much exactly to the SSD that appeared in some Steam Decks from Valve around two years ago – so this SSD is not new. According to Samsung's own website, this SSD is no longer available, but according to Raspberry Pi Plc. it will be offered unchanged until the end of 2032.
The company has confirmed to us that various manufacturers produce the SSD – the Chinese company BiWin is also one of the partners. Depending on the batch, different memory chips and controllers can be installed on the SSD.
In the test with Iometer, the SSD achieves around 2 GByte/s when reading and just under 1.2 GByte/s when writing. When accessing random addresses, the Raspi SSD achieves almost 150,000 IOPS, when writing even over 180,000 – faster than a SATA SSD, but far from the values achieved by a current SSD with PCIe 4.0 or even PCIe 5.0.
The Raspi SSD completed the H2testw endurance test with only 230 MByte/s during full write, which indicates rather slow QLC flash with four bits per memory cell. The System Drive Benchmark from the PCMark 10 suite also assigns the SSD less than 1500 points. A Samsung 980 Pro achieves double the score here, while the Crucial T705 5.0 SSD achieves almost 5500 points.
Raspi tests
The SSD is in a better position in the Raspi: There is only one PCIe lane here, which also only provides version 2.0 on delivery. However, PCIe 3.0, i.e. more than 500 MByte/s, can be activated via the official configuration program.
For the measurement, we again used the Pi benchmarks from James Chambers. The Raspi SSD achieves around 37,200 points in 2.0 mode and is just behind the values that we determined for some other SSDs in the PCIe adapter test in c't 19/24: around 400 MByte/s for sequential reading and writing and around 100,000 IOPS when accessing random addresses.
When the PCIe interface was switched up to PCIe 3.0, most of the values almost doubled, except for writing random data. The Pi score rose to 48,314 points – only one SSD achieved a higher value in the adapter test. However, you will hardly notice any acceleration when working with the Raspi due to the doubling of the interface speed.
The Raspi SSD thus joins the ranks of the recommended SSDs for the Rapsi, although dealers should be more guided by the recommended retail price: Other 256 SSDs with a 30 mm overall length are currently available from 40 euros and 512s from just under 55 euros.
If you need even more capacity, you will have to look around at other manufacturers; a maximum of 2 TByte currently fits into the mini SSD format. The price starts at 130 euros – price per TByte is therefore far below that of the Raspi SSDs.
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