this post was submitted on 28 Sep 2023
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Wow the foundation really hates the idea of putting reliable dependable storage on their device.
Like would it kill you to have an M2 slot?
Honestly, given the improvement of every other capability in the boards over the years, it's really mad we don't have an m.2 slot as an option. Even if they ended up having to create a slightly more expensive SKU (which they seem to have no issues with given the memory options for the Pi4), I don't think anyone would complain
Edit: apparently there's gonna be an M.2 HAT, so that's something at least, would prefer an option to have it on the board and the GPIO header available for something else
The single least reliable part of a raspberry pi is the storage. Always has been.
I don't even need more professor performance, because the storage performance is the worst part.
The professor really is what sets this device apart from competition
Are we talking Gilligan's Island or Futurama?
Not sure, but i couldn’t help myself :D
Professor Calculus from Tintin
Talk about setting the Wayback Machine on high..
Likely an issue with the pci express lane not being able to handle nvme and everything else.
I thought that might be the case too, but the launch page has a line that suggests an M.2 HAT will use the new PCI-E interface, so it does make you wonder why they couldn't include the connector on the board. Might just be me, but I feel like people have been asking for this since they gave up asking for a SATA connector
Probably form factor reasons. The RPi5 doesn’t break the form the RPi3(?) set.
Looking at photos of the Pi5 board, the PCIe pins are a separate ribbon connector. I am guessing the M2 hat will just use the GPIO pins for power and hardware detection, and pass the others through.
I agree it would be have been useful to have an M2 slot (or maybe eMMC connector) integrated indirectly to the board. Other similar SBCs have done so. Perhaps the Pi designers were concerned about board space or thermal considerations. I imagine they want to keep the form factor as similar as possible each version, so they maybe can’t make drastic changes to the board layout.
An M.2 makes it really difficult for a kid to pop the card out, plug it into a computer and flash it.
I think RPI Foundation is still holding onto its education-targeted roots.
I think the compute models are more targeted at the industrial/commercial side of requirements.
And any homelab enthusiast would probably be better buying a cheap used/refurbished thin-client
Yes, I think the Foundation still favours SD cards because they are cheap and easy to use. Which suits the Pi’s original base of education, hobbyists etc.
Of course that doesn’t stop the market seeing things differently and dropping Pis straight in to production use cases instead of moving up to the Compute modules.
I think the SD card problems are a little exaggerated too. They may not be the fastest but they are reliable enough if reputable brands are used.
I had three cards from Kingston and SanDisk fail on me quite regularly while using the Pi.
M.2 / external storage is definitely the way to go
Well, personally I could do without and if it reduces costs I'm for it. Raspberry pi was always about being cheap.
Yeah, this should be higher up. Pi’s have usually been around the $35-40 mark, and this one is going to be $100. My B, B+ came as a kit with power supply, SD card, and a cheapo case for $45. Now you can’t even get just the 3B+ for less than $50. My Pi’s are doing boring, simple work like running my 3D printer, running PiHole and a VPN, or being a print server. None need $100 computers to do the job. I guess as long as earlier Pi versions are still available, NBD.
$100 is starting to price out of the cheap educational/hobbyist/experimenter range and send people looking elsewhere.
That’s Compute Module carrier board territory.
The official Compute Module carrier board has a 1xPCIe slot for an NVMe or SATA adapter, and there are 3rd party carrier boards with a M.2 slot on them.
You can boot over Usb now, but yeah would be nice to have m.2
They said they will probably add a M.2 hat.
Voltage is potentially a concern. Can you run the Pi and a M.2 drive on 5V 3A?
Yes. See orange pi 5. The pi 5 comes w 5amp power supply now.
Yep! I run my pi off’a m.2 SSD, I love my case!
I think M.2 would require controller of sorts and would consume considerably more power. However nothing is stopping them from implementing flash chip. Even 8GB is more than enough for what device is normally used.
Pretty sure electrically it's just a Mini PCIe slot, which it already has a controller for.
Hm, in that case, M.2 slot would be a nice add, even thought it might be a challenging thing to squeeze in physically.