“Absolutely Brilliant - Game Changer for Pi 5!
Just installed the Pimoroni NVMe Base on my Raspberry Pi 5 and I'm genuinely blown away by how well this works. Installation was incredibly straightforward - everything lined up perfectly and the build quality is exactly what you'd expect from Pimoroni.
The performance boost is remarkable! Boot times have dropped from around 45 seconds to under 15 seconds, and everything feels so much more responsive. Running applications that used to stutter on SD card storage now run buttery smooth. For anyone doing any serious work with their Pi 5, this is an absolute must-have upgrade.
What really impressed me is the thoughtful design - it doesn't add much bulk to the Pi setup, cooling is excellent, and the whole thing feels rock solid. No compatibility issues whatsoever, and my 1TB NVMe drive was recognized immediately.
The documentation and setup guides on the Pimoroni website were spot-on too. Even though I consider myself a beginner with Pi hardware, I had everything up and running in about 20 minutes.
Honestly can't recommend this enough - it's transformed my Pi 5 from a fun tinkering device into a genuinely capable desktop replacement. Worth every penny and then some. This is why I keep coming back to Pimoroni - quality products that just work perfectly!
If you're on the fence about this upgrade, don't hesitate. Your Pi 5 deserves this treatment!”
“It's working very well with a 1TB Samsung 970 EVO Plus. I wanted to keep using the official Raspberry Pi 5 bumper, so I also bought the 50mm PCIe PIPE and used the standoffs that come with the base between it and the bumper. Then, I used some spare, longer standoffs between the base and the Raspberry Pi 5, increasing the gap between them and improving airflow. I could fit a heatsink on the SSD, but it doesn't seem necessary at the moment.”
“Nice card that does what it sets out to do.
However, the PCIe cable is short and fiddly when connecting to a Pi 5 in the NVMe case, and the mechanism for securing the NVMe drive to the board is awful - a bolt and 2 washers! Surely a better alternative to that could be provided?”
“This was a perfect fit for my existing raspberry pi5 and was so easy to setup. On top of that, Pimoroni has videos demonstrating how to set it up. Also, has a good documentation on which brands and models it supports by default. So keep an eye on the supported models while buying a nvme. I would recommend buyig a combo if it make sense to you. Now my Pi is booting up really fast and has more capacity.”
“Easy installation, PIMORONI instructions are straight forward great product. Only glitch i had was 1 of the stand offs/posts was not thread 1 side no big issue 3 screws were enough 1 side will buy again. Thanks PIMONORI.”
