GeeekPi PCIe M.2 M-Key NVMe SSD PCIe Peripheral Bottom Board for Raspberry Pi 5

The GeeekPi N07 PCIe M.2 Bottom Board works exactly as expected, providing NVMe SSD support for the Raspberry Pi 5. The performance is solid, and having storage directly connected via PCIe is a big upgrade over microSD cards.One of the best features is that it’s a bottom-mounted board, meaning you can still stack HATs or other accessories on top without interference. This makes it a great choice for more complex builds.The only downside is that finding a case that fits with this setup can be tricky. Most Pi 5 cases aren’t designed to accommodate a bottom-mounted expansion, so be prepared to get creative with mounting solutions.Overall, it’s a great add-on for anyone looking to expand their Pi 5 with NVMe storage while keeping the top clear for additional hardware.

I have been using the PCIE SSD interface for >6 months. I will say it appears that this device is a beast and has insane R/W speeds that yield an obvious decrease in boot time. I haven't had any issues with it and I really appreciate the reliability I have gotten for the price. I also like the location of it since it doesn't interfere with any cooling/gpio interface. This product is really just a rock-solid piece of engineering. If I experience any issues, I will be sure to update this review but as it's been a 6 months of constant use I really don't expect to have any.

The N07 was the best choice for me to keep my official red and white Pi case, not obstruct airflow, and work with full size 2280 NVMe SSD sticks. This unit came with an extra PCIe cable (thanks GeekPi), all the screws and some extras with a small Phillips screwdriver. Take extra care when inserting the PCIe cable, in my case I used tweezers to insert it straight on, any slight deviation or if it isn't entirely seated will result in the boot reporting the NVMe but failing to boot, so do make sure to seat it straight and push in all the way with tweezers and use a plastic pen/stylis or other soft plastic pointy tool to push the clasp shut.For this to work in the official case I used a 1/4" drill bit, flat head screw driver, hammer, and file. First remove the Pi from the case entirely, then drill out the bottom four post holes, this allows the N07 board to get nice and snug against the bottom with its brass standoffs. Next drill 2 holes near the left GPIO pins inline with the left post hole, this will be where the pogo pins enter the case. Next punch a hole for the PCIe cable with the flathead screwdriver and hammer inline and adjacent to the SDCard slot. Lastly file the two drill holes for the GPIO entry into a square so the pogo pins will fit and proceed with assembly making sure to put the PCIe cable in the Pi first so you can feed it through the slot you made. Then add the N07 up against the bottom snugly pushing it up against it and screwing in the retaining screws into the brass risers that now slid into the case thanks to drilling out the holes to a larger diameter. Burn-in test after 12 hours revealed no issues and a very fast boot and OS experience.

The SSD functions perfectly and is easy to install. However, after the installation, the Raspberry Pi's WiFi stopped working. It continuously searches but cannot connect to my WiFi network. The SSD seems to be causing interference in the same frequency range as the WiFi. As a result, I had to use the Ethernet port and disable the WiFi.

Works great and still working

Testing with two Pi 5s using two different drives, using both of the provided ribbon cables (thank you for the extra parts btw) and all of the combinations therein, I can verify that power is being delivered but the devices aren't detected by the OS. I've had no problems in the past with other PoE hats (WaveShare, Argon).

This was really easy to mount and connect and setup and my pi 5 is working like a dream with a 1TB Hynix running in Gen 3 (10GT/sec).But I still want to put it into a case that will fit the pi and the nvm board.

I purchased this NVME bottom hat because a top mounted hat would interfere with the cooler I have installed. The board is nicely made and features pogo pins to power the SSD from the GPIO pins rather than through the PCMCIA cable. The ribbon cable installation is a bit tricky but once I had it installed and configured everything worked just fine. I'm using it with a Crucial 512 gB SSD