You can now turn your Raspberry Pi 5 into a proper retro gaming PC with official hardware as the manufacturer just released its own PCIe 3.0 SSDs

pcgamer.com:

The thing that surprised me the most about Raspberry Pi 5 when it launched in 2023 was that it supports PCIe drives. Naturally, the first thing that came to my mind upon learning this was the possibility of turning it into a veritable desktop PC capable of gaming.

Unfortunately, there were no official Raspberry Pi PCIe SSD solutions upon release, and while the company eventually released its own M.2 HAT+ (HAT meaning Hardware Attached on Top, and not, like, an actual hat) to allow for SSD connectivity, you still had to go third-party for the SSD. Now, however, Raspberry Pi Ltd has announced (via Tom's Hardware) official SSDs and SSD kits that combine these with the M.2 HAT+.

Earlier in the year when I decided to speed up my Raspberry Pi 5, I opted to use the Pimoroni's NVMe Base to connect a Crucial P3. To connect an SSD you have to use a HAT like the Pimoroni Base—or the official Raspberry Pi one—because the Pi 5 doesn't have an M.2 connector built into the board. It has a PCIe connector that you can use a ribbon cable to connect a HAT to; this way lots of different PCIe devices can be used.

In my review of the Raspberry Pi 5, I pointed out that it's the first Raspberry Pi to be really viable as a desktop PC. Its performance gains over the Pi 4—especially when combined with an active cooler—make it able to handle most everyday desktop use cases.

I even tried gaming on it and was surprised to find it able to run Doom 3 at somewhat playable framerates, admittedly at a very low res. Nothing spectacular compared to, you know, actual gaming PCs and handhelds, but pretty damn impressive for a tiny SBC.

The only problem was, I was running it off a MicroSD. Even fast MicroSDs aren't going to offer stellar load times, and they certainly aren't going to offer data stability. What I needed was an SSD, which is why I went down the Pimoroni + Crucial P3 route.

But that was expensive (for a Raspberry Pi) and involved ensuring I picked exactly the right SSD, because not all gel