NVMe 2242 M-Key MakerDisk SSD - 256GB (Preloaded with RPi OS)

• NVMe (Non-Volatile Memory express) SSD, normally via PCIe bus. These are NOT SATA SSD
• 2242, mechanical size/dimension, please ensure the size fits the board
• M.2 M-Key (Only 128GB is B+M-Key), please make sure the M.2 socket supports M-key
• Comes Pre-loaded with Raspberry Pi OS and is ready to boot up on
  • Raspberry Pi 5 (with the latest bootloader firmware and a PCIe to M.2 HAT. To update the bootloader, please refer to this tutorial)
  • Raspberry Pi 4 Model B (with the latest bootloader firmware)
  • Raspberry Pi 400
  • Compute Module 4 (CM4) with NVMe SSD carrier board.
• Please DO NOT format it if you intend to use it with the Raspberry Pi board.

M.2 2242 M-Key NVMe SSD for Raspberry Pi 5 & Raspberry Pi 4

Cytron Technologies, is pretty excited about the  PCIe extension on Raspberry Pi 5 and Jeff Geerling has helped to verify that the MakerDisk NVMe (particularly 2242) works on Raspberry Pi 5, booting into Raspberry Pi OS without any hassle. Of course, you can use it to boot up Raspberry Pi 4 with USB to NVMe adapter. With Compute Module 4 (CM4), the PCIe Gen2 bus is extended out on some carrier boards such as the CM4 Maker Board or Mini Base (A). Furthermore, the NVMe boot is also officially released by Raspberry Pi.  This is a native NVMe SSD boot via PCIe bus, it does not go through to any USB to NVMe adapter.

This NVMe SSD is in the M.2 2242 (M Key) form factor. We called it MakerDisk! A Disk from Makers to Makers :) It is an M.2 2242, M-Key, NVMe Solid State Drive (SSD) with 512GB, 256GB, and 128GB capacity. And it is preloaded with Raspberry Pi OS.

Do check out Jeff Gerling talking about CM4 boots off an NVMe SSD, natively in this video:

If you prefer to read the article, welcome to check out the blog by Jeff Gerling here: The Raspberry Pi can boot of NVMe SSDs now.

From Jeff's benchmarking with eMMC, microSD card, and USB 3.0 (UASP) adapter, the native NMVe interface is 12x faster on the Pi for normal file operations that include: copies, and random read/write. And that also improves day-to-day performance.

Of course, we have also done some speed tests using the built-in Raspberry Pi Diagnosis. Here are the speed test results that we get based on the SSD Capacity:

Capacity - 256GB

• Sequential write speed 397187 KB/sec (target 10000) - PASS, over 38 times faster than the target
• Random write speed 27352 IOPS (target 500) - PASS, over 50 times faster than the target
• Random read speed 23608 IOPS (target 1500) - PASS, nearly 15 times faster than the target

Here is a comparison table between the Native MakerDisk NVMe (2280 and 2242) boot on CM4 Lite, eMMC on CM4, and microSD card boot (normal) on Raspberry Pi 4 Model B: The data are taken from Raspberry Pi Diagnosis

Note: Raspberry Pi Diagnosis result depends on many factors (New memory or used memory, interface, SATA interface, USB interface, USB cable, etc). It should be taken as a reference only.

As for the size, please make sure the carrier board or adapter supports M.2 2242, M-Key: