News Raspberry Pi 500 keyboard PC has been modded with an NVMe M.2 slot leveraging the device's conspicuously empty PCB header

[Admin]

Raspberry Pi 500 gets a hard-modded NVMe slot addition thanks to existing empty headers on the Pi 500 board.

Raspberry Pi 500 keyboard PC has been modded with an NVMe M.2 slot leveraging the device's conspicuously empty PCB header : Read more

 

[Notton]

I can understand PoE being optional, but the lack of NVMe slot (and power circuitry) is questionable.
How much would that have added to the BoM? $1 to 5?

 

[Conor Stewart]

What components do they actually need to add for the M.2 slot to be functional? I would imagine it isn't much and isn't expensive in bulk. On something designed to be as close to an all in one desktop as possible leaving out the M.2 slot just seems like a really bad idea especially considering how easy it is to add one to a pi5.

Having the space on the PCB for it and not including it makes it seem very half baked.

It would have been better if they just used a connector like on the pi5 and left space in the pi500 for an M.2 module to be added later if needed, like the hats for the pi5. The same could have been done for POE. Instead they decided to add the footprints and circuitry needed to make these features work but decided not to actually include them for some reason.

 

[subspruce]

This feels like a computer in need of a higher-end counterpart or a refresh once pressure mounts

 

[eye4bear]

I doubt anyone would be upset if they had gone ahead and included the hardware etc. for the M.2 and upped the base price, say $5 to $7, even $10. Why in the world did they not just do this? This has pushed me into not considering buying a 500 and going with a standard 8gb Pi5 and adding the needed M.2 hat. I will not be as happy with it.