USB-A Plug-in SSDs for the Pi - recommendations?

I'm using USB3-SATA-adapters caught via Ebay (before Covid days) driving Intenso-120G-SSDs with two Pi4s running Debian/Arm64 (NetBSD-9.99 and

-10_BETA before that). It just works and feels a lot faster than µSD cards, but I never benchmarked it.

Too bulky, I just want something as tiny as possible to plug directly into one of the USB3 sockets. The pi lives behind the control panel on my boat and space is limited.

The SATA SSDS will plug in using a converter cable.

As I said in response to another, too big really. I want the SSD drive to be supported by the USB socket, this is in a rather confined space behind an instrument panel. I.e. I want an SSD drive in a 'USB stick' format.

...

I 3d-printed a case that holds a Pi4 and a single 3.5" drive, although the cable (actually all the cables) sticks out. I think it came from thingiverse. Reasonably compact and robust. I leave it hanging by a string from the monitor stand when out and about.

Look at the Sandisk Extreme Pro series. They're a USB stick containing a real SATA SSD controller behind a USB to SATA bridge. That means they do all the proper wear levelling etc that a SATA SSD does.

They're a bit pricey though:

Theo

USB3 <---> SATA adapters

The unpowered ones can usually be used with 2.5in spinning disks and SSD's. For best performance, at one time you had to be careful to get ones supporting UASP (USB Attached SCSI protocol). Dunno if they all do now. But even a 2.5in HD on non-uasp on USB2 adapter is far better than using the SD card!

Another thing to mention is there are adapters which will turn a 2230 or

Theo

Thanks, that's the sort of thing I wanted and information like this is hard to come by.

USB/M2 NVMe enclosure perhaps - you'll want USB 3.2 10Gb/s to get even close to the performance of the SSD.

The Samsung T7 is a small format portable SSD with a built in USB 3 interface.

---druck

Read Benchmarks hdparm -Ttv

Amazon basic SDCard : 40 MB/s rpi5 fast SDCard : 75 MB/s

Hmm ... I've been using a Pi3 with a magnetic Samsung 3tb USB/HDD for years. The Pi produces just enough power. Never a prob.

And the drive is almost exactly the same size as the Pi. I literally rubber-banded them together and a 4" cable connects.

NOW, I'd rec a Samsung USB/SSD instead of the magnetic, the price/TB is finally pretty good.

In either case you may want to write a little Python script to ensure the drive always gets mounted to the SAME place regardless of how the BIOS sees it. In my app I find and umount it after boot, then re-mount to a predictable place. Not much code involved.

Anyway, what you're asking is VERY do-able. Has been for several years.

As for "sticks" ... some last forever, others die a horrible death almost immediately. Brand is irrelevant. They are NOT good for mass long- term storage. Mostly they're the latest version of "sneaker-net". Oh, ever noticed how HOT they get and NO heat-sinks. The real "stick" is just a circuit-board maybe 8mmx10mm no matter the physical size of the stick you buy.

The extra speed of the SSD is nice but what I'm really after is the greater robustness with lots of disk writes. This is going to be a headless system which is inaccessible (in France) for most of the time so long term reliability is the most important issue.

USB 3 doesn't mean that it plugs directly into the USB socket on the Pi though, that's what I'm really after.

I also only need 32Gb or so, I suppose much larger capacities give more resilience but they really aren't useful. I'm currently using 9% of a 32Gb micro SD card and that's unlikely to increase much.

I was hoping that someone would be making an 'SSD in a USB stick' but there doesn't seem to be any such thing. The "SanDisk Extreme PRO

The footprint of my PI is almost the same as an SSD. I am at the moment working on 3D CAD to design a case for them

The USB to SATA cables are very short.

Yes, it does increase the overall length of the unit a bit, but it should fit behind a panel OK.

If you don't use a cable, you are going to extend the length even more though. By at least the length of the SSD.

On 11/12/2023 16:00, Chris Green wrote: > I.e. I want an SSD drive in a 'USB stick'

Tough s*it then, because they aren't made in that format, and that would be just as long as a U shaped cable folding back to place a standard SSD right behind the Pi.

The best you will be able to do is a load of extra height and an NVME card. And you may need a i 5 for that. I am not sure the interface used here is available on earlier models

Get an Orange Pi 5. They take a 2242 NVME drive on the back of the board, but the board is about 10mm wider and longer than a Raspberry Pi. The Opi5 is also low power, compared to a Raspberry Pi 5.

A few more options include:

A Pi 5 with NVMe HAT

A CM4 with onboard eMMC

A CM4 plus an NVMe baseboard

An eMMC plus a USB-eMMC carrier board:

eMMC uses the SD interface but is usually much more reliable than regular SD cards.

Theo