Raspberry Pi 4 SSD upgrade kit

Description

We developed this Raspberry Pi 4 SSD upgrade kit with a 3D-printed case to perfectly combine an SSD with your Raspberry Pi 4. On top, the case guarantees maximum passive heat dissipation. You can mount a cooling fan if you want, but it’s only necessary for intensive CPU usage. The case has following interesting features :

• • a well-ventilated case helps heat dissipation and thereby prevents loss of performance of the processor (= essential for the Raspberry Pi 4 B!)
  • SSD slot for typical 2.5-inch Solid State Drives (7mm height)
  • cut-out for display
  • cut-out for camera
  • cut-out for GPIO-cable
  • a cooling fan can be mounted (30x30x7 mm, available as an option), only necessary for intensive CPU usage
  • DIN rail mountable with separate supports (available separately)

Benefits

Having the OS installed on an SSD instead of the micro SD card has 3 main benefits :

• • Firstly, it will increase the speed of your Pi. Comparing with a standard class 10 micro-SD card, the difference is amazing : 5x faster or even more. Even the fastest micro-SD card is much slower than the SSD.
  • Secondly, the reliability of your setup will improve. Indeed, micro-SD cards are originally made to store pictures, music and video. Using them for the Operating System of your computer is not ideal. The frequent read and write operations makes the micro-SD card the weakest element of your Pi. In many cases this could mean a complete loss of all your work. In contrary, SSD are used in millions of PC or laptops and have proven to be very reliable.
  • Last but not least, the storage capacity of an SSD is in general much higher than the capacity of a micro-SD card. With this starter kit you get an 120GB SSD. A starter kit with micro-SD card offers in general only 8, 16 or 32GB.

Also included in this Raspberry Pi 4 SSD upgrade kit :

• Kingston A400 120GB Solid State Drive (SSD)
• USB 3.0 type A to SATA III 10cm cable for high-speed data transmission
• 3 heatsinks for Raspberry Pi 4 with thermal adhesive (easy to mount)
• 4 screws
• 4 adhesive bumpers

Excluded :

• Raspberry Pi 4B board

Remarks :

• The SSD can be used as an extra drive while you continu to use your SD-card for the Operating System.
• But it’s a better option to run the Operating System of your Raspberry Pi 4 on the SSD. In this case you need to change your Pi’s firmware. But once done, you don’t even need a microSD card any more! Have a look at our tutorial ‘How to install an OS on an SSD with the Raspberry Pi Imager‘ if you want helpful advice and tips for your upgrade project.
• We 3D-print our self-developed cases in our own lab. To print the cases, we use PLA, an eco-friendly raw material.
• We developed this setup to avoid the use of a micro-SD-card. However, you can still use a micro-SD-card, but you’ll need to open the enclosure to change the card.