I THINK my RPi 5 and NVME Base is working

Discussion Raspberry Pi
21

@bruce.orr There is a list on the NVMe product page, if that helps.

Drive compatibility

We have tested NVMe Base with the following M.2 NVMe drives successfully. We have usually tested one drive from one batch, so this is not comprehensive, or an ‘Approved’ list, but it’s a good guide for drives to seek out:

  • AData Legend 700

  • AData Legend 800

  • AData XPG SX8200 Pro

  • Axe Memory Generic Drive

  • Crucial P2 M.2

  • Crucial P3 M.2

  • Crucial P3 Plus M.2

  • Inland PCIe NVMe SSD

  • Kingston KC3000

  • Kioxia Exceria NVMe SSD

  • Kioxia Exceria G2 NVMe SSD

  • Lexar NM620

  • Lexar NM710

  • Netac NV2000 NVMe SSD

  • Netac NV3000 NVMe SSD

  • Origin Inception TLC830 Pro NVMe

  • Patriot P300

  • Patriot P310

  • PNY CS1030

  • Sabrent Rocket 4.0

  • Sabrent Rocket Nano

  • Samsung 980

  • Samsung 980 Pro (500GB/1TB)

  • Team MP33

  • Western Digital Black SN750 SE (Phison Controller)

22

No that doesn’t help - that is just the list from the Pimoroni web page.
What I am trying to do now is get their base working with a drive. Having tried the WD drive I want to source a drive that Pimoroni confirm works.
That list isn’t quite detailed enough to confirm the actual drive - that is the reason I posted the Amazon link

1 Like
23

They have some records on pibenchmarks that might provide enough drive detail for you?

24

I can recommend the Patriot P300 256gb. I got mine with the NVMe base from Pimoroni and it works very well indeed.

25

The pibenchmarks site is great, I hadn’t seen that one before. Only thing is it doesn’t have any way of identifying which ones work best!

Thanks for the recommendation lufbrarunner, murphy’s law says that Amazon don’t have the 256GB version in stock :-(

Current thought is a Patriot 128GB , Amazon.co.uk

I will order that this evening unless I get a better suggestion.
Thanks
Bruce

26

Hmmm, I have ordered the Patriot 128GB SSD, so I just hope that works!

Amazon also suggested the Geekworm X1002 NVME board. So I had a look and their web site gives more comprehensive information, have a look at the product … Amazon.co.uk
plus their Wiki … X1002 - Geekworm Wiki
and their instructions on how to boot from the NVMe … NVMe SSD boot with the Raspberry Pi 5 - Geekworm Wiki

I guess Pimoroni need to take a look and improve their documentation …

Hel did say “We’ve got a proper ‘Getting Started with NVMe Base’ tutorial on the way which should hopefully be a little more in depth - just need to find time to get it edited and uploaded!”

Watch this space, but read the Geekcom information for now!
Regards
Bruce

27

Fingers crossed that all goes well.

28

Well I got the Patriot SSD from Amazon …
… and it is still not working :-(

Just as precautions I reformatted the SD card. The RPi booted but SSD doesn’t show up when I run lsblk.
Took it apart and re-seated both ends of the cable - still nothing!

Do I just give up on the Pimoroni base?

29

It does sound like the NVMe base is the culprit, get in touch with Pimoroni, I have always found them to be very good at dealing with these situations.

30

Pimoroni agree it may be a faulty NVMe base, they are sending out a new one.
Great service
Hope it works

1 Like
31

Well I received the replacement NVMe base from Pimoroni this morning.

Re-did the whole process. New SD Card, formatted, installed 64bit Raspbian, ran update, upgrade, rpi-eeprom-update (went to version of 5 Feb).
Still didn’t detect the Patriot P300 SSD. Didn’t show up in /dev (hoped for nvme) or in lsblk.

Even tried editing /boot/config.txt and adding dtparam=pciex1 ( as mentioned in NVMe SSD boot with the Raspberry Pi 5 - Geekworm Wiki).
Still no change!

Then as an act of desperation swapped the SSD over to the WD Black SN770. Still nothing!

So do I have a faulty RPi5? Is there a way to test the RPi?

Not sure what to do next, I have to go and see my Grandson on Sunday (he has just had an operation) so I will have a think and look at it again on Monday …

Any suggestions?
Bruce

32

Out of interest, can you share the full model number of the functioning Patriot drive? I’m beginning to wonder if there’s a variation in the P300s, as there seem to be a lot of people saying they’re fine, and a lot of people totally stumped by them!

33

Hi ahnlak, the one I have is Patriot P300 P300P128GM28 9SE00081
It is a 128GB model (Amazon didn’t have the 256GB model in stock).

Is that enough? Not sure if I can post a photograph on here?

Let me know if you find out anything?

Other question, I have tried a WD Black SN770 - and that didn’t work either.
Do you know what drives definitely work?

34

That would track with the (very embryonic) theory I have; I’m hoping that @lufbrarunner has something subtlely different ;-)

35

My NVMe drive is Patriot Memory P300P256GM28. PE000689, I think.

sudo nvme list gives P300IBBB23122500793 Patriot M.2 P300 256GB

36

Thanks for that; that agrees with the (incredibly limited set of) data points I have so far.

So, it turns out there are two variants of the P300s, with different controllers - one of them (indicated by the PE000... code) works fine, the other (9SE000...) does not. It sounds like as well as having different controllers, one variant has DRAM while the other leans on Host RAM, but that may be a red herring - and I have no idea to work out which is which anyway!

ASSuming that my theory is true (and I could do with a few more data points to confirm that), I’m wondering if @hel might want to update the “known good drives” list on the NVMe Base product page to point out the two P300 variants?

(also @hel if you know which variants you had your successful benchmarks with, that would be useful extra data points too!)

1 Like
37

@bruce.orr If you’re up for it, I’d love to swap your non-working Patriot P300 for one of our stock to see if that changes anything? I want more drives in our stable so we can be more explicit on compatibility and maybe even start improving it one day :-)

Also beware the compatibility list from those other boards as they seem to have part-read our early list and run it through Chat GPT and come to the complete opposite and wrong conclusion.

We recommend avoiding the following NVMe SSD drives which is equipped with a Phison controller due to their proven incompatibility

This is the opposite of what I found. Phison controllers have been the best. The newer, the better usually.

1 Like
38

Do your P300’s all come from the PE000... side of town? :)

39

Sure I am up for that. I have the original packaging here.
What address would you like it sent to?
Thanks and regards
Bruce

PS Do you fancy having a WD Black SN770 as well ;-)

40

Hi guru, I have replied on the forum, but thought you may want to put your address details on here so it isn’t public

Bruce

Sure I am up for that. I have the original packaging here.
What address would you like it sent to?
Thanks and regards
Bruce

PS Do you fancy having a WD Black SN770 as well ;-)