3rd Party PoE HATs for Pi 5 add NVMe, fit inside case

Today I published a video detailing my testing of three new Raspberry Pi HATs—these HATs all add on PoE+ power and an NVMe SSD slot, though the three go about it in different ways.

You can watch the video for the full story (embedded below), but in this post I'll go through my brief thoughts on all three, and link to a few other options coming on the market as well.

This HAT is compatible with all standard NVMe sizes up to 2280, and has holes cut into the PCB to allow airflow through, under the NVMe, into the Raspberry Pi Active Cooler fan—which is included in the box (a nice touch)!

It provides 5.1V at 4.5A power output to the Pi, and comes with a passthrough GPIO header, so you can stack another HAT on top. There are also a few convenient pins on top for additional 3.3V, 5V, and 12V power outputs, though I didn't test these.

The board fits within the Pi 5's own PCB footprint, but because of how the 2280 slot is positioned, the FFC connector placement is a little strange (it's under the NVMe drive, and results in a slightly awkward experience plugging it in).

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