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

Earlier this month, Raspberry Pi launched the Pi 500 Keyboard PC, which takes the innards of the Raspberry Pi 5 and puts them into a keyboard case that doubles as a PC once the user adds a power input and display. As mentioned in our reviewthis release confusingly omitted NVMe M.2 storage support, and modders are now working on fixing that. So it wouldn’t be surprising to see the Raspberry Pi 500 modified to allow for NVMe Gen 3 functionality similar to that found in the Raspberry Pi 5, as SD card storage is quite slow, and entry-level work/leisure PCs like the Pi 500, still Can benefit from the flexibility of NVMe storage.

An unnamed Raspberry Pi 500 modder was quoted in an article talking to developer and TechTuber Jeff Geerling Blog post for December 13th Clarify the nature of the empty, deactivated M.2 connector present on the original Pi 500 board, and explain the steps required to restore full functionality. Note that if you want to take on this project yourself, you’ll need to have the appropriate welding equipment and a microscope to do the job properly – but readers already familiar with high-end tuning and repair tasks may be willing to make that trade-off. Jeff Geerling has publicly expressed his desire for a more powerful “Pro” or “Pro Max” Raspberry PI 500 kit, which would “give us everything” including an M.2 slot and PoE+ support, apparently from the previous Pi 500 PCB Removed release.