SupTronics X1100 USB to SATA 2.5" Add-on for Raspberry Pi 5

The X1100 2.5" SATA HDD/SSD expansion board provides a simple, high-speed way to expand the storage capacity of your Raspberry Pi 5. Its sleek, ultra-compact design lets you mount a 2.5" HDD or SSD directly to the Pi, while the SuperSpeed USB 3.0 port delivers data transfer rates of up to 5 Gbps so you can move large files in seconds. Mounting holes and standoffs keep your drive securely in place and help dissipate heat for stable, reliable operation, and the integrated LED clearly shows drive activity so you always know when data is being read or written.​

The X1100 is an excellent choice for building a home media center or a network-attached storage (NAS) solution to store and stream your videos, music, and photos at home or remotely. It also supports booting the operating system directly from the HDD/SSD, which can significantly speed up application launch times, web hosting, and file transfers.​

Product features

Compatible with

• Raspberry Pi 5B​

Key features

• Dedicated 2.5" SATA HDD/SSD shield, ideal as a storage expansion for Raspberry Pi 5​

• Supports up to 5 TB 2.5" SATA hard disk drives (HDD) and solid-state drives (SSD)​

• Integrated USB 3.1 Gen 1 to SATA 6 Gb/s bridge controller​

• USB 3.1 Gen 1 5 Gbps plug-and-play connection for Raspberry Pi, backward compatible with USB 2.0​

• Supports OS boot from HDD/SSD for faster app loading, web serving, and file copying​

• USB bus-powered so only a single power supply is needed​

• Blue LED indicator shows drive status at a glance​

• Custom USB 3.1 jumper cable to connect to Raspberry Pi—no extra cables required​

• Mounting holes and standoffs ensure a rigid, stable assembly of the Raspberry Pi and X1100​

Tests and performance

Test setup

• System board: Raspberry Pi 5 Model B Rev 1.0, 4 GB RAM​

• Interface board: X1100 V1.0 USB 3.0 to SATA 6 Gb/s HDD/SSD shield​

• Operating system: Raspberry Pi OS with desktop (Debian 12 “bookworm”, 32-bit, release date October 10th 2023)​

• Storage: Samsung 2.5" SSD 750 EVO 120 GB​

Speed testing with dd (command line)

• Write test: wrote 1 GB in 10 blocks of 100 MB each​

• Read test: read the previously created 1 GB test file in 10 blocks of 100 MB each​

Results with dd

• Write speed: 392 MB/s​

• Read speed: 403 MB/s​

Testing with hdparm

• Average read rate: 371.7 MB/s (3 samples)​

CrystalDiskMark on Windows

• Additional read/write tests performed by connecting the X1100 to a Windows PC via a USB 3.0 male-to-male cable (results consistent with high-performance SATA SSD speeds).​

Technical specifications

Power

• Input: 5 V DC ± 5%, 1.3 A via USB 3.0 port​

Ports and connectors

• USB 3.0 Type-A socket​

• SATA 7P + 15P connector for 2.5" SATA drives​

Board size

• 107.5 mm × 85 mm

Important notes

• Use the official Raspberry Pi 27 W USB‑C power supply, which provides up to 5 A at +5.1 V, to ensure enough power for attached drives.​

• If your power supply cannot provide 5 A at +5 V or is not fully compatible, add usb_max_current_enable=1 to /boot/firmware/config.txt to raise the USB current limit to 1.6 A; otherwise, USB boot or drive power may be unreliable.​

• As a USB 3.0 device, the X1100 can generate radio frequency interference that degrades 2.4 GHz Wi‑Fi performance on the Raspberry Pi 5; use the 5 GHz band where possible, or switch to wired Ethernet if interference persists.

Package Contents

• 1x SupTronics X1100 USB to SATA 2.5" Add-on for Raspberry Pi 5
• 1x Screw/standoff pack

Raspberry Pi, SSD and Active Cooler not included