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Hardware
Two builds are described on this page:
- Reference build — the proven setup this project copies (Jiri's brother's): Pi 5 8 GB, official M.2 HAT+ from the SSD Kit, 27 W USB-C power supply.
- Planned build — what will actually be ordered: Pi 5 4 GB, powered and networked over a single Ethernet cable through the Suptronics/Geekworm X1012 PoE+ & NVMe shield. Decided 2026-08-27, rationale in the decision log. Nothing has been ordered yet.
Both variants share the 3D-printed stacked-plate ("plato") tower held together by threaded standoffs, the Active Cooler on the Pi, and a 30 mm fan on the top plate blowing down onto the assembly.
Electronics links go to rpishop.cz, mechanical parts to GME (both Czech distributors). Czech terms from the original build notes are kept in parentheses. Prices are rpishop's as of 2026-08-27 and move with the DRAM market.
Electronics — planned build (PoE+)
| Qty | Part | Price | Link |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Raspberry Pi 5, 4 GB RAM | 2 769 Kč | rpishop |
| 1 | Suptronics / Geekworm X1012 — PoE+ shield with M.2 NVMe slot | 799 Kč | geekworm wiki |
| 1 | Patriot P300 512 GB, M.2 2280 NVMe | ~1 300 Kč | alza.cz |
| 1 | Raspberry Pi 5 Active Cooler | — | rpishop |
| 1 | Raspberry Pi 5 RTC battery | — | rpishop — see RTC Backup Battery |
| 1 | Fan, 30 × 30 × 7 mm | — | generic |
No 27 W USB-C power supply: the Pi is fed 5 V / 5 A by the shield from the PoE+ switch (802.3af/at, 35–57 V DC input, fully isolated switched-mode supply). The X1012 also has a 5.5 × 2.1 mm barrel jack accepting 40–57 V DC as an alternative input — note that this is a 48 V input, not a fallback for an ordinary 5 V USB-C charger, and PoE and the jack must not be used at the same time.
Never backfeed USB-C
With any PoE shield installed, do not power the Pi through its USB-C port.
The SSD: Patriot P300 512 GB
96-layer 3D TLC (not QLC), DRAM-less with HMB, Phison PS5013-E13T controller, 160 TBW, 3-year warranty, PCIe Gen 3 ×4. Home Assistant writes single-digit GB per day, so 160 TBW is decades of headroom, and the Gen 3 rating is irrelevant here — the X1012 caps the link at Gen 2 anyway. Its low-power design is a bonus when everything hangs off a PoE budget.
Caveat carried forward: Patriot has shipped several hardware revisions of the P300 (different controllers between the "US" and "regional" versions), so the exact silicon in the box is not guaranteed. All known revisions are TLC, and at this workload the difference does not matter.
The X1012 runs the PCIe link at Gen 2 (5 Gbit/s) — it is not rated for Gen 3. That is roughly 450 MB/s of usable SSD throughput, far beyond anything Home Assistant needs.
Why the X1012 and not the other two PoE+ NVMe boards
All three candidates combine PoE+ power and an NVMe slot on one board, and all three require a PoE+ switch or injector (802.3at, 25 W — plain 802.3af at 15.4 W is marginal for a Pi 5 with an NVMe drive).
| Argon Industria PoE+ with NVMe | Suptronics/Geekworm X1012 ✅ | 52Pi P33 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Price (rpishop, 2026-08-27) | 539 Kč | 799 Kč | 899 Kč |
| M.2 sizes | 2230 / 2242 only | 2230 – 2280 | 2230 – 2280 |
| Cooling | requires the Argon THRML 30 mm cooler (extra cost) | works with the official Active Cooler | cooler not included in the rpishop package |
| PoE | 802.3af/at, 25 W, 5 V/5 A | 802.3af/at, 5 V/5 A, isolated SMPS, aux 40–57 V jack | PoE+, 5.1 V / 4.5 A |
| Known problems | closed plastic case + PoE heat | none documented | Geerling: the Pi powers straight back on after a software shutdown (52Pi says it is fixable via EEPROM settings) |
Chosen: X1012. It takes 2280 drives, which is where the sane Kč/GB and the model choice are; it keeps the official Active Cooler (so the thermal design stays the documented one); and its power stage is a fully isolated SMPS, which is exactly the property Jeff Geerling flagged as missing on cheaper PoE boards.
Rejected — 52Pi P33: the power-back-on-after-shutdown quirk is the wrong failure mode for an always-on appliance, and an EEPROM workaround is one more undocumented thing to rediscover in three years. Also the most expensive, and without a cooler.
Rejected — Argon Industria (539 Kč): the 2242 size limit narrows drive choice and worsens Kč/GB, and the mandatory Argon THRML cooler eats the price advantage. It would make sense as part of an all-Argon build (Poly+ 5 case), which this build is not — the tower is 3D-printed.
Background: Jeff Geerling tested several third-party PoE HATs for the Pi 5 — blog post (Oct 2024). His overall favourite was the HackerGadgets PoE + NVMe HAT (2230/2242, also takes USB-C PD), which Czech distributors do not stock; the n-fuse board has the lowest profile but no isolation transformer; Waveshare sells a PoE M.2 HAT+ as well.
Enclosure
Undecided as of 2026-08-27. The build was originally planned as the 3D-printed stacked-plate tower (see below), which is still the best option thermally — open on all sides, and the PoE conversion stage plus the NVMe both add heat that a sealed box has to get rid of.
The purpose-built alternative is the Geekworm P579-V2 metal case (375 Kč at rpishop, listed as ~21 days delivery): designed for a Pi 5 with a top-mounted M.2 shield, fits the official Active Cooler, front cut-out for the shield's LEDs, max standoff height 17 mm.
Three things to check before ordering it:
- Insist on V2. Geekworm raised the case height from 35.8 mm to 40.8 mm in March 2024; a PoE shield is the tall kind of HAT, and the rpishop listing's compatibility list (X1000/X1001/X1003/X1004/X1015/M901/M300/M400) does not name the X1012 — Geekworm's own P579-V2 documentation does.
- No cut-out for the X1012's aux DC jack. Irrelevant while power comes over PoE, but it rules out the 40–57 V barrel-jack fallback without drilling.
- The FFC cable. Buyers report the flat cable between the Pi and the shield getting pinched when the case closes; route it and lock both connectors carefully.
Not suitable: the Argon ONE V3 M.2 case (1 359 Kč) — its NVMe board mounts underneath the Pi and occupies the same PCIe connector the X1012 needs.
Electronics — reference build (27 W PSU)
The brother's setup, kept here as the fallback if the PoE+ route disappoints.
| Qty | Part | Link |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Raspberry Pi 5, 8 GB RAM | rpishop |
| 1 | Raspberry Pi SSD Kit, 256 GB — includes the M.2 HAT+ and an official 2230 NVMe SSD | rpishop · M.2 HAT+ docs |
| 1 | Raspberry Pi 27 W USB-C power supply (EU, white) | rpishop |
| 1 | Raspberry Pi 5 Active Cooler | rpishop |
| 1 | Raspberry Pi 5 RTC battery | rpishop |
| 1 | Fan, 30 × 30 × 7 mm | generic |
The Active Cooler sits directly on the Pi 5 (both the M.2 HAT+ and the X1012 are designed to fit above it); the 30 mm fan on the top plate adds airflow over the shield and SSD.
3D-printed parts
The tower plates (platos) are printed from Stackable Raspberry Pis on Printables: a base plate the Pi mounts onto, plus stackable levels joined by the M3 standoff columns below, and a top plate carrying the fan.
Mechanical bill of materials
Mounting the Pi 5 + the shield (Upevnění RPI5 s M.2 HAT+)
| Qty | Part | Link |
|---|---|---|
| 4 | DA5M2.5×05 — nickel standoff, 5 mm, M2.5, female–male (matka–šroub) | GME 1482600 |
| 4 | Würth M2.5 hex nut (matice) | GME 1511793 |
| 4 | M2.5 × 5 mm pan head screw | generic |
Quantity note
The original notes say "4×" for the 5 mm standoffs but also mention 16 ks (16 pieces) — most likely a purchase quantity (spares or multiple builds). Four of each part are what one Pi mount consumes.
Likely assembly (inferred from the parts, to be verified during the build): the male thread of each 5 mm standoff passes through a mounting hole in the printed plate and is secured underneath with the M2.5 nut; the Pi then sits on the four standoffs and is fastened from above with the M2.5 × 5 mm screws. The shield (X1012, or the M.2 HAT+ in the reference build) mounts above the Pi on the spacers and GPIO stacking header included with it.
Stacking (Stohování)
The tower is built from M3 threaded standoff columns clamping the plates together:
| Qty | Part | Link |
|---|---|---|
| 4 | DI5M3×35 — nickel standoff, 35 mm, M3, female–female (matka–matka) | GME 1482458 |
| 12 | DA5M3×35 — nickel standoff, 35 mm, M3, female–male (matka–šroub) | GME 1482474 |
Twelve female–male plus four female–female standoffs suggests four corner columns of four segments each (three male–female segments chained per column, terminated with a female–female), i.e. a stack with several 35 mm levels following the Printables model's geometry.
Top plate with fan (Horní plato s větrákem)
A fan on the top plate provides downward airflow (ofuk) over the Pi 5 and the M.2 HAT+:
| Qty | Part |
|---|---|
| 4 | M2.5 × 16 mm pan head screw |
| 4 | M2.5 hex nut |
| 1 | Fan, 30 × 30 × 7 mm |
The 16 mm screws pass through the 7 mm fan body and the plate, secured with the hex nuts on the other side.
Shopping list summary
Electronics (rpishop.cz), planned build: Raspberry Pi 5 4 GB (2 769 Kč), Suptronics/Geekworm X1012 PoE+ & NVMe shield (799 Kč), Active Cooler, RTC battery. SSD: Patriot P300 512 GB from Alza. Enclosure: undecided — 3D-printed tower or Geekworm P579-V2 (375 Kč). No power supply — the Pi is fed from the PoE+ switch.
Also required, already owned: a PoE+ (802.3at, 25 W) switch or injector.
Standoffs (GME):
- 4× DA5M2.5×05 standoff 5 mm
- 4× Würth M2.5 nut
- 4× DI5M3×35 standoff 35 mm F–F
- 12× DA5M3×35 standoff 35 mm F–M
Generic hardware: 4× M2.5×5 pan head screws, 4× M2.5×16 pan head screws, 4× M2.5 hex nuts, a 30×30×7 mm fan.
3D print: plates from Stackable Raspberry Pis.