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Raspberry Pi 500+ Launches as $200 Mechanical-Keyboard PC With 16GB RAM and 256GB SSD

Early community testing shows the internal M.2 PCIe slot can drive external GPUs, signaling unexpected expandability.

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Raspberry Pi 500+
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Overview

  • Units are on sale and shipping now via Raspberry Pi partners, priced at $200 or $220 for a Desktop Kit with power supply, mouse and cable.
  • Built on the Pi 5 platform, the 500+ features a 2.4GHz quad‑core Arm Cortex‑A76 CPU, dual 4K display output and dual‑band Wi‑Fi, paired with 16GB of LPDDR4X‑4267 memory.
  • The internal 2280 M.2 bay comes pre‑fitted with a 256GB NVMe SSD running Raspberry Pi OS, can be user‑replaced after opening the case with the included tool and still supports SD or USB boot.
  • The new keyboard uses Gateron KS‑33 Blue low‑profile mechanical switches with per‑key RGB lighting and an RP2040 running QMK, and the keycaps are removable and compatible with most aftermarket sets.
  • Modder Jeff Geerling demonstrated an external Radeon RX 7900 XT via an OCuLink adapter and small Linux driver changes, though throughput is constrained by a single PCIe Gen3 lane and the Pi 5 CPU.