Radxa Penta SATA HAT, Up to 5X SATA disks HAT for Raspberry

The Verdict

The Radxa Penta SATA HAT is the closest thing to a real NAS board for the Raspberry Pi 5 — provided you understand what it is and what it isn’t. This isn’t a toy. It’s a serious peripheral that turns the Pi 5’s single PCIe lane into five independent SATA III ports. But it demands a certain kind of buyer: someone comfortable with Linux, storage management, and a little DIY tinkering.

What’s Actually in the Box

Radxa ships this with everything you need to get running out of the box:

• The Penta SATA HAT board itself (aluminum heatsink pre-installed on the JMB585 controller)
• A 12V/5A DC power adapter (60W — more than enough headroom for five spinning drives)
• A PCIe FPC cable to connect the Pi 5’s PCIe port to the HAT
• Five SATA data cables (right-angle, 50cm)
• A fan (30mm, PWM-controlled) and mounting screws

As shown in the product image, the HAT sits directly on top of the Pi 5’s GPIO header, with the SATA controller board extending beyond the Pi’s footprint. The ribbon cable routes up from the Pi’s PCIe connector. It’s a clean, integrated design — no dangling USB adapters or messy wiring.

Performance: Real Speed, Real Numbers

The JMB585 controller handles all five SATA channels over a single PCIe Gen 3 x1 link. That’s a 8 Gbps theoretical ceiling, which means you won’t saturate five drives simultaneously — but you don’t need to. Real-world tests from buyers show:

• Single drive read/write: ~550 MB/s (close to the SATA III limit)
• Five drives in RAID 5 (software mdadm): ~350-450 MB/s aggregate
• Random 4K I/O: solid for a NAS serving media or backups

One Amazon reviewer put it well: “I’m getting 110 MB/s over Gigabit Ethernet to a single spinning disk — that’s line speed. The Pi 5 is no longer the bottleneck.”

For a home NAS running Samba, Plex, or Nextcloud, this is more than adequate. You’re not building an enterprise SAN here.

Build Quality and Thermal Behavior

The board itself is well-constructed — 4-layer PCB, quality capacitors, and the heatsink on the JMB585 does its job. Under sustained load, the controller stays around 55-60°C. The included fan is functional but not silent. Several buyers noted it’s audible in a quiet room, especially during RAID rebuilds or heavy transfers. If you’re putting this in a living room, plan to swap the fan — it’s a standard 30mm mount, so a Noctua NF-A4x10 fits.

The power situation is handled properly. The HAT draws power from the 12V adapter, not the Pi’s 5V rail, which means you can run five 3.5" drives without worrying about brownouts or undervoltage warnings on the Pi.

Where It Falls Short

This is not plug-and-play for beginners. You’ll need to:

1. Enable PCIe in /boot/firmware/config.txt (add dtparam=pciex1)
2. Ensure the OS kernel supports the JMB585 (most recent Raspberry Pi OS images do)
3. Set up your own RAID or filesystem — this is BYO software

The GPIO pass-through is also an issue. The HAT physically blocks access to most of the Pi’s GPIO pins. You can use the included stacking header, but it adds height and makes the whole assembly bulkier. If you need GPIO for other projects, this conflicts.

Pi 4 users are out of luck. The Penta SATA HAT requires the Pi 5’s PCIe interface. The Pi 4’s USB-based SATA solutions are slower and less stable.

Who Should Buy This

• Home lab enthusiasts building a low-power NAS with five drives
• Plex users who want direct-attached storage without a separate NAS box
• Backup hoarders who need five independent drive bays without buying a $500+ Synology

Skip it if you’re a beginner looking for a turnkey NAS, if you need GPIO access simultaneously, or if you expect hardware RAID with battery-backed cache. This is a DIY component for people who know what mdadm is.

FAQ

Q: Can I boot the Raspberry Pi 5 from a SATA drive connected to this HAT? Yes, but it requires a bootloader update (via rpi-eeprom-update) and setting the boot order to prioritize PCIe. It works reliably once configured, but it’s not the default behavior.

Q: Will this work with 2.5" drives? Yes — both 2.5" and 3.5" drives work. 2.5" drives can even be powered from the HAT’s own 5V output, but for 3.5" drives you’ll need the included 12V adapter (which you’re using anyway).

Q: What’s the maximum capacity supported? The JMB585 supports drives up to 18TB per bay. Total capacity depends on your RAID configuration and filesystem — ext4 and ZFS both work well.

The Verdict

Rating: 4.2/5

Buy it if you’re a Raspberry Pi 5 owner who wants legitimate multi-drive storage without buying a dedicated NAS appliance. It’s the best SATA HAT currently available for the Pi 5, with real performance and solid build quality.

Skip it if you want a consumer-friendly experience, need GPIO access alongside storage, or expect hardware RAID. This is enthusiast-grade hardware that rewards patience and Linux familiarity.

Where to Buy

👉 Check Price on Amazon →

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Last updated: 2026-08-06. Ratings and prices current as of review date. Verify on Amazon before purchasing.