SSD for Pi-Top?

Had same thought. Sadly, it looks as though you have to use it externally, via a USB port. What a pity!

NickV

Had same thought. Sadly, it looks as though you have to use it externally, via a USB port. What a pity!

NickV

Perhaps use a right-angle USB cable/adapter and then mount the SSD drive on the rail inside the Pi-Top.

I have had an outstanding question to pi-top and adafruit (they have a DIY kit) about the feasibility of doing this for over a month.  No answer so far.  It looks like one will have to tamper with the rail and insides.

This is a pity because relying on a MicroSD inside a laptop makes no sense for a lot of reasons (longevity, performance, etc.).

From the photo, it looks as if one of the USB ports is made available inside the Pi-Top on the hub board:

https://www.raspberrypi.org/magpi/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/knolling-shot-new-pi-top-web.jpg

beacon_dave See https://learn.adafruit.com/pi-top-assembly?view=allhttp://

No spare USB ports that I can see.  However, going off the deep end, perhaps, you could use a USB cable that has a right-angle connector like the one used for keyboard+touchpad and wrap it back to the middle for a USB-connected SSD, if you can find one to sit on the rail.

Having done all that, how does one make the RPi flush against the sides of the side opening so that it looks like a normal computer cutout?  One might want to use some of the RPi's other ports, right?

That's the old Pi-Top you are looking at there. The current Pi-Top has a different layout.

Using a USB SSD looks easy with the old Pi-Top as the Pi's USB ports aren't flush to the outside like the new ones are.

https://learn.adafruit.com/assets/34955

With the new Pi-Top, it looks like you get two USB ports flush with the outside of the case and the other two have slim-line right-angle ribbon connectors which then run to the hub board inside. One appears to be taken to a USB port on the hub which appears to be available for internal peripherals to use.

Cannot find diagrams / photos for a USB port on the base.  Can you furnish a URL?

So, you are saying that adafruit's 2 kits are based on the older model?

The link you furnished takes me right back to the place that I linked for you - the green pi-top at adafruit.

I already did...

https://www.raspberrypi.org/magpi/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/knolling-shot-new-pi-top-web.jpg

Silver rectangle above the F5 key

The black diagonal on the left looks like the USB ribbon coming from the two right-angle plugs that fit into the R-Pi.

The current Pi-Tops appear to have the R-Pi located top left and a track pad below the keyboard.

https://pi-top.com/products/pi-top

https://static.pi-top.com/documents/pi-top/pi-top_Instruction_Manual.pdf

The older Pi-Tops appear to have the R-Pi top right and a track pad to the right of the keyboard.

https://static.pi-top.com/documents/pi-top/Original_pi-top_Instruction_Manual.pdf

The link to the Adafruit learning site you posted appears to show the older Pi-Top.

Yes, as that photo shows the old Pi-Top which appears to have space to plug USB cables into the R-Pi's USB ports inside the case.

The previous link I posted takes you to the Raspberry Pi site review of the current Pi-Top, which shows the new hub with what appears to be an internal USB port.

Probably not enough height to fit a X850 mSATA board with the old Pi-Top

https://www.raspberrypi.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=196334

direct on top as intended but plenty of space to fit it to the left of the Pi with a short USB cable.

You could use short USB extensions to make the remaining USB ports flush to the outside of the case for better access. 

Okay, now I see it.  Apologies.  Your pic seems to be from the Magpi review.

Clearly, the adafruit kits or the put-it-together blog is out of date.  Even the Hub/Pi interfacing technique has changed in pi-top v2, leaving a way to cleanly expose the RPi's USB & Ethernet ports to the rear.