The gaming phase continues to expertise speedy development within the PC market, and we now have seen PC part distributors come up with launch occasions particularly focusing on players. Seagate’s inaugural Virtual Gaming Event (SG21) is the most recent on this checklist, and the corporate is asserting its newest flagship SSD – the FireCuda 530 at this occasion. With its PCIe 4.Zero x4 interface, there’s a vital bounce in sequential entry speeds (reads as much as 7300 MBps). This has has a super goal market within the gaming phase, with the quick load occasions making a visual distinction within the person expertise.
The drives in Seagate’s FireCuda SSD collection have sometimes been based mostly on Phison controllers utilizing customized firmware (with the corporate’s most popular time period being ‘Seagate-validated’), and the FireCuda 530 is not any totally different. It relies on Phison’s PS5018-E18 utilizing the most recent 3D TLC NAND (Micron’s B47R 176L). Numerous E18-based SSDs have hit the market over the 6 months, and we additionally reviewed the Inland Performance Plus a couple of weeks again. It was held again a bit by way of 96L 3D TLC – a side that must be addressed by the most recent 176-layer NAND.
Similar to different flagship M.2 PCIe 4.Zero x4 NVMe SSDs, the FireCuda 530 additionally comes with a heatsink choice. Unlike the ridged designs widespread for this software, Seagate has gone in for a minimalist choice designed by EKWB – a finely-textured aluminum block weighing greater than the same old finned heatsinks, whereas nonetheless retaining a slim profile for huge compatibility.
| Seagate FireCuda 530 SSD Specifications | ||||
| Capacity | 500 GB | 1 TB | 2 TB | Four TB |
| Controller | Phison PS5018-E18 (PCIe 4.Zero x4) | |||
| NAND Flash | 176L 3D TLC NAND (Micron B47R) | |||
| Form-Factor, Interface | Single-Sided M.2-2280, PCIe 4.Zero x4, NVMe 1.4 | Double-Sided M.2-2280, PCIe 4.Zero x4, NVMe 1.4 | ||
| Sequential Read | 7000 MB/s | 7300 MB/s | ||
| Sequential Write | 3000 MB/s | 6000 MB/s | 6900 MB/s | |
| Random Read IOPS | 400Ok | 800Ok | 1M | |
| Random Write IOPS | 700Ok | 1M | ||
| Pseudo-SLC Caching | Supported | |||
| TCG Opal Encryption | No | |||
| Warranty | 5 years (with Three yr DRS) | |||
| Write Endurance | 640 TB 0.7 DWPD |
1275 TB 0.7 DWPD |
2550 TB 0.7 DWPD |
5100 TB 0.7 DWPD |
| MSRP (non-heatsink) | $140 (25¢/GB) | $240 (25¢/GB) | $490 (21¢/GB) | $950 (21¢/GB) |
While the FireCuda 520 got here with 1 DWPD rankings, Seagate has returned to conservative roots with the consumer-standard 0.7 DWPD for the write endurance of the FireCuda 530 SSDs. The heatsink is non-obligatory, since most new motherboards are offering their very own M.2 cooling resolution. It does add a $50 premium to the barebones model. In addition to the 5-year guarantee, Seagate additionally features a 3-year Rescue Data Recovery Service plan with the SSD.
Pricing is par for the course with different E18 SSDs, and the added DRS tends to drag up the worth for cash facet within the high-end house. Seagate additionally seems to be one of many only a few distributors with a 512GB choice on this efficiency class (E18-based SSDs). This is comprehensible, as the quantity of parallelism accessible in 512GB-class drives isn’t excessive sufficient to maintain the hyperlink bandwidth for sequential writes (The 512GB SKU tops out at 3GBps, whereas the 2TB and 4TB ones attain as much as 6.9GBps). On the ability consumption entrance, the common energetic energy ranges from 5.8W for the 500GB SKU to eight.4W for the 4TB one.
Overall, the product seems to test all the best packing containers for players and content material creators trying to buy a brand new PCIe 4.Zero SSD this summer season.
