Seagate Announces FireCuda 530 M.2 NVMe Gen 4 SSD

[btarunr]

Seagate today announced its newest PC gaming SSD, the FireCuda 530, at the company's inaugural virtual gaming event, SG21. The new drive offers gamers the latest PCIe Gen4 NVMe SSD technology and the fastest performance from the company's line of PC gaming storage products - bringing speed, endurance, and high capacity to the peak of PC performance.

Delivering sequential read speeds of up to 7300 MB/s, the FireCuda 530 catalyzes PCIe Gen4 power with transfer rates up to two times faster than PCIe Gen3 SSDs and 12 times faster than SATA-based SSDs. The drive is built with a Seagate-validated E18 controller and the latest 3D TLC NAND to provide the most advanced speed and durability for PC gaming. Seagate also offers a minimalist heatsink option, specially designed by EKWB that swaps out cooling fins for a more massive, high-grade aluminium block with a finely textured finish, maximizing cooling.



"This is Seagate's fastest and most powerful gaming SSD and we're showcasing it at our first-ever virtual gaming event to put a stake in the ground," said Jeff Fochtman, Senior Vice President of Marketing at Seagate Technology. "From the FireCuda 530, to our lineup of partners and guests at SG21, we're here to take it all to the next level."

"We had an exciting challenge to design a custom heatsink with the objective of having both form and function - a product that was low profile for tighter builds but also provided thermal management, while maintaining the sleek design that both Seagate's FireCuda line and EKWB are known for," said Kat Silberstein, Chief Executive Officer, Americas, at EKWB. "The open, collaborative spirit of Seagate and EK is what has allowed the FireCuda 530 to really sing."

Available in capacities up to 4 TB, the FireCuda 530 offers long lasting endurance of 1.8M MTBF and up to 5100 TBW—meaning gamers can write and delete 70% of the drive capacity every day for 5 years. Seagate's FireCuda 530 includes a three-year Rescue Data Recovery Service plan and a five-year limited warranty so gamers have peace of mind knowing their data is secure. The drive also comes bundled with Seagate's SeaTools and DiscWizard making it easy for gamers and PC builders to add new drives to their computer and monitor the health and performance of each drive.

Shipping this summer, Seagate's FireCuda 530 is offered for MSRPs of $139.99 (500 GB), $239.99 (1 TB), $489.99 (2 TB), and $949.99 (4 TB), and FireCuda 530 with the heatsink is offered for MSRPs of $159.99 (500 GB), $259.99 (1 TB), $539.99 (2 TB), and $999.99 (4 TB).

For more information, visit the product page.

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[Chaitanya]

Looks like another heatsoak.

 

[yotano211]

Price is kinda high

 

[maxfly]

Price is kinda high

Agreed, for a product thats squeezing itself into an already tight niche. Theres not going to be many folks dropping that kind of loot on a drive that isnt even top of its class.

 

[dicktracy]

Gamers don’t need PCIe 4

 

[PLAfiller]

The mascot for this series doesn't make sense to me. Isn't Baracuda a fish? How come the Firecuda is a flying gargoyle? Anyhow.

 

[Athlonite]

The mascot for this series doesn't make sense to me. Isn't Baracuda a fish? How come the Firecuda is a flying gargoyle? Anyhow.

Because Charmander is a Trademarked name of Pokemon

Delivering sequential read speeds of up to 7300 MB/s,

This is not the measurement that is the most meaningful if you're using this as a boot/games drive as almost all transactions will be of 4K or less and mostly random so why don't they state those speeds instead of some fictitious Sequential read speed that only happens in some optimised test situations

 

[Tom Yum]

Agreed, for a product thats squeezing itself into an already tight niche. Theres not going to be many folks dropping that kind of loot on a drive that isnt even top of its class.

How do you know it won't be? The 520 was pretty competitive, and the main criticisms it received (no heatsink, slight underperformance in random write) look like they've been addressed. Maybe we should wait for reviews?

 

[Space Lynx]

looking forward to w1zz's review on this one regardless, I want to see what that optimized E18 controller can do from a proper AAA company like Seagate.

@W1zzard

Price is kinda high

I never take MSRP seriously anymore, black friday, or 6 months later amazon prime day, drives are always great prices. just have to be patient. /shrug

 

[Prima.Vera]

ridiculous prices

 

[yotano211]

looking forward to w1zz's review on this one regardless, I want to see what that optimized E18 controller can do from a proper AAA company like Seagate.

@W1zzard



I never take MSRP seriously anymore, black friday, or 6 months later amazon prime day, drives are always great prices. just have to be patient. /shrug

I not worried, I'll keep with the SSDs that I have now. I picked up a 8tb sammy 870 last week. All movie/shows storage SSD.

 

[MxPhenom 216]

Gamers don’t need PCIe 4

They don't need anything beyond SATA 6gb/s technically.....

Do you have any other ground breaking statements that start with "Gamers don't need..."?

 

[yotano211]

They don't need anything beyond SATA 6gb/s technically.....

Do you have any other ground breaking statements that start with "Gamers don't need..."?

Gamers dont need GPUs, they only need a 1030gtx.

 

[ThomasEichorst]

970 Pro still wipes the floor with any gen 4 drive in real usage and longevity.

 

[MxPhenom 216]

970 Pro still wipes the floor with any gen 4 drive in real usage and longevity.

970 Pro doesnt beat a 980 Pro, or Corsair MP600, or WD SN850

 

[Minus Infinity]

Nearly $500 US for 2TB, they are delusional, this will be around $1K in Australia where I got a 2TB NVME recently for $400. That makes the rip-off WD850 look cheap.

 

[Athlonite]

Nearly $500 US for 2TB, they are delusional, this will be around $1K in Australia where I got a 2TB NVME recently for $400. That makes the rip-off WD850 look cheap.

yeah in the same position here in Gougeland (New Zealand) as you lot next door

 

[owen10578]

If this can do what the reference Micron 176L NAND sample SSDs can do, then this will be the absolute fastest SSD ever. Sustained write speeds in the 6GB/s range is no joke!

 

[Maxx]

If this can do what the reference Micron 176L NAND sample SSDs can do, then this will be the absolute fastest SSD ever. Sustained write speeds in the 6GB/s range is no joke!

That's the listed "up to" sequential write speeds for the SLC cache, which isn't particularly faster. Generally you're stuck around 200µs for SLC tPROG so the amount of interleaving (planes per capacity) determines sequential write performance there. Which is to say, Micron's 512Gb/4-plane 64L TLC is just as fast as their 512Gb/4-plane 176L TLC in SLC mode. Where it shines is with TLC performance which includes low queue depth, random 4K reads, for example (35% faster than 96L gen).

The Rocket 4 Plus is only rated for 5500 MB/s at 1TB (smallest capacity) vs 6000 MB/s here, but that's because the controller (Phison E18) itself is rated for 5500 MB/s there (and 2850 MB/s at 500GB - 3000 MB/s here). To be fair there are some improvements in SLC mode as well but by far and large the speed improvements are with TLC mode - look at the TPU cache graph for 176L vs the Addlink S95 (E18 + 96L) in direct-to-NAND/direct-to-TLC and folding modes; WAY Faster.

 

[owen10578]

That's the listed "up to" sequential write speeds for the SLC cache, which isn't particularly faster. Generally you're stuck around 200µs for SLC tPROG so the amount of interleaving (planes per capacity) determines sequential write performance there. Which is to say, Micron's 512Gb/4-plane 64L TLC is just as fast as their 512Gb/4-plane 176L TLC in SLC mode. Where it shines is with TLC performance which includes low queue depth, random 4K reads, for example (35% faster than 96L gen).

The Rocket 4 Plus is only rated for 5500 MB/s at 1TB (smallest capacity) vs 6000 MB/s here, but that's because the controller (Phison E18) itself is rated for 5500 MB/s there (and 2850 MB/s at 500GB - 3000 MB/s here). To be fair there are some improvements in SLC mode as well but by far and large the speed improvements are with TLC mode - look at the TPU cache graph for 176L vs the Addlink S95 (E18 + 96L) in direct-to-NAND/direct-to-TLC and folding modes; WAY Faster.

Yes that is exactly why I said this is the fastest SSD. Fast direct to TLC speeds that can be sustained.

 

[Maxx]

Yes that is exactly why I said this is the fastest SSD. Fast direct to TLC speeds that can be sustained.

That's completely legitimate, but it doesn't do 6 GB/s in TLC mode. I don't know the exact tPROG but it should shake out to around 164 MB/s per die, hitting a maximum around 24 dies, so a bit less than 4 GB/s.

Still insanely fast, mind you, considering we're at 55-57 MB/s per die with BiCS3/4 for example.

 

[owen10578]

That's completely legitimate, but it doesn't do 6 GB/s in TLC mode. I don't know the exact tPROG but it should shake out to around 164 MB/s per die, hitting a maximum around 24 dies, so a bit less than 4 GB/s.

Still insanely fast, mind you, considering we're at 55-57 MB/s per die with BiCS3/4 for example.

Well yea you're right its not 6GB's more like 4GB/s but that's still the fastest write speeds I seen in a consumer SSD.