Seagate NVMe SSD FireCuda 530

Along with developments on the storage side on the computer, of course performance will increase even more. In the past, everyone was still using ATA hard disks which was then replaced by SATA until the 3rd generation. After that, came NVMe which used PCI express lanes which increased its performance many times. And now, PCI express lanes have reached the 4th generation.

PCI express lanes also have multiple currently known lanes from x1, x4, x8, to x16. In 3rd generation PCIe, x1 lanes have a speed of 0.985 GB/s, so NVMe that requires x4 lanes will provide a bandwidth of 3,939 GB/s. For PCIe 4th generation, the x1 lane will have a speed of 1,969 GB/s and for NVMe storage using x4 it will have a bandwidth of 7,877 GB/s.

Currently, the 4th generation PCIe NVMe-based SSD storage media has arrived. One of them is the Seagate FireCuda 530 which uses PCIe 4.0 x4. FireCuda itself is a storage line from Seagate that has high performance and is intended for gamers. Therefore, there is the Seagate Gaming logo on every sales box of the Seagate FireCuda.

This SSD is claimed to be able to transfer data at a speed of 7000 MB / s. This speed will certainly be achieved only by using NVMe with 4th generation PCI express on x4 lanes. This of course makes the Firecuda 530 one of the fastest performing SSDs available in 2021. The Seagate FireCuda type that came to the DailySocial team’s testing table was an SSD with a thick heatsink, known as the FireCuda 530 Heatsink.

The specifications of the Seagate FireCuda 530 NVMe SSD that I got are as follows

Capacity 2TB
PCIe Gen 4 x4 . interfaces
NVMe connector type 1.4
Form Factor M.2 2280
Controller Phison PS5018-E18
Micron 176L TLC . NAND memory type
Endurance 2550 TBW
Dimensions 24.2 x 10.74 x 9.6 mm
Weight 47 grams
Seagate provides a 5 year warranty for this one NVMe SSD. In addition, the warranty provided will also be deducted by the specified TBW (TeraByte Written). So, the warranty will expire if it has been used for more than 3 years or exceeds the write of 2550 TB. Therefore, don’t do benchmarking on this SSD too often 🙂

Design

bulky! That’s the first thing that came to my mind when I opened the sales package of the FireCuda 530. Of course, this was because of the thick heatsink that was placed on top of the existing NAND chip. As the chip’s performance increases of course it generates excess heat and this is Seagate’s way of dampening it.

The Seagate FireCuda 530 uses both sides of the board to house various chips. For the controller, the Seagate FireCuda 530 uses a Phison PS5018-E18 with a 12 nm manufacturing process from TSMC. The NAND chip itself uses a Micron 176-Layer Triple-Level Cell. And there is a DDR4 RAM chip made by Hynix that functions as a cache.

The weight of the Seagate FireCuda 530 is very light, only 47 grams. This device has dimensions of 24.2 x 10.74 x 9.6 mm which is suitable for installation on a desktop or Playstation 5. Unfortunately this SSD doesn’t seem to be enough when installed on some gaming laptops because the dimensions of the heatsink are quite thick. However, with this thick heatsink, the FireCuda 530 can maintain its temperature better, although sometimes overheating occurs.

The Seagate FireCuda 530 is also supported with Seagate Seatools. This software can monitor the state of the FireCuda 530 so that users know when to replace the SSD. Unfortunately due to time constraints, I didn’t have time to test this SSD using Seagate Seatools. However, this application is available directly on the official page of the FireCuda 530.

Test

In testing this SSD, of course you need a device that already supports PCI-e 4.0. I chose to use a laptop that uses an 11th Generation Intel Core i5 processor which already supports PCI express 4.0 and is able to run a PCIe Gen 4 x4 NVMe SSD at full speed. To test it, of course I used the main available NVMe slot. The operating system used is Windows 11.

When using the second NVMe SSD slot provided by the laptop vendor I use, it turns out that the test results are still limited to the 3rd generation PCI-e. a gaming PC. When installed in the first slot, the speed problem is resolved. However, another problem arose.

The tropical climate in Indonesia is easy to make PC equipment hotter. This also happened to the Seagate FireCuda 530, where it could reach numbers above 80 degrees Celsius when I tested it without using air conditioning. When hot, this SSD can only run at 64 MB / s on almost all benchmark software. And when I hold the heatsink, it feels really hot.

In this test, I will use two benchmark software, namely Crystal Disk Mark and ATTO. Crystal Disk Mark itself I use two versions, namely version 6 and 8, because both have different calculations. Here are the results
It’s quite nice to be able to get a figure of 7 GB / s when testing this SSD. In Crystal Disk Mark 6, finally Seagate’s promise that this SSD can run at a speed of 7,000 MB/s can be exceeded with a result of 7,033 MB/s. Unfortunately these results will be obtained by producing a hot temperature, which is around 70 degrees Celsius.

With performance like this, of course, it can make loading a heavy game faster. Even when using it with Windows 11, it makes the overall system feel more responsive when compared to a SATA SSD. Especially when trying to play the Valorant game, the loading does feel faster even though it’s not far enough away from the NVMe PCI-e Gen 3 x4 SSD which is widely installed on laptops today.

This kind of performance is of course also beneficial for those who often do editing and rendering of images and videos. The faster the performance of the SSD, of course, is directly proportional to the completion of a job. This speed is also quite recommended for those who use heavy Office software that opens more than 10 windows, such as for those who work in an accounting firm.

Verdict

When having a system that supports PCI-e 4.0, of course replacing the SSD at a higher level will speed up the system as a whole. With higher performance, of course, making all the software that runs faster. This will also make gamers no longer need to wait for longer to load. Therefore, Seagate offers the FireCuda 530 which has a very high performance for today’s storage media.

High performance is provided by Seagate with a data transfer rate of 7 GB / s. In addition, benchmark results also show that the Seagate FireCuda 530 can be used for all jobs. The thick heatsink also ensures that this SSD will not overheat when used in extreme conditions. Having a large TBW ensures that this SSD won’t crash anytime soon.

Seagate sells FireCuda 530 2 TB at a price of Rp. 7,899,000. Indeed, this price is quite expensive for the size of the 2 TB capacity and when compared to its competitors. Even so, this SSD is suitable for professionals and gamers who need a high-performance computer. And of course, those who own a PS5 will also benefit from the performance of this FireCuda 530.

Sparks

Very fast read and write performance
Thick heatsink that ensures temperature is maintained
Can be used on Playstation 5
Long warranty, which is 5 years
Quite a large TBW with 2550 TBW