Friday, December 6, 2024

Seagate FireCuda Gaming SSD review: High style and high speed for the lucky few

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Right up front, kudos to whoever designed the enclosure of the Seagate FireCuda Gaming SSD. From gray-slate monolithic goodness, to tasteful LED lighting and pleasing heft, it’s one of those products that just makes you want to use it. 

Looks aside, the FireCuda Gaming SSD is likely overkill for the average user. To realize the 2GBps transfers it’s capable of, you’ll need one of the extremely rare SuperSpeed USB 20Gbps (nee USB 3.2 Gen 2×2) ports. Without said port, the FireCuda Gaming SSD, while beautiful, is no faster than the existing and substantially cheaper 10Gbps (Gen 2) competition.

Design and features

I mentioned that the FireCuda Gaming SSD is colored a nice, semi-serious slate gray (black on the bottom). What sets it apart is a deep beveled inset near one end of the drive that sports variable-colored, animated (if desired) LED lighting. Shiny!

The edges are only slightly rounded, which along with about 3.5 ounces of heft, provides a nice tactile experience. It might even be handy for self-defense. Just saying.  

IDG

The FireCuda’s lighting can shine in any color you see in this palette. 

The drive measures approximately 4.1 x 2 x 0.4 inches, which is a bit smaller than the competing 20Gbps WD P50 Black Game Drive SSD. The SSD inside the FireCuda is Seagate’s own FireCuda 510, a worthy NVMe drive and easily fast enough for USB, even the 20Gbps flavor.

Now for some sobering news. The 1TB FireCuda Gaming SSD I tested retails for $260 on Amazon, while the 500GB version goes for $179 on Amazon, and the 2TB model costs $500 on Amazon. That’s not quite as pricey as Thunderbolt gear, but it’s close, and significantly pricier than the average SuperSpeed 10Gbps (USB 3.x Gen 2) drive. By way of comparison, a 2TB Samsung T7 is roughly $360 these days.

The color and animation of the LED lighting is configured via the included Seagate Toolkit software, which also provides backup capabilities. Whatever color or pattern you set is retained, even when power is removed. 

The FireCuda Gaming SSD carries a five-year warranty. Seagate did not provide a TBW (TeraBytes Written) rating, however, the 510 NVMe SSD inside in its bare form is rated for a generous 650TBW.

Ebenezer Robbins
Ebenezer Robbins
Introvert. Beer guru. Communicator. Travel fanatic. Web advocate. Certified alcohol geek. Tv buff. Subtly charming internet aficionado.

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