Seagate FireCuda 530, 2 TB, Internal SSD, M.2 PCIe Gen4 ×4 NVMe 1.4, transfer speeds up to 7300 MB/s, 3D TLC NAND, 2550 TBW, Heatsink, for PS5/PC, 3 year Rescue Services (ZP2000GM3A023)

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It’s not just about speed, Seagate have a terrible reputation for reliability. I wouldn’t ever buy a Seagate drive again, last one I owned broke within weeks and I lost all my data.

For the most part, I DO think Seagate has succeeded in fulfilling the promises they have made on the Firecuda 530 and have arguably released the best example of m.2 PCIe4 NVMe SSD architecture you can buy in 2021. There is no avoiding the fact that the Seagate Firecuda 530 series of SSDs have arrived on the market noticeably later than their biggest rivals AND with a higher price tag, so they were going to need to make a pretty good early impression to make up the ground amply covered by their competitors. The decision to focus heavily on endurance and durability is a remarkably mature one (and potentially controversial one against their competitors) in an age when consumers are demanding prices come down, forcing brands to either cut covers where they think they will be felt the least or going the budget router of QC NAND. Therefore you have to respect Seagate’s decision to draw a line in the sand here about what they consider a high-end SSD. Though some buyers might not be as thrilled to pay for these extras that they feel they won’t need, the Firecuda 530 is still pretty much the score to beat in 1TB above, though the 500GB whilst maintaining the price structure of larger drives, might leave you a little less impressed. Overall, I can definitely recommend the Firecuda 530 series, but maybe pay the extra and go for the 1TB at the very least. Drive The drive is fairly standard in height to other m.2 NVMes, however, it is easy to forget that the micron NAND featured in the Firecuda 530 is significantly higher quality than many at 176L (something we will touch on later).This review is part of our ongoing roundup of the best SSDs. Go there for information on competing products and how we tested them. Design and specs Before we conduct our own testing on this SSD, Let’s take a closer look at the reported specifications and benchmarks first. The Seagate Firecuda 530 SSD arrives in four capacities at 500GB,1TB, 2TB and 4TB. The Prices currently are a little inconsistent (with each higher capacity tier actually having a higher price per GB – quite unusual) likely due to the hardware shortages, the Pandemic, Chia has affected SSD availability in the last 12 months and most recently the announcement that PS5 supports this SSD and it has increased the current price of most models around 20%! Below is a breakdown of how each Firecuda 530 SSD compares: Drive The first very clear thing is that the performance clearly scales quite hugely as you go through each capacity tier. The 500GB model features a rather underwhelming 3000GB sequential write compared with the more than double 6,000MB/s and 6,900MB/s reported on the rest of the series, but the sequential read performance of all capacities is still reported at 7,000MB/s (with a peak of 7,300MB/s at the highest end). Likewise, the 4K IOPS scales noticeably through the tiers, with the 500GB being the only version that does not break the 1,000,000 IOPS rating. Understandably this is an architecture/physical NAND scale limitation, but it definitely worth highlighting, as many buyers who are looking at the Seagate Firecuda 530 series and are somewhat intimidated by the higher price tag over other M.2 PCIe4 NVMe SSDs (but still want the endurance and durability of use) might scale to the 500GB model and then be unaware they are getting a very different ‘write’ experience. That said, modern PC and console gamers who are going to use the Seagate Firecuda 530 are going to largely need to focus on Read activity. For a better understanding of the most commonly used terms in the word of SSDs, take a moment to watch my video below that breaks down all of the most complex and repeated terms and anacronyms into plain, chewable English!

Below is a breakdown of the hardware specifications of the Firecuda 530. There are a number of key factors here that really need your attention! Drive Below I tested 4 different games on the Playstation 5, with each game being stored on the m.2 SSD expansion slot populated with the Seagate Firecuda 530. In three out of four cases, the game loaded 1 Sec + faster on the Seagate: This was a rather astounding 450GB write time, shaving nearly 20 seconds of the previous best. Shorter bars are better.

Hello sir. Thank you for detailed information about seaget firecuda 530 m.2 SSD. I bought it after i watched your video. But i couldn’te find a detailed guide to apply firmware update. Could you nake a video about firmware update? Love your videos. Thank you. I think you’ve done a small mistake there. 0.7 are 70%. 7% would be 0.07. But since you did state the right TBW in the end, it’s actually neither here nor there. Great , great review! Thank you for the thorough work! I am a fan of these drives now myself! Join the Inner Circle? The Inner Circle is a community of like-minded individuals who are passionate about the same things you are. You’ll have the opportunity to ask questions and get replies from me and other Inner Circle members who are dedicated to helping each other out. if you are still going around in circles and need direct consultation, we have just started providing one-hour consultations via zoom. You can find out more about them via the link below:

Can you show how to update firecuda 530 SSD firmware on a PC or Mac. Nobody talks about it or shows it. But you are the best in the business so I know you could do it! Thanks in advance. The Seagate FireCuda 530 (2TB) is the fastest NVMe SSD we’ve tested; it has a very high TBW rating for a consumer drive; and it also carries a five-year guarantee with three years of data recovery coverage. It isn’t cheap, but it’s the best thing out there. Overall, you really cannot fault the hardware inside/onboard the Seagate Firecuda 530, as it is still by far one of the highest performing sequential Read and Write drives in the market over many other M.2 NVMe PCIe 4 SSDs released in the last 6-8 months. Before we go into the full testing, however, it is worth taking a moment to look closely at the reported performance benchmarks of the Seagate Firecuda 530, as although the performance is good, there are areas such as IOPS and endurance when compared with its main rivals that make quite a stark contrast. Seagate Firecuda 530 SSD Review – Official Stats First

Thank you so much for explaining the durability period for the M.2 drives. My big worry is that the Ps5 will place strong demand on the M.2 drives and thus lessen the durability of them over a short time. I very much appreciate it especially because no other YouTube channel is discussing this issue. Some Phison E18 equipped SSDs don’t come with any kind of management software, which can be a hindrance if you're hoping to clone your existing drive. Seagate includes a reskinned version of Acronis True Image which is easy to use. Seagate's SeaTools app also deserves a mention. It provides S.M.A.R.T. monitoring, health information, self-testing and erase functions among others. Who cares about the Crystal Disk Mark tests when the actual copy speed, even for a very large file, isn’t more than 2GB/s, when as per Seagate’s claim, it should be around 6GBs/. Pathetic SSD indeed! Considering its price, brand, and miniscule performance benefit I’d rather buy a better samsung 980 pro or wd sn850. They’re both in house so they know internally the binning and quality level of everything and I trust either of them more than a buy nand and controller separately company.