Editor’s notice
- Authentic assessment date: March 2023
Replace – July 2024: Regardless of some sturdy competitors, the Seagate FireCuda 530 stays a incredible alternative for PlayStation 5 house owners. Because the advisable SSD specs haven’t modified for the reason that console’s launch, this mannequin remains to be absolutely appropriate proper out of the field. It’s also available and, due to its relative age, is now cheaper than ever.
You will discover the 1TB mannequin hovering at round $150 / £110 at Amazon within the US and UK which is kind of a aggressive value. It additionally routinely receives big reductions in main gross sales occasions like Black Friday and Amazon Prime Day, the place that 1TB mannequin has beforehand dropped beneath $100 / £70 providing merely unimaginable worth. That stated, I’d now keep away from the 500GB mannequin, because the current improve in lots of sport file sizes means that it’s going to refill in a short time. The remainder of this assessment stays as beforehand revealed.
Dashiell Wooden
One-minute assessment
The Seagate FireCuda 530 launched again in 2020, across the identical time because the PS5, making it a frontrunner to fit into Sony’s system. Whereas it’s now not absolutely the quickest of its class, the efficiency right here remains to be high-end, displaying that top-end Gen 4.0 by no means actually slows down.
There isn’t a lot room for innovation whenever you push as much as the 7,000 MB/s learn and write mark. The Seagate FireCuda 530 got here storming out of the gate with these figures because the benchmark to beat. Few have all these years later, making it simply one of many finest SSDs for PS5. Even higher, its as soon as monstrous value has come down considerably.
Value and availability
The Seagate FireCuda 530 is extensively accessible within the US, the UK, and Australia in all capacities with a heatsink. Costs begin from $69 / £55 / AU$119 for the 500GB model and scale as much as $129 / £103.99 / AU$217 (1TB), $239.99 / £189 / $AU414.78 (2TB), and $529 / £449.99 / AU$984.75 (4TB). That’s a good bit cheaper than the unique launch value however nonetheless a contact costlier than different Gen 4.0 fashions with related efficiency.
Design and Options
My Seagate FireCuda 530 assessment unit is the 1TB mannequin which comes with the PS5 SSD heatsink. Its thick aluminum all-over wrap firmly encases the silicon and controller properly whereas permitting most warmth dissipation. It’s essential, too, as a result of the PS5’s native M.2 port has no type of passive cooling by itself. Whereas just a little cumbersome and weighty, that added heft is good for staying in place throughout set up with satisfactory room as soon as the quilt is re-installed. It’s one of many smartest-designed heatsinks I’ve seen on an NVMe SSD up to now.
As anticipated from a high-performance Gen 4.0 mannequin, the Seagate FireCuda 530 makes use of the distinctive Phison E-18 controller, and that’s the way it can push as much as 7,000 MB/s learn and write. It was spectacular in 2020, and even three years later remains to be as stable as ever. There’s additionally 176-layer Micron TLC flash reminiscence which few newer drives, such because the Kingston Fury Renegade, additionally used over two years later. We’re very a lot speaking concerning the cap of what’s doable with this present technology of NVMe fashions, so to hit it out of the park so early on is commendable.
As is par the course with NVMe SSDs, there’s a five-year guarantee right here, and the write endurance is barely higher than you see from the competitors. It scales from 640TBW (500GB), 1,275TBW (1TB), 2,550TBW (2TB), and 5,100TBW (4TB). That’s considerably greater than the likes of the WD Black SN850 and the PNY CS3140, too. We don’t typically see figures this good, and it provides to the longevity of a drive that can be capable to sustain for a very long time of hard-wearing use.
Efficiency
Gaming on the PS5 with the Seagate FireCuda 530 is as fast and painless as you’d anticipate, given what’s on the silicon right here. In my testing, it achieved a learn rating from Sony’s official benchmark device of 6,539 MB/s, making it one of many quickest I’ve ever used.
File switch occasions had been a number of the most spectacular I’ve seen in all my time testing SSDs, with specific highlights being with a number of the greatest PS5 video games. Horizon: Forbidden West, with its 99.35 GB file dimension, jumped from the inner storage to the NVMe SSD in simply 1 minute and 19 seconds (or 79 seconds). Equally spectacular is Demise Stranding: Director’s Minimize (69.35 GB), which transferred in solely 54 seconds. That’s effectively over 1 GB/sec being more-than-enough to repeat your whole sport library over in just some minutes.
It’s the same story with smaller file sizes the place the velocity of the Seagate Firecuda 530 actually shines. That is evident with each Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order (47.29 GB) and Useless Area (31.07 GB), which transferred over in 39 seconds and 27 seconds, respectively. Loading into video games was simply as transient, with Useless Area hailing main the cost going from the primary menu to gameplay in lower than 3 seconds. It’s even sooner than the already almost non-existent occasions from the inner storage. Demise Stranding: Director’s Minimize was nearly as fast, with lower than 6 seconds between the menu to the open world.
Ought to I purchase the Seagate FireCuda 530?
Purchase it if…
You need an SSD for PS5 that can final
The Seagate FireCuda 530 options best-in-class write endurance for its value and efficiency, which means it’s a drive that can sustain for a very long time.
You need lightning-fast efficiency
Inside the PS5, the Seagate FireCuda achieves 6,539 MB/s, making it one of many quickest NVMe drives I’ve ever had my palms on in all my years of testing SSDs.
Do not buy it if…
You’re considering of going for decrease capability
You’ll be able to actually solely get probably the most out of the Seagate Firecuda 530 with 1TB and up, so in the event you’re gunning for a 500GB SSD, you will get a less expensive one which does the identical job.
