Seagate Australia today detailed their latest gaming line-up in Australia, headlined by their new, blistering quick FireCuda 530 PCIe SSD. The line-up also includes new external ‘Gaming Hard Drives’ with customisable RGB lighting, as well as a desktop external ‘Gaming Hub’ drive.
The FireCuda 530 is Seagate’s latest PCIE Gen4 NVMe M.2 SSD drive, intended for use internally by gaming PCs and other high performance systems, such as those intended for creative professional use. The big difference between previous generations is in the read/write speeds – now stated by Seagate to be up to 7300 MB/s Sequential Read (Max) and 6900 MB/s Sequential Read (Max). According to testing done by MSI’s YouTube channel, this puts its read/write speeds a good 2000 MB/s faster than the FireCuda 520, and at least 3000 MB/s faster than the Gen 3 Firecuda 510. Seagate were also keen to point out the drive’s durability, stating that it can support 0.7 Drive Writers per day, that is filling and deleting 70% of the drive capacity, every day for five years.
Interestingly, while the FireCuda 530 comes in four sizes (500 GB/1TB/2TB/4TB), it also comes in two versions – naked, and with a non-removable custom heatsink attached to it. The heatsink doesn’t add a lot to the overall size, but is meant to offer better sustained performance for constant reading and writing. Seagate also stated that both form factors (with heatsink and without) have, through testing with Sony, been confirmed to meet all PlayStation 5’s requirements including physical size. However, they were unable to comment on when PS5 might actually allow users to use them.
UPDATE: Sony have just confirmed overnight that adding an M.2 SSD is supported for beta users for PlayStation 5, and the FireCuda 530 with heatsink is suitable.
Prices for the FireCuda 530 without the heatsink (in AU$) – 500GB $199 | 1TB $349 | 2TB $729 | 4TB $1,429. With the heatsink, you’re looking at 500GB $239 | 1TB $399 | 2TB $819 | 4TB $1,499. They’ll be available from early August at MWave, Scorptec and Shopping Express. The drives come with five years limited-warranty and three years Data Recovery services with Seagate.
Also announced were a range of external storage solutions targeted at the gaming market. The FireCuda Gaming Hard Drive is a slim portable USB 3.2 Gen 1 HDD with a strip of customisable RGB lights on the front, controllable both through Seagate’s Toolkit software and Razer Chroma. It comes in 2 TB and 5TB sizes, and also includes the three years Data Recovery services. You’re looking at 2TB for $119 and 5TB for $219, when it’s released in late August.
A larger FireCuda Gaming Hub, in a desktop form factor requiring external power, was also announced, coming in 8TB and 16TB sizes. This also features the same RGB strip of lights, as well as a built-in USB Hub, with a USB-A and USB-C port. It features the same three years Data Recovery, and a three-year limited warranty. The device will be available later this year.
You can find out more about Seagate’s gaming line-up of hard drives on their official Australian website.
