Seagate FireCuda 510 1TB SSD Review

1. Introduction2. Seagate FireCuda 510 1TB3. Testing Methodology4. CrystalDiskMark5. ATTO Disk Benchmark6. AS SSD7. IOMETER8. 128KB Sequential Performance9. 4K Random Read v QD Performance10. 4K Random Write v QD Performance11. 4K 70/30 Mixed Performance12. Throughput13. PCMark 8 - Storage Consistency14. PCMark 8 - Individual Test Suites15. PCMark 8 Storage Test - Individual Test Suites16. Performance Stability17. Real Life File Testing18. Closing Thoughts19. View All Pages

Although Seagate are primarily known for their huge range of conventional HDD's they also have SSD's in their portfolio albeit in the Enterprise market segment. So it seems strange with this knowledge of NAND based drives in-house it's taken until now to see a Seagate NVMe based SSD for the consumer space, but finally they have entered this highly competitive segment with the FireCuda 510.

The FireCuda 510 uses a tried and tested NAND and controller combination that's seen a lot lately, namely a Phison PS5012-E12 8-channel controller with Toshiba 64-layer BiCS3 3D TLC NAND. At launch the FireCuda 510 range consists of just two capacities, 1TB and 2TB.

The official Sequential speed ratings for the drive are up to 3,450MB/s for reads and up to 3,200MB/s for writes. Using the ATTO benchmark we got closer to the maximum read score at 3,414MB/s than we did the write, with the review drive giving a write score of 3,064MB/s. It was a similar story with our own Sequential tests which produced figures of 3,398MB/s and 3,058.63MB/s for read and writes respectively.

Seagate quote 4K random read/write performance of the 1TB drive as up to 620.000 IOPS and 600,000 IOPS respectively. Using our standard 4K random read/write tests with four-threads we couldn't get close to either of those figures with reads at 372,352 IOPS and writes at 198,568 IOPS at a QD of 32. We then did a quick test again at a QD of 32 but using eight-threads, which resulted in reads of 508,651 IOPS and writes at 486,103 IOPS.

Seagate's well known drive utility, SeaTools now comes in an SSD version. SeaTools SSD is a pretty comprehensive management tool that displays capacity, disk usage, temperature and remaining life of the drive. The Operations page allows the firmware to be updated, drive diagnostics to be carried out, switch between performance optimised and capacity optimised modes if this is supported by the drive and the page includes a link to Seagate's disc cloning software – DiscWizard. There's even a choice of skins for the utility allowing you to swap from the standard looking SeaTools skin to a flashier looking one aimed at gamers.

With its very good all-round performance and excellent endurance, Seagate's FireCuda 510 should make its market competitors take notice of it apart from one rather significant fly in the ointment, the pricing. As it stands the drive is around £20 more expensive than WD's Black SN750 1TB drive (the standard one) but more to the point it's more expensive than some 1TB drives using the same NAND and controller such as the Corsair Force MP510, Patriot's Viper VPN100 and the PNY XLR8 CS3030.

We found the 1TB version of the FireCuda on Overclockers UK for £199.99 HERE, though do bear in mind this is a sale price and the drive usually retails for £225.

Pros

• Overall Performance.
• Excellent endurance.
• 5-year warranty

Cons

• Pricing could do with tweaking.
• Couldn't match the official maximum 4K random figures under testing.

Kitguru says: Seagate has finally made an entrance on the consumer NVMe SSD stage with the FireCuda 510 but although it performs well, Seagate need to do some fettling with the pricing to make it a bit more competitive.

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