Seagate FireCuda 530 2TB SSD Review

1. Introduction2. Seagate FireCuda 530 2TB3. Testing Methodology4. CrystalDiskMark5. ATTO Disk Benchmark6. AS SSD7. 128KB Sequential Performance8. 4K Random Read v QD Performance9. 4K Random Write v QD Performance10. 4K 70/30 Mixed Performance11. 4K Random Performance QD1-QD812. Throughput13. PCMark 10 Full System Drive Benchmark14. Performance Stability15. Drive Temperatures16. Real Life File Testing17. Closing Thoughts18. View All Pages

Seagate’s FireCuda 530 comes in a striking orange and white box with Seagate’s FireCuda dragon mascot prominently displayed along with a small image of the drive. At the top of the box is a sticker that displays the drive’s capacity and the Sequential read speed of the drive. Towards the bottom of the box is some text displaying the interface of the drive.

The rear of the box is covered by multilingual bullet points about the interface speed and the cache. Inside the box are a couple of sets of FireCuda branded stickers and a warranty info booklet.

The FireCuda 530 is built on a double-sided M.2 2280 format.

Sitting under the FireCuda branded label on the front of the drive are four packages of Micron's latest 176-layer replacement gate B47R 3D TLC NAND along with the Phison PS5018-E18 controller (branded as Seagate) and an SK hynix DDR4 (H5AN8G6NCJ, DDR4-2666) cache chip. The other side of the PCB has four more NAND packages and another DDR4 cache IC.

Seagate’s management software for the FireCuda is the SSD version of their SeaTools software. SeaTools SSD displays the drive’s health and supports firmware upgrading and secure erase. Although SeaTools SSD doesn’t come with any drive cloning utility built-in per se it does provide a link to download Seagate’s DiscWizard cloning software. It even gives you a choice of two themes, the standard one or one more suited to the drives gaming role.

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