Seagate FireCuda 120 SATA SSDs with up to 4 TB for game collection

FireCuda Solid State Drive (SSD) | Seagate

Seagate releases FireCuda 120 SATA SSD for gaming

The storage requirements for the installation of games are growing rapidly. If you also want to benefit from faster loading times, you must use an SSD instead of an HDD. Seagate offers up to 4 TB of storage space in the new SATA SSD series Firecuda 120, which has its price.

In the classic 2.5-inch format with 7 mm height and SATA connection, the SSD series Seagate Firecuda offers 120 models with 500 GB, 1 TB, 2 TB or 4 TB of storage space. In terms of performance, the Firecuda 120 leaves every HDD behind with up to 560 MB/s for reading and 540 MB/s for writing and much lower latency for file access. The siblings with Pcie interface such as Firecuda 510 and Firecuda 520 are much faster, but only available with up to 2 TB in M.2 format.

Seagate advertises the series as a gaming product, although no mass storage brings with it special properties and is of course universally applicable.

SATA performance with high TBW

The data sheet (PDF) for the Firecuda 120 lists up to 100,000/90,000 IOPS for random reading/writing and for this segment high Total Bytes Written (TBW): Already the 500 GB model is specified with 700 Terabyte TBW, Similar to the storage capacity, the value doubles until it reaches 5,600 TB or 5.6 petabytes for the 4 TB model. For consumer Ssds, the values are very high, but do not say anything about the actual shelf life of the memory cells. Previous samples have shown that Ssds often reach write volumes far beyond the TBW. If the TBW is not exceeded in the meantime, the guarantee period is five years.

Seagate Breathes Life Into Gaming Rigs With The New FireCuda 120 SATA SSD

The Firecuda 120 uses unspecified 3D-TLC-NAND. With supposedly an average of 5.5 watts in operation, the power consumption for a SATA model would be high. In idle mode it should be less than 130 milliwatts and in sleep mode (Devsleep) less than 5 milliwatts.

4 TB cost six times more than HDD

Compared to an HDD, an SSD means faster, more economical and silent mass storage. But still the price per terabyte remains the main disadvantage. The Seagate Firecuda 120 comes with Price recommendations (MSRP before tax) of around 105 USD (500 GB), 200 USD (1 TB), 390 USD (2 TB) and 650 USD (4 TB) on the market. In Germany, about 650 euros including VAT are to be expected for the 4 TB model. A hard drive with 4 TB storage space is available for less than 100 euros.

The Firecuda 120 is already appearing sporadically in online retail.

Ssds with 4 TB are also cheaper
Alternative Ssds with 4 TB are now available in a whole range of stores. The cheapest option is currently the Samsung 860 QVO with QLC-NAND for around 425 euros. With faster and more durable TLC memory, the Western Digital Blue 3D or the identical Sandisk Ultra 3D close to the 500 Euro brand is currently the cheapest model with 4 TB.