Verdict
The Seagate FireCuda 540 is a juggernaut of a PCIe 5.0 campaign . As a first - generation Gen5 SSD it does n’t quite have the clout that some of the posterior iterations have , yet still raise some exceptional performance figures where it count most .
Pros
Cons
Key Features
Introduction
Seagate has long been a household name when it come to the globe of storage .
Although considerably known for its traditional spinning hard drives , and NAS solution , it does have a fairly levelheaded SSD selection , and with the debut of the first PCIe 5.0 drives , the Seagate FireCuda 540 lastly came to light .
With some impressive read and write speeds under cargo , along with prodigious in - game load performance and a 2000 TBW survival military rank , the Seagate FireCuda 540 ticks a lot of boxes . But can it contend in an increasingly dense grocery ? Here ’s my finding of fact .
Specs
At its Congress of Racial Equality , the Seagate FireCuda 540 features a very like hardware apparatus to that of theGigabyte Aorus Gen5 12000 , and the Crucial T700 . In fact , most of the PCIe 5.0 drives are effectively kitted out in the same manner at this sentence .
It has 32 - Layer TLC NAND flash retentiveness from Micron , a low cache of LPDDR4DRAM , all controlled via the Phison E26 controller and embedded in theM.2 2280 mannequin agent .
One thing that does differentiate it from its rival , however , is a lack of a heatsink option . On the aerofoil , that does n’t vocalize great . But this is in effect a $ 270 drive , and if I ’m honest , it does belong under a motherboard heatsink .
Still having the option to nibble one up with an included heatsink would have been a dainty touching . That ’s actually quite surprising given that Seagate also has the FireCuda 530 SSD as well , a PCIe 4.0 solution specifically developed for use in thePlaystation 5 , with an integrated low - visibility heatsink plan by renowned liquidness - chill manufacturing business EKWB .
Full Specs
Cooling apart , the big reward the FireCuda 540 has over its competition is in the endurance and warranty department . As standard , the SSD has an telling 2000 TBW endurance rating before failure . For comparison , the Aorus Gen5 12000 and Corsair ’s MP700 Pro only has a 1400 TBW military rating , and Crucial ’s T700 come in at just 1200 TBW .
Seagate also includes access to its Rescue Data Recovery Services , so if your drive is ever damage or loses data point for any rationality , its squad of expert will assay to recover the data for free , at least , for the first three years anyway . All of which is probably no surprise from a company that preponderantly specialises in web Attached Storage solution and backup options these solar day .
Test Setup
Similarly to our other SSDs on run , I ’ve put the Seagate FireCuda 540 to task , rigorously benchmarking it across all manner of actual - humans and synthetic situations , to really get to handle and figure out just how well it performs . I ’ve also spent the last few week testing its competitor M.2 SSDs as well , to really get a good understanding of the surrounding marketplace and just how it stacks up .
To do that , I ’ve take reward of a uniform trial - organisation , using one of the respectable PCIe 5.0 motherboards currently on the market today , alongsideIntel ’s latest Core i7 - 14700Kprocessor , along with a ton of other computer hardware , you’re able to get my run organization below :
To get a good discernment of the synthetic side of thing , I ’m utilising Crystal Disk Mark version 8 , in its default configuration and waiting line depth to get an savvy of those max sequential and random 4 K speeds .
I ’m also using Final Fantasy XIV ’s bench mark , as it has a specific load - clip parameter , based on the SSD it ’s being run on , which should give us some wild brainwave into just how tight these drive can load games themselves . I ’ve also ran two extended bench mark in the form of PC Mark 10 ’s Quick System Drive , and Data Drive bench mark suite too .
For the veridical - world testing , that ’s all thanks to Red Dead Redemption II . Namely , I ’m testing real - world transcript speeds , by copying the integral game onto the SSD then duplicating it again , to really max out those Random 4 K writes , to enter out which thrust can happily copy 120 GB of files fastest .
in conclusion , I ’m also using a few indices establish on the price of the ride compared to the sequential and random 4 thousand performance , and a Gigabyte per $ metric as well , to give us a serious sympathy of the value proposition each drive represents .
Performance
Seagate reckons that , at full tilt , the 540 will easily crack 10GB / s on the sequentials , for both read and write , and I can jubilantly describe that is exactly the case .
Crystal Disk Mark cover 10,021 MB / s on the read and 10,179 on write . It ’s not the fast PCIe 5.0 drive out there , not by a farseeing dig , and Seagate has n’t released an update version of it compared to the likes of Gigabyte , Corsair , and Crucial either . yet , those fastness are n’t anything to sniff at .
be active on to the random 4 K fastness , however , and it ’s another tarradiddle all . Like - for - like the FireCuda 540 easily keeps up quite closely with both the Crucial T700 and the Aorus Gen5 12000 , being only a few MB / s off both drives despite its boost years .
That ’s really important to mention if you ’re a gamer . successive speeds are fantastical if you ’re transferring similar files back - to - back in speedy succession , but if you ’re trying to pull individual single file from random locating , say , when loading a game , random 4 K is more consanguineal to that case of scenario , and the FireCuda certainly dominates in that sphere .
you may see that gallop out to our FFXIV benchmark as well , as it ’s the fastest drive we have on test , beating Gigabyte , and Crucial to the punch with a staggering 7.04 load - time . In my real - worldly concern 120 GB file copy transfer , however , it does come down slenderly behind the other two drives , completing in 45.08 second , compared to the T700 ’s 43.38 and the Aorus Gen5 12000 ’s 37.40 . In fact , it ’s even slower than Crucial ’s PCIe 4.0 T500 , although that effort ’s not exactly a slouch in this department either .
As far as pricing is concerned , it ’s fairly becoming decent now , coming in at $ 269.99 its priced identically to Crucial ’s own T700 , and although the Aorus Gen5 12000 is technically usable for less than that , at $ 239.99 for the 2 TB variant , it ’s hardly ever in descent because of it , giving the FireCuda 540 a slight border .
Latest deals
Should you buy it?
Seagate ’s FireCuda 540 may not be the truehearted 5.0 drive in the mart right now , but it makes up for that with an incredible survival paygrade , and awesome data retrieval features . In - game lode times are the immobile we ’ve seen , and its random 4 honey oil carrying into action keeps it in rivalry with some ofthe best SSDsout there right now .
If you live on and breathe big data point file transfers , and call for the absolute cutting - edge sequential execution , you ’ll probably be better fit with a faster PCIe 5.0 drive from the the like of Crucial orGigabyte . The Seagate FireCuda 540 , is n’t exactly the quickest SSD out there for that specific task .
Final Thoughts
The Seagate FireCuda 540 is an interesting SSD . On the one hand , it ’s quite the slow ( comparatively ) PCIe 5.0 SSD . 10 GB / s , although rapid compared to the broad PCIe market , is clean sluggish compared to the modern option such as the T705 from Crucial , Aorus Gen5 12000 from Gigabyte , or MP700 Pro from Corsair .
Yet , the FireCuda 540 ’s random 4 cat valium public presentation and substantial - world figures are nothing if not impressive . Combine that with enough availability , good pricing , and some seriously telling included recovery service of process and endurance rating and it makes for a tantalising offer . If only it amount with a heatsink .
Trusted Score
How we test
Each SSD we test utilises a mix of both synthetic and real - man benchmark tests . On top of that , we also use a bit of price - to - performance metrics , and supervise temperature and power - draw to square off the long - full term constancy and cost - strength of the private road .
FAQs
Yes , all PCIe 5.0 drive are backwards compatible in any M.2 PCIe slot . You will get reduced bandwidth and speeds however .
As received no . We extremely recommend you install it underneath your motherboard ’s M.2 heatsinks or grease one’s palms a third party solution or else .
