The FireCuda 540 combines the best PCIe 5.0 performance with the highest endurance we’ve ever seen.
While many companies are chasing high performance or high cooling to make the best PCIe 5.0 SSD, Seagate is after something else: durability. Its FireCuda 540 SSD isn’t the fastest among PCIe 5.0 drives, but at 1000TBW per terabyte, it’s the most stable yet. If you want an SSD that will last for years with little to no failure, the FireCuda 540 is the SSD for you.
About this review: Seagate sent us a FireCuda 540 2TB for the purposes of this review. Seagate did not review the content of this review prior to publication.
Seagate FireCuda 540 PCIe Gen5 Hard Drive M.2 SSD
PCIe 5.0 performance and longevity
8 / 10 $300 $320 Save $20
Seagate’s FireCuda 540 SSD is a first-generation PCIe 5.0 M.2 drive that boasts read and write speeds of up to 10,000MB/s. However, it does require a heatsink, and since the FireCuda 540 doesn’t come with one, you’ll need to make sure your device has one built in that you can use.
Storage 1TB, 2TB Hardware Interface PCIe Gen 5 x4 Transfer rate 10,000/10,000MB/s Read/Write (2TB model) TBW 2.000 (2TB model) Advantages
- It offers better performance than PCIe 4.0 SSDs
- 1TB and 2TB models
- The highest endurance you can get on an SSD
evil
- No heatsink type (yet)
- Not the fastest PCIe 5.0 SSD
$320 at Amazon $303 at Newegg $300 at B&H
Seagate FireCuda 540 prices and availability
At the time of writing, you can find the FireCuda 540 2TB for $300 and 1TB for $180, although the availability does not seem to be as good as on Amazon, you can only find the FireCuda 540 from third parties. What you need to know is that Seagate says that the 1TB version is slightly slower than the 2TB version, however, in this review, I tested the 2TB version, so I can’t say for sure if you need to worry less. work.
Additionally, you won’t find a FireCuda 540 with an integrated heatsink, at least not at all. Seagate told me that it doesn’t feel like this is a problem since almost all motherboards with PCIe 5.0 have their own heatsinks, and I agree with that opinion. However, it would be nice to have that option, and hopefully, Seagate will eventually bring another version of the FireCuda 540 that comes with a custom heatsink. Like most PCIe 5.0 SSDs, since they require a heatsink, they may not be ideal if you want to put them in a laptop.
How the Seagate FireCuda 540 was tested
For this review, I tested the FireCuda 540 in a test bench using Asus’s B650E-I Strix, Ryzen 9 7900X, and 32GB of G.Skill’s Flare X5 DDR5 memory rated at 6,000MHz and CL36. Because the FireCuda 540 does not come with a heatsink, I tested the bottom of the heatsink that came with the motherboard, which is not very big but is enough even for high-end SSDs.
In the benchmarks I ran (CrystalDiskMark and ATTO Disk Benchmark), I tested the FireCuda 540 and other SSDs in two different ways: with 100% free space and 10% free space, as some SSDs lose performance when filled with data. . I also didn’t run the benchmarks back to back but instead waited 10 to 15 minutes between runs to make sure I wasn’t burning up the cache and losing performance. It is common for power users to destroy the SSD cache for real-time tasks, however.
The two SSDs I’ve chosen to compare are the FireCuda 540 versus MSI’s Spatium M570, a PCIe 5.0 drive that’s about the same price as the FireCuda 540, and Corsair’s MP600 Pro NH, the fastest PCIe 4.0 SSD you can buy today. These drives were tested under the same conditions and methods.
Procedure
In CrystalDiskMark, I tested four “standard” and two “NVMe” benchmarks, which are half sequential and half random and use different sizes and line depths.
|
Firecuda 540 |
Spatium M570 |
MP600 Pro NH 2TB |
FireCuda 540 (90% full) |
Spatium M570 (90% full) |
MP600 Pro NH 2TB (90% full) |
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
SEQ1M Q8T1 |
10065/10199 |
10084/10201 |
7344/7107 |
10075/10170 |
10052/10143 |
7325/6576 |
|
Image of SEQ1M Q1T1 |
8664/10123 |
8712/10113 |
4392/6409 |
8678/10121 |
8664/9428 |
4462/5989 |
|
Value of SEQ128K Q32T1 |
9985/10201 |
9984/10183 |
7457/7106 |
10020/10165 |
10002/5745 |
7456/6567 |
|
Image of RND4K Q32T16 |
5276/2822 |
5219/2730 |
4758/2966 |
5277/2915 |
5208/1637 |
4748/2978 |
|
RND4K Q32T1 |
805/605 |
790/500 |
955/737 |
815/605 |
797/601 |
954/726 |
|
RND4K Q1T1 |
79/307 |
79/302 |
72/304 |
79/307 |
78/301 |
71/303 |
Scores are calculated by read/write and are measured in MB/s.
Without data stored on these drives, the FireCuda 540 and Spatium M570 are pretty much neck and neck, but the biggest difference comes out when you fill each car to 90%. The Spatium M570 stops short of writing in three out of six tests, and although reading is more important than writing, anyone who transfers a lot of files will notice how fast the FireCuda 540 is. Random performance, however, is about the same between the FireCuda 540 and the Spatium M570, indicating that both drives will perform similarly outside of transferring large files.
Of course, compared to a high-end car like the MP600 Pro NH, the FireCuda 540 (as well as the Spatium M570) is faster in the benchmarks. The MP600 Pro NH has a noticeable lead in the random Q32T1 test, but it’s not so significant that it changes anything over the FireCuda 540.
ATTO Disk Benchmark runs sequential counters and records the block size, and I tested it on its configuration. It provides several data points, from 512 bytes to 64MB, but I cut it at 8MB, and I’m only showing half of the data between 512 bytes and 8MB for brevity.
|
Firecuda 540 |
Spatium M570 |
MP600 Pro NH 2TB |
FireCuda 540 (90% full) |
Spatium M570 (90% full) |
MP600 Pro NH 2TB (90% full) |
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
512B |
77/16 |
75/18 |
65/6 |
76/17 |
76/15 |
64/6 |
|
2 KB |
300/299 |
296/249 |
260/216 |
302/300 |
304/300 |
253/210 |
|
8 KB |
1140/1050 |
1120/1040 |
981/819 |
1150/1050 |
1150/1050 |
1019/846 |
|
32 KB |
4240/4050 |
4060/3960 |
3100/2940 |
4240/4040 |
4160/4060 |
3120/2950 |
|
128 KB |
7730/9500 |
7530/9470 |
6940/6090 |
7750/9470 |
7560/9500 |
6920/6090 |
|
512 KB |
8710/9500 |
8420/9500 |
6970/6140 |
8730/9500 |
8460/9500 |
6970/6140 |
|
2 MB |
8890/9500 |
8920/9500 |
6880/6160 |
8540/7190 |
8830/9500 |
6880/6140 |
|
8 MB |
9380/9500 |
9380/9450 |
6890/6140 |
9100/8400 |
9390/8810 |
6890/6160 |
Scores are calculated by read/write and are measured in MB/s.
There is no significant difference between the three SSDs until we reach the 32KB mark, where the FireCuda 540 and Spatium M570 start to pull ahead of PCIe 4.0 like the MP600 Pro NH. Overall, the FireCuda and Spatium M570 were very similar, to the point that both SSDs showed the same discrepancy when filled to 90%. However, none of the drives were inconsistent, and each showed only a few drops in the overall benchmark.
PCIe 5.0 SSDs get very hot, and the FireCuda 540 is no different, because it reached a peak of 86 C during the test. That’s higher than the 81 C seen on the Spatium M570, although this comparison isn’t fair because the FireCuda 540 was using a smaller heatsink. Obviously, 86 C is not a bad result, although hopefully, future PCIe 5.0 drives will solve this problem.
Should you buy the Seagate FireCuda 540?
You should buy the Seagate FireCuda 540 if:
- You need a fast PCIe 5.0 SSD
- SSD with the highest endurance available today
You should not buy the Seagate FireCuda 540 if:
- You want the fastest PCIe 5.0 SSD
- A lot of stability is not important to you
Although I wasn’t surprised by the performance of the FireCuda 450 (Crucial’s T700 seems to be the better SSD in this regard), the high endurance Seagate offers is impressive. At 2000TBW for the 2TB model, you need to write 1TB of data to the FireCuda 540 for five and a half years before the car expires. Some PCIe 5.0 SSDs only deliver 700TBW per terabyte compared to 1000TBW per terabyte on the FireCuda 540, putting the FireCuda 540 in a league of its own, although such endurance is increasing.
Although you need a motherboard with PCIe 5.0 to enjoy its high performance, you can still enjoy its endurance when you install it in a computer that only has PCIe 4.0. In that sense, the FireCuda 540 is not the best PCIe 5.0 SSD but one of the best SSDs for anyone who values endurance and durability above all else. Perhaps the pursuit of endurance makes the FireCuda 540 a fraction of its competitors, but it is undeniably superior.
Seagate FireCuda 540 PCIe Gen5 Hard Drive M.2 SSD8 / 10 $300 $320 Save $20
Seagate’s FireCuda 540 SSD is a first-generation PCIe 5.0 M.2 drive that boasts read and write speeds of up to 10,000MB/s. However, it does require a heatsink, and since the FireCuda 540 doesn’t come with one, you’ll need to make sure your device has one built in that you can use.
$320 at Amazon $303 at Newegg $300 at B&H
Categories: Reviews
Source: thptvinhthang.edu.vn
