With both the next-gen PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X consoles set to support SSD tech, high-speed storage is set to become the new norm. In the PC-space SSD drives and small-form NVMe variants have become the standard in gaming rigs in recent years, and this is something that Seagate has been a big part of with its new line-up of storage solutions now pushing this vision into the external space.

With external storage options that leverage those high transfer and write speeds of SSD goodness.


First up though is the new internal offering, the FireCuda 520. Which is the company's fastest drive to date, supporting the latest PCIe Gen 4 (4.0) standard that effectively gives a 45% speed increase over the previous generation - as seen with the FireCuda 510.

For those building a new gaming PC in 2020 - this is exactly the sort of drive you'll be after, thanks to full support with third-gen AMD Ryzen CPUs and modern motherboards. Here's the technical skinny.

NAND Acceleration
Upgrade to PCIe Gen4 x4 on next-gen 3D TLC NAND in a M.2 2280 NVMe form factor, and sequential read/writes up to 5,000/4,400 MB/s.

Leading Performance
Dominate with a plug-and-play gaming storage boost that is backwards compatible with PCIe 3.0 platforms and AMD X570 chipset PCIe 4.0 motherboards.

Enviable Endurance
Take advantage of a 5-year limited warranty, 1.8M hours MTBF, and up to 2,800 TBW.

Great to see that the 520 comes with a 5-year warranty, and for those that have bench-marked a hard-drive at one point or another (it's okay if you haven't, it's totally a niche thing to do) those read and write speeds will no doubt make your eyes go all misty with envy. Local pricing for the three available capacities has been announced too - with Seagate’s FireCuda 520 500GB retailing for $179 AUD, the 1TB at $359 AUD, and the 2TB at $699 AUD.


Next up is the stylish and sleek FireCuda Gaming SSD which essentially packs a FireCuda NVMe SSD in a tiny external housing that also sports RGB lighting - customisable via Seagate software. On a side note we put forth the idea to Seagate about integrating it with Razer Chroma, ASUS Aura, and MSI Mystic Light RGB tools - for that synchronicity. Anyway, connecting the FireCuda Gaming SSD to a PC with USB 3.2 (Gen 2x2) you basically get double the speed of a standard USB 3 drive - meaning it can be a portable game storage deal-y that can go from PC to laptop in a matter of seconds. With super-fast game loading following suit.

Local pricing for the three available capacities for the FireCuda Gaming SSD has been announced - with 500GB retailing for $299 AUD, the 1TB at $399 AUD, and the 2TB at $759 AUD. Stock is expected to hit local shores in May. Alternatively a cheaper BarraCuda Fast SSD is due in April supporting USB 3.1 Gen2 Type-C ports.


Finally we've got perhaps the most interesting new Seagate release, the FireCuda Gaming Dock - which is part versatile external storage part smart-hub that you can connect your devices and hardware too - via Thunderbolt and USB. Full interface details are:

• 3 x Thunderbolt 2
  
• 5x USB 3.1 Gen2 Type-A ports
  
• 1x DisplayPort 1.4
  
• 1x Audio in & out
  
• 1x Ethernet

So effectively this can sit on a desk with keyboard, mouse, display already connected and all you need to do is plug in a laptop and you're good to go. Inside is a whopping 4TB 3.5” HDD and a PCIe Gen3 NVMe M.2 SSD expansion slot - ready to connect a FireCuda 510. RGB lighting is also included as part of the stylish design.

The FireCuda Gaming Dock is due sometime in March with a price-tag of $599 AUD.