Seagate FireCuda Gaming 120 4TB SATA SSD Review

Seagate is no stranger to the SSD market having released several solutions over the past few years. Their latest, the FireCuda 120, aims to take the SATA market by storm and put the 860 Pro from Samsung in its place.

The 860 Pro is the benchmark for SATA, but more recently, Phison powered, S12 controlled drives have really come on strong. The FireCuda 120 is one of these and has been tuned to deliver some really impressive performance.

Capacity options include 500GB along with a 1TB, 2TB, and 4TB model. Marketing performance rates this solution at 560/540 for sequentials and 100K read and 90K random write IOPS. Endurance within the five-year warranty period extends to an impressive 5600 TBW, allowing for 0.7 DWPD (Drive Writes Per Day). This is a 2.5" SATA SSD solution with a z-height of 7mm, perfect for legacy notebooks or gaming systems.

The MSRP of the 4TB FireCuda 120 comes in at $569.99 with a five-year warranty.

Packaging has always been colorful with Seagate solutions, and the FireCuda 120 is no different. On the front, you will find capacity and performance top right.

The side goes into more detail with dimensions of the drive along with box contents.

Unboxing, we have the drive itself FireCuda branding on the front.

The drive offers a standard SATA layout, ready for any drive tray/backplane.

On the bottom, we have model and capacity information along with regulatory info.

CDM is a staple in performance testing; version 7 has seen some updates in the workloads used for testing. Sequential performance tops out at 561 MB/s read and 541 MB/s write, half full.

Next up, we dive into PCMark10 with the Quick System Drive test. Here the FireCuda cannot be denied, reaching a score of 1811, the quickest we have seen and nearly 700 points higher than the 860 Pro.

Data Drive potential is sky-high for the FireCuda as well, taking the top spot in this chart. Scoring 2255 at 344 MB/s, the FireCuda easily doubles the performance of the 860 Pro.

Price/Performance is legit for the FireCuda 120. It's simply the best SATA drive on the market, beating out the 860 Pro by a large margin.

No matter what angle you take, the FireCuda 120 is quite possibly Seagate's best drive yet. It is, at the very least, the best SATA drive on the market by a long shot, offering both performance and reliability with a Phison S12 design and what could only be heavily tweaked firmware. Endurance is through the roof, besting the 860 Pro's 4800TBW with a 5600TBW rating for the 4TB model.

Performance, tested with the drive half full, was hitting all SATA 6Gbps could handle with reads at 560 MB/s and writes not far behind at 540 MB/s. PCMark10 Quick showed the FireCuda was ready to compete, taking top marks in our charts with a score of 1811. Data Drive only drove it home more, with a score of 2255, almost double what the 860 Pro could provide. Wrapping this up, we entered all the numbers into our Price/Performance chart, and the FireCuda 120 took that as well by a full percent.

Pricing of the FireCuda 120 may be the only place we can knock it around a little. Coming in at $569.99, it's nearly $100 more than the WD Blue in the same capacity and $50 more than the recently released 870 QVO. When compared directly to the now-aging 860 Pro, the FireCuda is more expensive, but you do gain a significant performance, longer warranty, and higher endurance advantage.

Tyler's Test System Specifications

• Motherboard: ASUS Crosshair VIII Formula X570 (buy from Amazon)
• CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 3600 (buy from Amazon)
• RAM: Corsair Vengeance 16GB 2x8GB DDR4 3600 (buy from Amazon)
• Cooler: Corsair Hydro H60 (buy from Amazon)
• Case: Corsair Carbide 275R (buy from Amazon)
• OS Storage: Corsair MP600 1TB (buy from Amazon)
• Power Supply: Corsair RM850x (buy from Amazon)
• OS: Microsoft Windows 10 (buy from Amazon)