Seagate FireCuda 2TB External Gaming Hard Drive Review

TweakTown's Rating: 88%

The Bottom Line

Consumers wanting a low-cost option to store archived games externally should check out the FireCuda Gaming HDD.

FireCuda has emerged as the "gaming" arm of Seagate's product portfolio over the last few years. Solutions include both internal platforms that take advantage of NVMe and SATA interfaces and external solutions that use USB 3.2 or Thunderbolt connectivity.

With their latest gaming-focused product, Seagate targets gamers that need archival storage with their FireCuda Gaming HDD. This, like past game drive solutions, is a 2.5" form factor platform that comes in several capacities, including 2,4 and 5TB. Connectivity is pushed over USB 3.2 Gen 1 with a micro-b connection on the drive end and Type-A for the host.

Marketing specifications advertise 130 MB/s read/ write performance, with support for RGB lighting on the front of the drive with Seagate toolkit and Razer Chroma. MSRP of the 2TB FireCuda Gaming HDD comes in at $109.99 with a one-year warranty.

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Packaging for the FireCuda Gaming HDD follows the black and orange colorway of past solutions. Capacity is listed top right at 2TB.

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The back includes marketing information for the drive, including the Razer Chroma badge.

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Included with the FireCuda Gaming HDD, we find stickers, USB 3.2 cable, and reading materials.

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The drive itself plays off the design of the Gaming Dock from last year, with square edges and an enclosure branded with the FireCuda logo.

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The end of the drive houses the USB 3.2 micro-b connection.

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Powering up the drive, the initial lighting is orange and only covers the front edge of the drive.

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Toolkit from Seagate allows you to set up and manage backups with the Game Drive. RGB options can be found at the bottom; this is also where you will enable Razer Chroma extension if you intend to use that functionality.

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Once you enable Chroma in Toolkit, you will need the Chroma Connect add-on for Synapse 3.0. From there, you can customize RGB on the drive itself.

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To get an idea of the performance of the drive, I ran through a few passes of CDM. The performance topped out at 136 MB/s reads and writes.

While the FireCuda Gaming HDD is not what I would recommend for an active game directory, for those that need bulk storage of archived titles, this solution should more than fit the bill. The build quality is about as good as it gets for a basic external drive, plastic enclosure, and internals that have been used in solutions like these for the last decade give consumers a decently reliable platform they can depend on.

Performance was on par with my personal expectations and showed in CDM with 136 MB/s reads and write. With the included Toolkit software, consumers at least get an option from Seagate to create and manage a legit backup schedule, and the opportunity to control the RGB lighting or to disable it is a plus for those that aren't a fan.

TweakTown External Storage Test System

• System: XPG Xenia Xe
• OS: Microsoft Windows 10