SEAGATE FIRECUDA BESKAR INGOT
A special edition for fans of The Mandalorian, and you pay a premium, but there’s no denying the quality.
★★★☆☆ 1TB, $279 | seagate.com
A special edition drive to tie in with The Mandalorian, the FireCuda Beskar Ingot is designed to look like the currency in which the titular character is paid. Seagate has done a great job of it, taking a FireCuda 530 and encasing it in a new heatsink.
As a result, the drive is much thicker than a normal M.2 SSD, at 80mm tall. Then there’s the case of whether or not the drive will be seen. Most M.2 slots on a regular PC are tucked out of the way, or even hidden from view because of the CPU cooler. Given that this drive is more expensive than the regular FireCuda 530, you’ll want to install it in a case with a clear window and an equally clear view of the drive.
As the base drive is a FireCuda 530, you get all the benefits of that drive. We tested the 1TB version, but there’s also a 500GB version available; larger 2TB and 4TB drives are limited to the regular FireCuda drive.
One of the standout features is the endurance of this drive, rated at 1,275TBW for the 1TB version. That’s double the standard 600TBW and shows that this drive is built for more demanding use, such as a gaming PC.
Thanks to the modern controller and PCI-E Gen4 interface, the Seagate FireCuda Beskar Ingot is also fast. In the AS SSD benchmark, scores of 6,179MB/sec reads and 5,879MB/sec writes in the sequential test put this drive at the top of the table. Similarly, the 4K random test shows that this drive is the fastest you can get: 2,842MB/sec read and 2,865MB/sec write. These tests show expected performance in more enduring tasks.
For regular use, the PCMark 10 benchmarks show normal performance. Here, the FireCuda Beskar Ingot is a little slower (though not slow): 3,135 in the System Disk test and 4,510 in the Data Disk test.
Technically, the Seagate FireCuda Beskar Ingot is a great drive and exceptionally fast. It’s also lovely to look at. Given its higher price, the regular FireCuda 530 is a better buy if you want the best performance, but if you are tempted by this design then hurry as it is now in short supply.
"In the AS SSD benchmark, scores of 6,179MB/sec reads and 5,879MB/sec writes in the sequential test put this drive at the top of the table"