Seagate Firecuda 540 SSD – Their FIRST Gen5 5×4 SSD Revealed
Updated 27/06/23 – The Seagate Firecuda 540 M.2 NVMe SSD Has Now Been Released. Here are the confirmed Specifications:
| Brand | Seagate Firecuda 540
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Seagate Firecuda 540
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| Model # | ZP1000GM3A004 | ZP2000GM3A004 |
| Capacity | 1TB / 1000GB | 2TB / 2000GB |
| Price | $189 (Check Amazon) | $299 (Check Amazon) |
| PCIe Gen | PCIe Gen 5×4 | PCIe Gen 5×4 |
| NVMe Rev. | NVMe 2.0 | NVMe 2.0 |
| SSD Controller | Phison E26 | Phison E26 |
| NAND Type | 3D TLC (Micron B58R) | 3D TLC (Micron B58R) |
| NAND Depth | 232L | 232L |
| Seq. Read Max | 9.5GB/s | 10GB/s |
| Seq. Write Max | 8.5GB/s | 10GB/s |
| 4K Random Read IOPS | 1.3Million | 1.5Million |
| 4K Ransom Write IOPS | 1.5Million | 1.5Million |
| TBW | 1000TBW | 2000TBW |
| DWPD | 0.55DWPD | 0.55DWPD |
| MTBF | 2M Hours | 2M Hours |
| Warranty | 5yrs + 3yr Rescue | 5yrs + 3yr Rescue |
Original Article Continued:
It may seem like the Gen 5 SSD generation has been pretty much fleshed out in 2023, with the majority of the big players in this market revealing their own PCIe Gen 5 entries by now, but surprisingly a few of the biggest names in the world of consumer/gamer SSD have yet to show off their own PCIe 5×4 m.2 NVMe yet. However, today I want to discuss a new SSD revealed (somewhat by accident) by Seagate, the Firecuda 540 PCIe Gen 5×4 M.2 NVMe. This is the latest entry into Seagate’s well-established Gamer and Content Creator range, the Firecuda series. So, let’s discuss what we know, how it stakes against the plethora of other SSDs that have recently entered the Gen5 market and why Seagate’s move into this tier of SSDs is such a big, BIG deal.
Hardware Specifications of the Seagate Firecuda 540 SSD
So, straight off the bat, it’s worth highlighting that although it looks like an official reveal and release of the Seagate 540 SSD is pretty imminent, it’s still not 100% officially revealed yet. In fact, thanks to eagle-eyed users online (credit to Twitter user 188号 @momomo_us, here) we can confirm that the Seagate Firecuda 540 Gen5 SSD was accidentally revealed on both Amazon and B&H early. These pages have since been taken down, but they were up long enough for use to get a good grip on the hardware specifications of the Seagate Firecuda 540 SSD, as well as make some very well-informed estimations.
The hardware specifications of the Seagate Firecuda 540 SSD are, unsurprisingly, a noticeable degree higher than those of the Gen4 Seagate Firecuda 530 released in 2021, with noticeable improvements in the sequential performance and reported 4K IOPS. The capacities that have been shown so far are 1TB, 2TB and 4TB, with early revealed pricing being understandably rather eye-wateringly high. Peak performance has been stated as 10GB/s Sequential Read and Write (with the smaller 1TB model arriving at a slightly more modest 9.5GB Seq Read and 8.5GB/s Seq Write). 4K Random IOPS are stated at 1,500,00 (1.5M), however, the real stand-out area is the durability. Unlike the bulk of Gen5 SSDs that have been revealed up til now (i.e the Gigabyte Aorus 10000, Corsair MP700 or ADATA 970 Legend) that have a drive writes per day of 0.38DWPD, the Seagate Firecuda 540 SSD is rated at 2000TBW on the 2TB model, which is around 0.5-0.6DWPD. This likely means that we are looking at increased layer density of the 3D TLC NAND from 176L in the Firecuda 530 to 232L in the Firecuda 540 SSD.
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The controller that is going to be featured on the Seagate Firecuda 540 SSD is 99% confirmed to be the Phison E26 (PS5026-E28) as Seagate has a long, LONG established working relationship with Phison (the last 3 generations of their Firecuda series of NVMe SSDs used the Phison E12, E16 and E18 controllers). Additionally, several of the earlier revealed Gen5 SSDs we have seen revealed in 2023 have used the Phison E26 controller – so there is clearly a market interest. It’s not impossible that Seagate might have changed ship and opted for the Innogrit IG5666 (as used by the Cardea
Z54A) or Silicon Motion SM2508 (as used by ADATA in their Project Neonstorm drive), but the Phison E26 in the Seagate Firecuda 540 SSD is practically certain!
The Seagate Firecuda 540 Gen5 SSD will almost certainly arrive with DDR4 memory, scaled with the capacities available (eg 2TB of storage = 2GB of DDR4/LPDDR4 DRAM), as although there is a DRAMLESS SSD controller revealed by Phison earlier in 2023, Seagate has very rarely engaged with dramless drives. On the subject of capacity, the Seagate Firecuda 540 SSD will arrive in 1TB, 2TB and 4TB capacities at launch.
One core subject that really needs to be touched on with most/all Gen5 SSDs is heat dissipation. At the moment, almost of host systems are only beginning to roll out with PCIe Gen5 support and those that do, are still only beginning to unlock the potential performance vs bandwidth potential. For example, PCIe Gen4 can around 8GB theoretical bandwidth to saturate and although the first gen4 SSDs only hit around 5000MB/s (5GB), it was only around 12-18months before they were hitting 7.4GB/s and near full saturation. PCIe Gen 5 SSDs on the other hand are still quite green and although there is roughly 16GB of bandwidth possible, the Seagate Firecuda 540 can only get to 10GB/s. When it is doing that, the SSD is going to get REAL HOT! That is why you are seeing a lot more attention on heatsinks, on-SSD fans and heatshields in the Gen5 generation, and the Firecuda 540 is no exception. Technically, you have three options for heat dissipation available. The base level/default Seagate Firecuda 540 SSD arrives with a thick graphene heatshield (not dissimilar to what you might have seen previously on drives like the Sabrent Rocket 4 Plus). It might look like just a sticker, but it is metal and acts as a means for heat to be drawn from the controller and dispersed into the air.
Then there is a familiar low-height but incredibly dense EKWB heatsink, comparable to those found on the Firecuda 530 previously. This is a heatsink that we have already tested quite extensively on our YouTube channel, in PS5 SSD temp tests in the HERE against one found on the WD Black SN850. Overall one fo the best 1st party heatsinks in the market!
Additionally, though there is a comparatively thicker silver/white heatsink that has been revealed that has a honeycomb effect design and light blue LED finishing touches. Details on that one are a little thinner on the ground, but it is still a lovely-looking heatsink and given how much effort Seagate has made previously on heatsinks on their SSDs, I cannot imagine they will scrimp on this one!
Lastly, it is worth touching on that alongside the 2000TBW/0.5-0.6DWPD I touched on earlier, the Firecuda 540 SSD also features 5 years of manufacturers warranty, 2M hours MTBF and (like other Firecuda SSDs) also features 3 years of data recovery services. We have always given this service high praise here on the channel previously (running an independent test of it HERE with a HDD we smashed up) and as an additional extra, this is some serious value on an already pretty bloody good product!
Overall, though there are a couple of small question marks on the hardware specifications of the Seagate Firecuda 540 SSD, this si all adding up to a great first SSD from Seagate that they can introduce into this newly growing tier of the market. But, given the sheer number of SSDs that have already been revealed in the Gen5 tier, why is the Seagate Firecuda 540 SSD reveal such a big deal?
Why is the Seagate Firecuda 540 PCIe Gen 5 SSD a BIG DEAL?
It’s a valid question! Seagate has arrived in this market arguably much later (almost a year!) later than some of their competitors in the Gen5x4 SSD market. Are they too little, too late for this? Well, no. The Gen5 SSD market is still around 6 months or so old, with virtually no SSDs being globally available before the start of 2023 and those that are in small numbers. Equally, as Gen5 SSD development is nowhere near as established as Gen4 or even Gen3 in consumer/domestic hardware, the demand for Gen5 SSDs is still pretty low. Lastly, there is simply the fact that modern PC systems are still not fully prepared to take advantage of the full bandwidth potential of Gen5 SSDs. The PCIe Gen 5 lanes are there and the SSDs and Controllers are advancing… but the host machines still need to be able to hand it well/efficiently enough to maintain this high performance in a sustained, stable and reliable way. Prior to the reveal of the Seagate Firecuda 540 SSD, there were around 10 main/established/confirmed Gen5 SSDs out there, with almost half still ‘in development’, see video below:
Now, had Seagate entered the Gen5 SSD market right at the start, they would have revealed an SSD that would have been much more expensive due to its relative rarity, and it would have likely been a pinch lower in performance (as it would not capitalize on a lot of the recent innovations in SSD controller tweaking and NAND layer improvements) and it would also have entered a market that was ill-prepared to use it! A great example is the Gigabyte Aorus 10000 10GB/s SSD. One of the first Gen5 SSDs that was revealed and one of the first to be released (Feb/March 2023). within 2-3 weeks of it’s release, there was already plenty of other, smaller SSD names/brands already revealing their own Gen5 SSDs which were faster (ADATA, TeamGroup, MSI, Inland) that all had fast 11-12-14GB performance ratings,as a similar proposed RRP. So then Gigabyte had to reveal the Gigabyte 12000 SSD in June 2023 to compensate/compete against this. This raised the question of whether it’s worth releasing early to get the initial buzz/headlines but risk getting overshadowed by those that took their time (tortoise and hare style), OR wait till a better time to enter the market when the price, performance and client hardware ability are at a sweet spot?
Clearly, Seagate decide on playing the waiting game a little for client hardware to catch up and to ensure their SSD arrived at a more opportune moment. It’s still no guaranteed that this is the best course of action, especially where there are other SSDs in the market of a higher performance point at a similar hardware/price that are boasting 14GB/12GBs performance, but that aside we need to acknowledge the position that Seagate has in the SSD market (alongside Western Digital and Samsung). These three SSD (and HDD!) brands are pretty much the biggest names in SSD, holding the bulk of the consumer/prosumer/gamer SSD market share. This is thanks to their hugely more expansive marketing budgets sure, but also because they also have an enormous history in the data storage market. Many users (myself included) have been waiting on these three brands to show off their own consumer/gamer Gen5 SSD and when one does, the other two are almost certainly going to follow suit within a matter of months, if not weeks! These three are compared regularly in SSD performance, durability, pricing and value.
In the Gen4 generation, Seagate fired first and released their Seagate Firecuda 520 in 2019/2020, but within 6 months (and indeed, about 1 month apart) WD and Samsung released their much, much faster Gen4 SSDs and 6 months later Seagate Responded with the Seagate Firecuda 530. This handful of SSDs ended up commanding 70%+ of the consumer/gamer SSD market (further exacerbated by the launch of the PS5 and Gen4 SSD Support). So, that is why Seagate entering the Gen5 SSD market is such a big deal and why it will also start the big, BIG wave of competitor SSDs to start to emerge fro mWD and Samsung – which leads to better pricing availability and choice for consumers! Win-Win!
How Much Will the Seagate Firecuda 530 SSD Cost and When Will It Be Released?
Pricing for the Seagate 540 is still yet to be officially confirmed, but thanks to the inadvertent leak by Amazon/B&H of the Seagate Firecuda 540 indicates a price of around $189 for the 1TB model and $319 for the 2TB model (The price of the Seagate Firecuda 540 4TB SSD model is still TBC).
Official release, although not confirmed, must be very, VERY close! I would say within the next week or so (perhaps even just days). This is because if the leak came from a lesser-known site/feed/disti channel, it would be a matter or just mishandling data sheets internally. However, Amazon and B&H are way too big/established to have a fully specced out page for these products ready without launch (or even just the initial official reveal) not being close. Therefore I think we are going to hear some official noise on this drive very soon!
You can use this link HERE to check Amazon in your local region to see if the Seagate Firecuda 540 SSD has been revealed. Anything you purchase from Amazon after heading there via that link will result in amazon paying me and Eddie (just us at NASCompares, running everything) a small fee and that goes directly back into the site, the free advice sections and making more content here on the blog and YouTube daily.
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