Seagate FireCuda Gaming Hard Drive 1TB: A Closer Look at the Ever-Evolving External Storage Landscape

 

A first look at the Seagate FireCuda Gaming Hard Drive 1TB external hard drive and a lot of lyrics to understand the state of affairs in this market

iXBT.com

11 min

March 21, 2022

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The first personal computers did not only do without hard drives, but often without any disks at all. However, the IBM PC had a couple of disk drives - but there was no hard drive: in those years, a 5 MB drive cost about $ 5,000 (at that time it was still full-weight), which would have made the design too expensive. However, prices fell, so that the PC XT already registered a 10 MB hard drive, and the PC AT - for all 20 MB, which looked like real happiness against the background of typical floppy disks of several hundred kilobytes. Not available to everyone, because cheaper does not mean cheap . Even in the 1987 IBM PS / 2 line, the youngest and most affordable Model 25 managed a pair of three-inch 720 KB disk drives and that's it.

"Desktop" hard drives of the 80s were five-inch, and at first - full height. To understand the scale - the compartment for any optical drives has a half height, i.e. in standard cases of that time, it was usually possible to install only a couple of drives: either for floppy disks, or one flop drive and one hard drive. But along with the increase in recording density, it became possible to reduce the size of hard drives, so by the mid-90s, three-inch hard drives began to rule the ball - since then they have practically not changed fundamentally. And for laptops and other compact systems, it was necessary to reduce the size even further. An important feature of notebook drives on 2.5” platters is the support of only one supply voltage. "Large" models need powerful motors drawing up to 1.5 A at 12 V - while how mainstream electronics quickly became "five-volt". "Small" models are able to manage only 5 V, and some of them fit into 1 A, or even less. And thisamount of electricitycan be obtained not only inside the computer, but also outside. So back in the mid-90s, the first external hard drives appeared, powered by a keyboard connector, and a parallel LPT port was used for data exchange. They were very expensive, slow, inconvenient - and of little demand. Most of the then PC users managed with floppy disks - even if they cursed at the low capacity of the latter. But the most demanding manufacturers could already offer Zip with 100 MB floppy disks or compatible with “standard” LS120 floppy disks, where native ones already had a capacity of 120 MB. Removable hard disk drives were also actively used, and the sphere of printing and design was totally based on magneto-optics. Yes, and most computers were even larger desktops, so the same hard drive, as a rule, could be quickly installed inside. Those who needed it often bought different mobile racks that simplify this task to just a couple of actions. In a word, there was still no need for external hard drives.

The situation changed dramatically at the beginning of the 2000s. Firstly, the external hard drives themselves have become completely different - having massively mastered the USB interface. Although slow even for those times (and the introduction of USB 2.0 did not completely remove the problem), but only one cable for power and data and a full plug-n-play. Secondly, removable media drives began to lose ground quickly in the face of increasing capacity requirements. Somehow, only optics was delayed - but it soon began to lose the race for the capacity and cost of information storage. Other new standard drives did not appear in large numbers, and the old ones quickly flew out of the market, unable to withstand competition. Thirdly, the demand for finished external drives has radically increased, which was to blame for the progress of laptops (which began to be sold and used in large quantities, rather than desktop systems) and the flourishing of other "smart" technology. The easiest way to watch a movie on your TV is to burn it to a USB drive and plug it into your TV. The cheapest way to make a simple NAS is to connect a USB drive to a router. Etc. and so on. So USB flash drives quickly became the standard for small portions of information, and USB hard drives for large portions. Which turned out to be a very marginal product - we take a hard drive for 100 bucks, install it in a box for 30 and sell it in any consumer electronics store for 300. An excellent business plan, you know - on which many large and small firms were fed. And buyers who were more or less familiar with the technology with might and main assembled the VZD on their own - choosing exactly the hard drive that they wanted, and exactly the box that they liked the most.

The next great turning point took place at the turn of the next decade. First, USB 3.0 appeared (after a couple of renamings it turned into USB 3.2 Gen1) - its bandwidth is already enough for any single disks, and the power supply has been improved. 2.5 W (0.5 A 5 V) USB 1.1 / 2.0 turned out to be not enough for many hard drives, so you sometimes had to fiddle with Y-cables or additional power supplies, but 4.5 W (0.9 A 5 V) is usually sufficient. Moreover, in many computers and non-computersthe current strength on the ports is increased compared to the requirements of the standards, and hard drive manufacturers have long been optimizing their products specifically for USB. This is the second important change in the market due to the fact that hard drive manufacturers themselves have entered it. Simply because laptops are no longer the main consumers of these products, massively switching to SSDs, but external devices are needed in increasing quantities. Yes, and you can earn more on retail than by selling hard drives themselves to large assemblers. In general, this has already led to the fact that it makes little sense to assemble the VZhD on your own - as a rule, ready-made models can be bought no more expensive (or even cheaper) than the disk installed in them.

In recent years, however, a new problem has become more and more noticeable. External hard drives are selling very well - but they cannot completely replace the loss of the laptop market for manufacturers. Yes, and technical progress in this area is less in demand. For example, earlier it was necessary to increase the capacity of devices while maintaining the dimensions (because disk bays in computers are standardized) or even with their reduction. This required constantly improving the plates and heads, investing in R&D. Now such investments simply will not pay off - in general, the buyer of an external device does not care: it has a hard drive with a thickness of 7 mm, 9.5 mm or 15 mm. Well, yes - if you focus on the last value, it will turn out to be a bit thick. And what? No one will pay much for a smaller thickness - because it is not fundamental.

In short, laptop hard drives have not changed since 2017. Not because there is nothing to improve - it simply does not make sense to invest in it. Old models completely satisfy most buyers, the production process has long been debugged and polished to a shine, so you won’t even save anything. And it doesn't matter that the progress of "thin" models has stopped at 2 TB SMR, which, to put it mildly, not everyone likes, but now it would be possible to master the same 2 TB without SMR or 3 TB SMR. To master technically - it is possible. But not necessary. Since no one (in statistically significant) quantities will pay more for a terabyte than now, so the development will not beat off. At the same time, consider portable external hard drives as some kind of suitcase without a handle.also not worth it - there is a demand for them, so the issue pays off. External SSDs are better in all respects - but much more expensive, so there will not be a massive transition to them in the foreseeable future either. And the current prices are largely supported by the availability of cheap mechanical terabytes. Including, and in the external performance - they are needed. It is in the current state and at current prices, although buyers would not refuse to reduce the latter. But these models cannot develop - no one will pay for progress.

Actually, all this lyrics is needed to understand the current situation. That will allow a more correct approach to the issue of choice - no, no, and someone is faced with such a problem. In fact, it is apparent, because I repeat once again - by themselves, laptop hard drives are frozen in a state of five years ago. No one will improve them, although it is technically possible, but not financially justified. There are no breakthroughs in the environment either - they are not needed. As USB 3.0 was enough ten years ago, it is enough - so you can use quite old USB bridges. The only thing that makes sense to pay attention to is the type of connector: Type-C is more versatile and more convenient than the good old micro-USB. But it costs, albeit a little, but more expensive - and in the current state of the market, this is critical. The physical dimensions of the cases are strictly limited by the carriers themselves. Here, the design may be different - but here you can already completely and completely rely on your own ideas about beauty. Moreover, only with the design and it remains for manufacturers to experiment. And they have to do this simply because buyers have long been accustomed to regularly updating the lineup of any product. Including external hard drives. But they can only change externally.

Let's take a look at a typical example today. Seagate FireCuda Gaming Hard Drive is formally a new product, fortunately it appeared only last fall. He has replenished the line of "gaming" Seagate products, although you should not be afraid of this. In fact, it is a completely typical VZD, and the new one is perhaps a customizable backlight. There are three models in the line, the most capacious is 5 TB. It is also the thickest: 122.5 × 81 × 21.5 mm. And now we remember Seagate Backup Plus 5 TB 2017: the same capacity and 114.5 × 78 × 20.5 mm. "Mechanical" FireCuda 1 and 2 TB are more compact - 122.5 × 80 × 14.5 mm. But even this is more similar in capacity and has long been available Seagate Backup Plus Slim .

What else has changed, besides changing the appearance and the appearance of backlighting? And nothing! The drive still uses the same legacy micro-USB connector. In fairness, it doesn't really interfere with life. And if the cable is not disconnected (and portable high-speed railways have long been very often used in general as stationary), it doesn’t matter at all. But at least it could be done ... If you use a slightly different element base.

And here is the same USB-SATA 300 bridge , which Seagate has been using in general for ten years already. Unless UASP support has grown during this time at some stage, but this is largely a matter of not even hardware, but firmware. But to support Type-C, small changes in hardware are needed. What no one wants to bother with, although the VZD with such a connector in the Seagate assortment has already met more than once. But since there are old bridges, you need to use them: it's been fixed . And you should pay attention to the hard drive model - ST1000LM035 has been on sale since 2017. All as I wrote above.

Actually, there is no particular point in testing the speed characteristics. Although for the sake of order, I did it. Just to make sure nothing has changed. I made sure that the results turned out to be exactly the same as all Seagate notebook hard drives on terabyte SMR platters have been showing for the past five years. And there are no others in the assortment of this manufacturer. WD and Toshiba do too. So you don't really have to choose. Purely sequential writes and reads - from 130 MB/s on the fastest external tracks to 60 MB/s on the slowest internal ones. External SSDs can already demonstrate an order of magnitude more in this case, but they are expensive. And it's cheap, albeit slow. Other scenarios are generally contraindicated - firstly, the mechanics have always coped poorly with them, and secondly, SMR. Again, for the sake of order, I will inform you, that in PCMark 10 Storage Full System Drive 85/65 points are obtained (on the first / last 100 GB), respectively. The worst SSDs (whether external or internal) start at 350 points, fast USB flash drives have now also reached similar “tops”. Therefore, an external hard drive is not for direct work. Although they once tried to use them in this capacity, but now it’s just a pity for the nerves. But for backup or storage of a small video library there, it will do. The main rules are now universal - preferably large files, write / read (especially the first one) in one stream sequentially, do not edit information directly on the device just in case. Therefore, an external hard drive is not for direct work. Although they once tried to use them in this capacity, but now it’s just a pity for the nerves. But for backup or storage of a small video library there, it will do. The main rules are now universal - preferably large files, write / read (especially the first one) in one stream sequentially, do not edit information directly on the device just in case. Therefore, an external hard drive is not for direct work. Although they once tried to use them in this capacity, but now it’s just a pity for the nerves. But for backup or storage of a small video library there, it will do. The main rules are now universal - preferably large files, write / read (especially the first one) in one stream sequentially, do not edit information directly on the device just in case.

As for the backlight... Well, there's a strip of RGB LEDs like on the Seagate FireCuda Gaming SSD . It is configured in the native application as well as there.

And for aesthetes, there's Razer Chroma compatibility. So if you use glowing gaming peripherals from this manufacturer, you can also set up the exterior in the appropriate style and in the same program. Although, to be honest, I can hardly imagine a person who will specifically purchase an external hard drive with a backlight. In short, such an advantage is not a key one for sure. Seagate understands why - so that you can release a new model in the absence of any new components for it. Here are the old ones and they are shuffled in all sorts of different ways. But if suddenly someone cannot live without lighting (sarcasm) - here it is, please. Otherwise - all the same Backup Plus with the same advantages and disadvantages. And it's hard to expect otherwise.

And at the same time, the answer is why lately there have been few people who want to test external hard drives. And there is nothing to test there simply - although time is spent in order. This, again, is just such a very cheap (relatively) cold data storage in the first place. And also the same as it was a year, two, three ... and five years ago too.

Title:

Seagate FireCuda Gaming Hard Drive 1TB: A Closer Look at the Ever-Evolving External Storage Landscape

Subtitle:

Exploring the Evolution of External Hard Drives and the Unchanging Landscape of Laptop Storage

Hashtags:

#SeagateFireCuda #GamingHardDrive #ExternalStorage #TechReview

Keywords:

Seagate FireCuda, Gaming Hard Drive, External Hard Drive, Laptop Storage, USB 3.0, USB 3.2, USB-SATA 300 bridge, SMR Platters, Backup and Storage, RGB LED, Razer Chroma Compatibility, Tech Review, Data Storage Evolution.

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