When it's time to say goodbye to that old hard drive that keeps making noises you don't like, it might be time to say hello to an SSD drive and take advantage of the durable technology and faster speeds.
But how do you choose?
The features of SSD storage should be very easy to compare, because you are paying for the gigabytes and terabytes, and the speed of data read & write (theoretically). The cost per terabyte is dropping as always, but SSD and HDD storage are priced very differently. 1TB SSD can cost from £80 to over £150 across many brands, where a 1TB SATA III HDD is around £40 - £50.
This makes the argument for essential vs archive very strong. For essential applications and operating system, you use a reliable and durable SSD, which offers fast access to data and most-used apps. For archive and long term storage, a SATA III HDD sits purposefully in the background as a reliable library of your files. For our comparison, we're looking at SSD, for those users who are looking for a more durable option for essential data.
How to compare storage
For comparison's sake, the various features of SSD are defined below: -
TBW: TBW estimates how many successful writes you can expect a drive to make over its lifetime.
Capacity: Gigabytes (GB) or terabytes (TB). 1GB = 1000MB.
Drive size: The standard sizes of SSD are 2.5" and M.2. These are prevalent in most builds unless an extremely compact solution is needed, such as in a small form factor case, where mSATA would be a better option.
Interface: SATA and PCIe NVMe. The SATA interface is an affordable option, with good performance for most everyday use cases. PCIe is the standard interface for NVMe which is 3x to 10x faster than SATA SSD
MTBF: Mean-time between failures (MTBF) is the interval between one failure and the next failure. MTBF is displayed in specs as hours, so 1,800,000 hours (205 years). This specification should be checked against TBW to figure out just how much lifespan you can expect from an SSD/HDD.
What the heck is IOPS?
IOPS (input/output operations per second) is the standard form of measuring the maximum number of reads and writes to non-contiguous storage locations. Although IOPS is commonly referenced by storage manufacturers in terms of performance, it is not a real world benchmark, and actual performance in your own use case may differ.
| 4K Random Read (AS SSD) | 4K Random Write (AS SSD) |
| Up to 430,000 IOPS | Up to 630,000 IOPS |
What the above means is that the block of test data being written or read was 4kb (kilobytes). The next test is how many times per second that 4kb data could be written or read. Read and write tests for the above SSD maxed out at 430,000 operations per second (read) and 630,000 IOPS (write)
Should you care?
You should only look at standardised data blocks when comparing IOPS on SSD or HDD, meaning only look at two side by side IOPS if they are both 4K (kilobytes). Some vendors use different sized data blocks, and it can be confusing/misleading. Seagate us 4K in their specifications, so this comparison is quite easy.
So, generally speaking, yes you should care, and the higher the IOPS number the better.
Seagate best selling SSD compared
Prices correct as of March 10th 2022
Capacity, Size, Read Speed, Write Speed, 4K Random Read/Write:
| SSD/HDD | Solid State Capacity | Drive Size | Read Speed | Write Speed | 4K Random Read (AS SSD) | 4K Random Write (AS SSD) |
| Seagate FireCuda 520 500GB M.2-2280 SSD | 500 GB | M.2-2280 | Up to 5,000 MB/s | Up to 2,500 MB/s | Up to 430,000 IOPS | Up to 630,000 IOPS |
| Seagate FireCuda 520 1TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 x4 NVMe | 1 TB | M.2-2280 | Up to 5,000 MB/s | Up to 4,400 MB/s | Up to 760,000 IOPS | Up to 700,000 IOPS |
| Seagate FireCuda 530 500GB M.2-2280 SSD | 500 GB | M.2-2280 | Up to 7,000 MB/s | Up to 3,000 MB/s | Up to 400,000 IOPS | Up to 700,000 IOPS |
| Seagate FireCuda 530 1TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 x4 NVMe | 1 TB | M.2-2280 | Up to 7,300 MB/s | Up to 6,000 MB/s | Up to 800,000 IOPS | Up to 1,000,000 IOPS |
| Seagate FireCuda 530 Heatsink 500GB M.2-2280 SSD | 500 GB | M.2-2280 | Up to 7,000 MB/s | Up to 3,000 MB/s | Up to 400K IOPS | Up to 700K IOPS |
| Seagate FireCuda 530 Heatsink 1TB M.2-2280 SSD | 1 TB | M.2-2280 | Up to 7,300 MB/s | Up to 6,000 MB/s | Up to 800,000 IOPS | Up to 1,000,000 IOPS |
| Seagate FireCuda 530 Heatsink 4TB M.2-2280 SSD | 4 TB | M.2-2280 | Up to 7,300 MB/s | Up to 6,900 MB/s | Up to 1,000,000 IOPS | Up to 1,000,000 IOPS |
| Seagate Beskar Ingot S.E. 500GB M.2-2280 SSD | 500 GB | M.2 2280 | Up to 7,000 MB/s | Up to 3,000 MB/s | Up to 400k IOPS | Up to 700k IOPS |
| Seagate Beskar Ingot S.E. 1TB M.2-2280 SSD | 1 TB | M.2 2280 | Up to 7,300 MB/s | Up to 6,000 MB/s | Up to 800k IOPS | Up to 1mil IOPS |
| Seagate Beskar Ingot S.E. 1TB 2.5" SATA III SSD | 1 TB | 2.5 " | 560 MB/s | 540 MB/s | Up to 90k IOPS | Up to 90k IOPS |
| Seagate Beskar Ingot S.E. 2TB 2.5" SATA III SSD | 2 TB | 2.5 " | 560 MB/s | 540 MB/s | Up to 90k IOPS | Up to 90k IOPS |
Data Storage Life (TBW), MTBF, Interface Type and Price:
| SSD/HDD | Data Storage Life | Mean Time Between Failure (MTBF) | Interface Type | Price |
| Seagate FireCuda 520 500GB M.2-2280 SSD | 700 TBW | 1,800,000 hours | PCIe Gen4 x4 NVMe | £69.99 |
| Seagate FireCuda 520 1TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 x4 NVMe | 1400 TBW | 1,800,000 hours | PCIe Gen4 x4 NVMe | £109.97 |
| Seagate FireCuda 530 500GB M.2-2280 SSD | Up to 640 TBW | 1,800,000 hours | PCIe Gen4 x4 NVMe | £103.27 |
| Seagate FireCuda 530 1TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 x4 NVMe | Up to 1,275 TBW | 1,800,000 hours | PCIe Gen4 x4 NVMe | £103.27 |
| Seagate FireCuda 530 Heatsink 500GB M.2-2280 SSD | 640 TBW | 1,800,000 hours | PCIe Gen4 x4 NVMe | £132.42 |
| Seagate FireCuda 530 Heatsink 1TB M.2-2280 SSD | Up to 1,275 TBW | 1,800,000 hours | PCIe Gen4 x4 NVMe | £173.13 |
| Seagate FireCuda 530 Heatsink 4TB M.2-2280 SSD | 5,100 TBW | 1,800,000 hours | PCIe Gen4 x4 NVMe | £748.63 |
| Seagate Beskar Ingot S.E. 500GB M.2-2280 SSD | Up to 640 TBW | 1,800,000 hours | PCIe Gen4 x4 NVMe | £134.15 |
| Seagate Beskar Ingot S.E. 1TB M.2-2280 SSD | Up to 1,275 TBW | 1,800,000 hours | PCIe Gen4 x4 NVMe | £191.81 |
| Seagate Beskar Ingot S.E. 1TB 2.5" SATA III SSD | Up to 600 TBW | 1,800,000 hours | SATA III | £145.94 |
| Seagate Beskar Ingot S.E. 2TB 2.5" SATA III SSD | Up to 1,170 TBW | 1,800,000 hours | SATA III | £249.45 |
PCIe or SATA?
The only reason you would opt for SATA over PCIe is budget. And that is a valid reason, too. You are still getting high performance storage with SATA III, but read/write speeds will be much lower than PCIe NVMe, of course.
The SATA III SSD drives in the best seller table above shows the special edition Seagate Beskar drives, which we covered in a previous article - Western Digital And Seagate Make Storage Cool Again, and it's clear to see the attraction:
Last Word
If it is time to upgrade your SSD, and clearing out and defragmenting is not on your Spring clean list, then Seagate have you covered with a vast array of popular drives.
Best Value / Best Selling SSD
Overall, the very best value and also the best selling Seagate Firecuda SSD right now is the Seagate FireCuda 520 500GB M.2-2280 SSD, which comes with 3 years of Rescue Service included. At under £70 down from £96, this 500GB SSD performs extremely well, with up to 5000MB/s read, 2500MB/s write.
