FireCuda Gaming Hub

Seagate FireCuda Gaming Hub – massive storage with pretty lights (review)

8.8

The Seagate FireCuda Gaming Hub is an external 3.5” HDD capable of holding 8 or 16TB. But there is a secret, apart from the pretty lights, that makes this external drive pretty special.

Seagate’s gaming brand – FireCuda, recently released its 2021 range (GadgetGuy article here), and we are starting to review them.

While most external drives use lower cost, lower specified drives, the Seagate FireCuda Gaming Hub (16TB) uses the Enterprise Exos X16 (a drive that normally has a 5-year warranty) with a Helium seal (lowers friction), a suite of vibration sensors, speedy 7200RPM and a massive 256MB cache. I am impressed.

Seagate has a winner with quality, a three-year warranty and a three-year data rescue service.  

  • Included with all FireCuda products
  • Includes one in-lab recovery attempt
  • Returns your recovered data on an encrypted storage device
  • 95% success rate of in-house data recovery

Seagate Gaming Hub 16TB

Seagate ST16000NM001G Exos X16 16TB 3.5″ SATA 6

  • 256MB Cache
  • 7200 RPM, 18 heads, 9 platters, perpendicular record
  • 50/200G operational/non-operational shock
  • Type: SATA 300/600 supports internal 346MBps bursts and 245MB/s external
  • The controller supports native command queuing/ordering and multiple read/write commands
  • Drive Interface: UASP Serial ATA (USB-A to USB Micro B)

Game extras

  • Website here
  • Customisable RGB LEDs with Seagate SeaTools
  • Works with Razer Chroma RGB
  • In 8 and 16TB capacity
  • It comes with a three-year warranty and three years of Rescue Data Recovery Services (registration required)
  • Windows or Mac tools provided
  • 1.2M USB-A to USB micro-B
  • External plug pack 12V/3A/36W
  • USB-A 3.0 and USB-C 3.0 front ports

Port Tests

The ports output a maximum of 5V/1A each and support SATA 600 data transfer rates except when the primary hard disk is working, and it has to share the USB 3.0 bandwidth.

Test

Test Microsoft Surface Pro 7 with USB-A 3.0 port (5Gbps/625MBps half-duplex)

This is almost twice the sequential read speed of the Seagate FireCuda Gaming hard drive (review here 8.6/10) and fares a little better on large file read/writes until its cache fills.

GadgetGuy’s take

While you can buy or build a 3.5” external HDD, this is special in that it has an Exos X16 drive, pretty lights and a pair of USB 3.0 ports.

You are paying around $780 for a better-quality internal drive, RGB lighting and an extended warranty. As the bare drive alone sells for about $600, this is a bargain. If you are an astute shopper, you may even find it a little cheaper.

Seagate FireCuda Gaming Hub
The Seagate FireCuda Gaming Hub is an external 3.5” HDD capable of holding 8 or 16TB. But there is a secret, apart from the pretty lights, that makes this external drive pretty special.
Features
9.5
Value for money
8.9
Performance
8.2
Ease of use
9
Design
8.5
Positives
Massive extrenal storage using an Enterprise quality drive
Negatives
None
8.8