Regardless that SSDs have been round for years, steadily bettering in pace, reliability, and capability, the great outdated exhausting disk drive remains to be value contemplating to your gaming PC. That is as a result of in terms of outright storage per buck, there’s nothing that beats an HDD. And within the present state of affairs the place DRAM and flash reminiscence are each prohibitively costly, it is even higher worth for cash.Seagate has been serving this marketplace for a very good whereas now, and it has a wide range of exterior HDD fashions, masking each potential use and funds. Becoming a member of them is the newly launched FireCuda X Vault: an enormous HDD packed into a good larger enclosure, replete with a contact of RGB lighting, that makes use of a speedy USB connection to hook as much as your PC.You’ve gotten two capacities to select from—eight or 20 TB—and utilizing it is so simple as you possibly can need: plug it in, wait just a few seconds, and benefit from the wealth of additional space for storing. Properly, it ought to be super-simple, however there are a few potential bumps within the highway that might cease it from being as easy as silk. First, the USB port on the host PC should present at the very least 15 W to energy the X Vault.Frustratingly, many motherboards and laptops do not really point out what energy output they assist, so that you simply have to check them out and hope for one of the best. At the least the X Vault sports activities slightly LED by its USB socket, which flashes pink if you happen to do not give it sufficient juice.FireCuda X Vault specs
(Picture credit score: Future)Capability: 8 TB (reviewed) / 20 TBInterface: USB 3.2 Gen 2 Kind-CUSB energy requirement: ≥15 WSpindle pace: 5,400 rpmCache: 256 MBSupported OS: Home windows / macOSDimensions: 200 x 130 mm x 50 mmWeight: 1260 gPrice: $270/£280 (8 TB), $476/£486 (20 TB)The opposite pothole within the highway is the truth that you have to use a ten Gbps USB 3.2 Gen 2 port to get one of the best efficiency out of the drive. Whereas such sockets are hardly uncommon on the most recent motherboards and laptops, when you’ve got an older gaming PC from just a few years in the past, you possibly can be caught with Gen 1 solely—or worse nonetheless, ports that may’t provide sufficient energy.None of that is Seagate’s fault, however in case you are eyeballing the FireCuda X Vault as a possible purchase, you actually need to verify what your USB ports can do earlier than handing over your money.You do get some useful extras with the drive, at the very least. Seagate’s Toolkit app provides incremental backup and real-time folder mirroring, in addition to RGB controls (although you need to use Home windows 11’s system, if you happen to favor), plus you get entry to a knowledge restoration service by way of the guarantee interval (usually two years).Hold updated with a very powerful tales and one of the best offers, as picked by the PC Gamer crew.For the efficiency benchmarks under, I used a gaming PC with an Intel Core Extremely 7 265K processor, in an ASRock Z890 Taichi Lite motherboard, with 48 GB of Corsair Dominator DDR5-8000 reminiscence and a number of WD_Black SN850X SSDs to shift knowledge backwards and forwards from the exterior HDD.To make sure that the X Vault had the very best likelihood of reaching its full potential, I used a Thunderbolt 4 port on the motherboard, utilizing USBTreeView to verify that it was working within the appropriate USB mode (i.e. USB 3.2 Gen 2, 10 Gbps).It has been so lengthy since we have examined an HDD that the one different mannequin we’ve outcomes for our present benchmark suite is the Adata HD710 Professional. That exterior drive is not aimed toward avid gamers, and it solely makes use of a USB 3.2 Gen 1 (5 Gbps) connection. I’ve included a few exterior SSDs within the charts, so you may have a visible information to how briskly spinning platters are in comparison with NAND flash chips.
Seagate FireCuda X Vault benchmarks
3DMark Storage
Common Entry Time (µs)
Seagate FireCuda X Vault (HDD)
3DMark Storage Knowledge
ProductValue
Seagate FireCuda X Vault (HDD)
180 Index, 32.89 Bandwidth (MB/s), 1056 Common Entry Time (µs)
Adata HD710 Professional (HDD)
63 Index, 11.74 Bandwidth (MB/s), 3046 Common Entry Time (µs)
Essential X9
875 Index, 152 Bandwidth (MB/s), 208 Common Entry Time (µs)
TeamGroup PD20 Mini
934 Index, 161.5 Bandwidth (MB/s), 194 Common Entry Time (µs)
Seagate FireCuda X Vault benchmarks
CrystalDiskMark
Seagate FireCuda X Vault (HDD)
CrystalDiskMark Knowledge
ProductValue
Seagate FireCuda X Vault (HDD)
222.05 SEQ1M Q8T1 Learn (MB/s), 212.53 SEQ1M Q8T1 Write (MB/s), 0.65 RND4k Q1T1 Learn (MB/s), 1.92 RND4K Q1T1 Write (MB/s)
Adata HD710 Professional (HDD)
120 SEQ1M Q8T1 Learn (MB/s), 117 SEQ1M Q8T1 Write (MB/s), 0.54 RND4k Q1T1 Learn (MB/s), 0.57 RND4K Q1T1 Write (MB/s)
Essential X9
1028 SEQ1M Q8T1 Learn (MB/s), 970 SEQ1M Q8T1 Write (MB/s), 35.56 RND4k Q1T1 Learn (MB/s), 73.92 RND4K Q1T1 Write (MB/s)
TeamGroup PD20 Mini
1999.22 SEQ1M Q8T1 Learn (MB/s), 1699.45 SEQ1M Q8T1 Write (MB/s), 26.1 RND4k Q1T1 Learn (MB/s), 69.94 RND4K Q1T1 Write (MB/s)
Seagate FireCuda X Vault benchmarks
Remaining Fantasy XIV: Dawntrail
Whole Loading Time (seconds)
Seagate FireCuda X Vault (HDD)
Remaining Fantasy XIV: Dawntrail Knowledge
ProductValue
Seagate FireCuda X Vault (HDD)
17.638 Whole Loading Time (seconds), 0.78 Scene #1, 3.673 Scene #2, 4.905 Scene #3, 4.639 Scene #4, 3.641 Scene #5
Adata HD710 Professional (HDD)
28.1 Whole Loading Time (seconds), 1.149 Scene #1, 7.05 Scene #2, 7.626 Scene #3, 7.036 Scene #4, 5.239 Scene #5
Essential X9
14.291 Whole Loading Time (seconds), 0.478 Scene #1, 3.244 Scene #2, 3.91 Scene #3, 3.799 Scene #4, 2.86 Scene #5
TeamGroup PD20 Mini
12.759 Whole Loading Time (seconds), 0.447 Scene #1, 3.005 Scene #2, 3.684 Scene #3, 3.4 Scene #4, 2.223 Scene #5
Seagate FireCuda X Vault benchmarks
Temperature
Seagate FireCuda X Vault (HDD)
Temperature Knowledge
ProductValue
Seagate FireCuda X Vault (HDD)
55 Peak (°C), 47 Idle (°C)
Essential X9
60 Peak (°C), 25 Idle (°C)
TeamGroup PD20 Mini
83 Peak (°C), 38 Idle (°C)
Suffice it to say, the FireCuda X Vault performs precisely the way you’d count on an HDD to, particularly in comparison with an SSD. However whereas it is slower than a tortoise, Seagate’s gaming drive is quite a bit snappier than Adata’s rugged mannequin, partly as a result of it makes use of a quicker USB interface.Along with the above benchmarks, I additionally added the drive as extra storage in Steam, and measured how lengthy it took to maneuver The Final of Us Half 2 Remastered from a WD_Black SN850X put in in a PCIe 4.0 M.2 slot, straight related to the CPU, onto the X Vault’s disks.With the sport tipping the scales at 116 GB, it took 11 minutes and 31 seconds to switch all of the information, so it is not one thing you’d wish to be doing repeatedly. Throughout the transfer, I recorded the write pace of the Seagate drive, and it hovered between 200 and 205 MB/s for all the length. So whereas it is not particularly fast, it is vitally constant (once more, as anticipated for an HDD).Picture 1 of three(Picture credit score: Valve)(Picture credit score: Valve)(Picture credit score: Microsoft / Valve)That switch pace is about 10% as fast as you’d get with a reasonably garbage SSD, however since even these are actually outrageously dear, the X Vault’s tortoise-like efficiency is totally forgivable. In reality, if all you care about is chilly storage (i.e. you need not consistently entry the information, you simply want them shut by), then the FireCuda may nicely be very best.Nonetheless, there are a few issues, apart from the efficiency and USB fussiness, which are value noting earlier than deciding on the X Vault. For the sheer dimension and mass of the drive’s enclosure, you would be forgiven for anticipating decrease temperatures, however at the very least they do not range a lot between idle and heavy masses. The meaty enclosure additionally does an incredible job of absorbing vibrations.The offered USB cable can also be considerably on the brief facet. Used with a laptop computer, it is not that a lot of a difficulty, however I attempted it on a number of desktop PCs, and for a lot of of them, the cable wasn’t lengthy sufficient to permit the unit to relaxation flat on the desk subsequent to the PC case. Worse nonetheless, the dearth of slack within the cable implies that the connector pulls down fairly firmly on the USB port itself, which is not nice for its long-term well being.Picture 1 of three(Picture credit score: Future)(Picture credit score: Future)(Picture credit score: Future)Purchase if…✅️ You favour space for storing over pace to your gaming library: No exterior HDD is ever going to maintain up with an inner SSD, however with 8 or 20 TB of area on faucet to your Steam library, the FireCuda X Vault is nice for cold-storing video games and movies, particularly for gaming laptops with only one M.2 slot.Do not buy if…❌️ You favour pace over comfort: With a median knowledge switch price of round 200 MB/s, the FireCuda X Vault is not in any respect quick, even in comparison with a sluggish SSD. If that issues, then discover the most cost effective SATA SSD yow will discover as a substitute, although it will not supply wherever close to as a lot storage.At $270 for the 8 TB mannequin, you are not paying over the chances, although, and the 20 TB model is particularly good worth for cash, coming in at round 2.4 cents per GB. That mentioned, Seagate has fitted the X Vault with an analogous sort of HDD because it makes use of for its SkyHawk and Barracuda Compute product ranges, and you should buy a kind of naked drives for $230 at Amazon (on the time of writing).You will not get any extra efficiency, however you’ll save a bit of cash and will not tie up one in every of your motherboard’s USB ports if you happen to set up it inside your desktop gaming PC.The place issues actually make sense for Seagate’s exterior drive is when your PC is a gaming laptop computer, particularly so if it has a solitary M.2 slot for SSDs. Utilizing the FireCuda X Vault to essentially enhance the quantity of storage you have received now makes lots of sense, since you’re avoiding having to pay huge quantities for an even bigger SSD, nor enduring the effort of reinstalling Home windows.The one factor you have to fear about is whether or not or not your laptop computer’s USB ports can really energy the drive.Greatest exterior SSDs 2026All our present recommendationsSeagate FireCuda X Vault: Value Comparability
