Seagate Unveils FireCuda-Branded External HDD Solutions
by Ganesh T S on April 21, 2021 8:00 AM ESTSeagate has been marketing their gaming-focused storage products under the FireCuda brand over the last few years. With a focus on performance, these products have typically been flash-based and/or cater to the high-bandwidth peripherals market using Thunderbolt. Today, the company is introducing a couple of new hard-drive-based products focusing on capacity and the aspect that gamers seem to love (based on market demand) - RGB lighting.
The FireCuda Gaming Hard Drive is a 2.5" bus-powered external HDD complete with RGB lighting (customizable using Seagate's Toolkit software as well as Razer Chroma). It is available in capacities of 1TB, 2TB, and 5TB with MSRPs of $80, $110, and $180 respectively. Street prices are lower, as can be seen from product listings online.
Similar to Seagate's current bus-powered external HDD lineup, the new FireCuda Gaming Hard Drive also sports a USB 3.2 Gen 1 (5 Gbps) Micro-B interface. While we haven't received official confirmation yet, it is likely that the new drives are also SMR-based like the Seagate Backup Plus line. One of the interesting value additions is the inclusion of Rescue Data Recovery services for three years in addition to the one year warranty.
The FireCuda Gaming Hub will become available in the market a little later - This is a full-fledged 3.5" HDD in a RGB enclosure. It has to be externally powered, which also allows the product to carry front-facing USB-C and USB-A ports (both 3.2 Gen 1 - 5Gbps) and act as a hub. The Rescue DRS value-addition is applicable to this product also. The product will be available in two capacity points - 8TB for $220, and 16TB for $400. The latter SKU is interesting from the viewpoint of the internal drive - this will probably be the first product to carry Seagate's consumer-focused 16TB HDD, as they do not have a BarraCuda 16TB in the retail market currently.
Source: Seagate
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TheinsanegamerN - Wednesday, April 21, 2021 - link
The "firecuda gaming line" is cringy at best. RGB laden hard drives? All this talk of USB 3.1 and 3.2 with a hard drive? "gaming hub"? And all this just in time for a generation fo consoles with SSD only storage.Talk about being behind the times.
YB1064 - Wednesday, April 21, 2021 - link
Has RGB, must be fast.Samus - Wednesday, April 21, 2021 - link
Seagate PR has clearly spent too much time in Eastern European night clubs.Operandi - Wednesday, April 21, 2021 - link
A barracuda is a mean looking predatory fish or a muscle car, ok cool. WTF, is a "firecuda"......?TheinsanegamerN - Wednesday, April 21, 2021 - link
A grilled predatory fish or muscle car?Great_Scott - Thursday, April 22, 2021 - link
The red kills it faster.cbm80 - Wednesday, April 21, 2021 - link
Same old stuff, but now more expensive! Are gamers complete morons or what?TheinsanegamerN - Wednesday, April 21, 2021 - link
They willingly pay 460 for broken games, preordere them event hough they are digital purchases, fork over hundreds in millions for microtransactions in a single game that's 7 years old, constantly kotow to those who demand their products be censored, and overpay for hardware and services constantly.No, they're not morons, what are you talking about?
Spunjji - Wednesday, April 21, 2021 - link
Everybody's a moron... except me...😒
TheinsanegamerN - Wednesday, April 21, 2021 - link
Must be lonely on top of Mt. Genius.