Seagate FireCuda 510 ZP500GM3A001 500 GB

sea shark

The Seagate Barracuda 510 is one of the fastest M.2 PCI-E 3.0 SSDs available. The sequential reading speed of large files, regardless of the size of the disk (500 GB, 1 TB or 2 TB), is 3450 MB / h, which is almost the maximum throughput of the PCI-E 3.0 x4 bus. The linear write speed for older versions reaches 3200 MB / s, and for the younger one — 2500 MB / s.

dual core controller

The Barracuda 510 is based on the top PCI-E 3.0 Phison E12 controller with two ARM architecture cores and eight channels of flash memory. 64-layer 3D TLC memory chips manufactured by Toshiba are used. In addition, a 512 MB operational buffer chip is provided, which increases the processing speed of the smallest 4K blocks. All this together results in a solid 600K IOPS, that is, input / output operations per second.

Smart Algorithm

Traditionally for TLC memory, the Barracuda 510 implements a virtual SLC caching mechanism. So, in the case of a 500 GB version of the disk, you can record up to 16 GB of data in a row at a maximum speed of 2500 MB / s, and for the 1 TB version — up to 32 GB. That is, the volume of a fast SLC array is 2 GB for every 64 GB of disk space. Further, the write speed drops to about 1000 MB / s, which is still quite fast compared to competitors. After that, the disk needs time to rest in order to restore the initial speed.

For PC and laptop

All things considered, the Seagate Barracuda 510 is a fast and roomy SSD with a powerful controller and premium M.2 flash memory. In addition, with a large overwriting resource — 650 TB for a 500-gigabyte version. It is suitable for both desktop PCs and laptops, and will be equally useful in games and resource-intensive professional work applications. You can only look for an alternative if your computer lacks an M.2 slot — then we recommend the classic 2.5-inch Barracuda 120. Or vice versa, if your PC is equipped with an ultra-modern M.2 PCI-E 4.0 slot — take the Barracuda 520 at speed up to 5000 Mbps.