Hybrid Storage - GoKawiil

Seagate's FireCuda Forge pairs external HDD with user-supplied NVMe SSD

Seagate has launched the FireCuda Forge, an external hard drive sold in 8TB and 20TB capacities that requires buyers to supply and install their own M.2 2280 SSD for caching. Seagate recommends a 1TB SSD with DRAM and caps performance benefits at PCIe Gen3 speeds, officially qualifying only a handful of drives including Samsung's 990 Pro and two WD/SanDisk models. Once set up, the drive appeared in Windows 11 as a single 8TB volume with no additional software needed, and Seagate says the SSD can later be swapped for a larger one.

tomshardware.com · 2026-11-10

Seagate launches FireCuda Forge external storage combining HDD and SSD

Seagate has released the FireCuda Forge, an external storage device that pairs a hard drive with a user-supplied NVMe SSD, using the company's new Alkemi platform to automatically shift frequently used files onto the faster drive. It's available now with an 8TB hard drive for $699 or a 20TB version for $899, though the SSD must be purchased separately. The device presents itself to a computer as a single drive while reaching read speeds up to 2,500MB/s and write speeds up to 2,000MB/s on Windows 11 or macOS 26.

theverge.com · 2026-11-10