Few things can get a Mac user to look longingly at a PC, but these newest Seagate drives might do the trick. The storage company has released a special edition FireCuda PCIe Gen4 NVMe SSD that lights up like a lightsaber when plugged in and have interchangeable dark side and light side covers. And is extremely doubtful that Apple will support them when the new Mac Pro arrives.
First the specs—the drive is available in 1TB or 2TB varieties with a PCIe Gen4 ×4 NVMe 1.4 interface and an M.2 2280 with a custom low-profile heatsink. Seagate promises read speeds of up to 7,300MB/s and write speeds of up to 6,900MB/s. In PCWorld’s testing of the matching FireCuda 530, the drive was the fastest they had ever used (at that point in 2021) and earned an editor’s choice recommendation even without the cool Star Wars branding.
Speaking of which, the drive has a glowing light strip inside with a small handle to resemble one of three lightsabers—Obi-Wan Kenobi (white), Darth Vader (red), and Luke Skywalker (blue)—which can be interchanged depending on your PC’s mood. There are plenty of RGB parts for PCs, but this is one of the few that actually have a clever use. The drive costs $280 for 2TB, which is very reasonable compared to Apple’s own storage pricing.
They’re pretty stunning. Granted, you’ll need to have a clear PC case and a neat design to properly spotlight it, but I can’t help but wish Apple offered a Mac that let me use one. Even the upcoming Mac Pro is extremely unlikely to support PCIe Gen4 ×4 NVMe SSDs since Apple silicon Macs use a proprietary PCIe storage system. And besides, it’s highly unlikely Apple will offer a clear version of the Mac Pro anyway—or anything that’s as fun or unique as this.
So for now I’ll just have to gaze longingly at PC setups on Reddit and wish Apple offered a solution. Maybe in a galaxy far far away…
Author: Michael Simon, Executive Editor
Michael Simon has been covering Apple since the iPod was the iWalk. His obsession with technology goes back to his first PC—the IBM Thinkpad with the lift-up keyboard for swapping out the drive. He's still waiting for that to come back in style tbh.