Intel Optane or NVMe Cache

Adamcampbell · June 1, 2020

So I finally got round to upgrading my CPU after putting it off for years due to the fact that I’d need a new motherboard, ram, cpu, and pretty much a whole new pc (I’ve had an Intel 4770K since they launched).

I decided to go for a 10900K, I know there’s probably a better value for money going AMD but I prefer intel systems.

I did however have one question. I currently have a 6TB game HDD and was looking into speeding it up by either getting an intel optane drive, or by getting another nvme drive and configuring it as a cache for the HDD. Does anyone know any benefits of either method, and have a recommendation of which one I should go for?

Images of build:

https://imgur.com/gallery/4yZC7dc

Specs of new build:

CPU: Intel 10900K.
Cooler: Corsair Hydro H100i RGB Platinum.
GPU: MSI GTX 1070 GAMING X 8G.
Motherboard: Asus ROG Strix Z490-E.
RAM: Corsair Vengeance RGB PRO 32GB (2 x 16) DDR4 3600MHz.
Storage: Samsung 970 Evo Plus 1TB PCIe NCMe M.2, Seagate 6TB IronWolf NAS HDD.
PSU: Seasonic PRIME GX-850 Fully Modular.
Case: Corsair iCUE 465X RGB.
Fans: 6 x Corsair LL120 RGB fans.

(I know my GPU is getting outdated, and probably bottlenecks my CPU, but I’m waiting until the new RTX 3000 series of GPUs before I upgrade.)

porina · June 1, 2020

I didn't have a good experience with a 32GB Optane Memory module and using it to speed up, I forget, a 1 or 2TB game HD. To be blunt 32GB isn't really a lot. Also I had weird write speed reduction while the cache was enabled. Removing it as cache restored the HDs regular performance.

So on that note, I'd look at trying a regular "bigger" SSD and software like primocache. As I've not used it, I can't comment if it'll work better.

One other option to consider, and is the actual route I've gone, just get a large SSD and put your important games on that. 1 or 2TB shouldn't break the bank these days. Are you going to have more than a TB or two of games you need installed at any time? Don't be like me and install every game in my steam library just because I could. I've since deleted the stuff I never played and pulled 2TB of HD out of the system.

Adamcampbell · June 1, 2020

37 minutes ago, porina said:

I didn't have a good experience with a 32GB Optane Memory module and using it to speed up, I forget, a 1 or 2TB game HD. To be blunt 32GB isn't really a lot. Also I had weird write speed reduction while the cache was enabled. Removing it as cache restored the HDs regular performance.

So on that note, I'd look at trying a regular "bigger" SSD and software like primocache. As I've not used it, I can't comment if it'll work better.

One other option to consider, and is the actual route I've gone, just get a large SSD and put your important games on that. 1 or 2TB shouldn't break the bank these days. Are you going to have more than a TB or two of games you need installed at any time? Don't be like me and install every game in my steam library just because I could. I've since deleted the stuff I never played and pulled 2TB of HD out of the system.

I had considered just buying a few 2.5” SATA SSDs, and this is more than likely a route I will go down in the future, but for now the price for around 6TB seemed a bit too much for me currently.

while I do try and avoid installing all my games, it is unfortunately something which I have to do due to current broadband speeds. I’m lucky if I average around 4Mbps, so downloading a game and playing it the same day isn’t an option for me and has to be done overnight. Games like Call of Duty: Modern Warfare also don’t help as it’s around 250GB alone.

porina · June 1, 2020

4 hours ago, Adamcampbell said:

while I do try and avoid installing all my games, it is unfortunately something which I have to do due to current broadband speeds. I’m lucky if I average around 4Mbps, so downloading a game and playing it the same day isn’t an option for me and has to be done overnight. Games like Call of Duty: Modern Warfare also don’t help as it’s around 250GB alone.

Ouch. Patches can't be much fun either. That was part of my uninstalling little played games. My computer spent more time downloading updates than I did in game.

One other possible option you can scale as needed: manually shift games between SSD and HD. This works easily enough for Steam, but I'm not sure about other game clients. You can still leave games on HD when not in use, and move them when you do want the higher performance. A bit more management, and will depend again on how much you switch between games.

Adamcampbell · June 1, 2020

39 minutes ago, porina said:

Ouch. Patches can't be much fun either. That was part of my uninstalling little played games. My computer spent more time downloading updates than I did in game.

One other possible option you can scale as needed: manually shift games between SSD and HD. This works easily enough for Steam, but I'm not sure about other game clients. You can still leave games on HD when not in use, and move them when you do want the higher performance. A bit more management, and will depend again on how much you switch between games.

There’s nothing worse than preparing to launch Modern Warfare and being confronted with a 30GB patch haha.

Thank you for the suggestion of moving between SSD and HDD, that might actually be a good solution until I can sort out a more long term solution.

herzeleid22 · June 13, 2020

I've had a 32GB Optane cache with my 6TB HDD for just over 3 years, and I'm thinking about selling it now and getting rid of the spinning rust all together. The final nail in the coffin for it was a recent MSI BIOS update which stopped the RST from working correctly. Intel has also made the Optane Memory application EOL as I think they've accepted that its time has passed. Was certainly interesting from an enthusiast perspective but you'll get far more performance for your money with just putting games on a big SATA SSD.