Should I Use Optane?

[RandomlyEpic103]

So, earlier today, I went to a local computer repair store because they had some used business servers I wanted to look at. I didn't find anything I liked, they were all rack mounted servers, even though they're actually cheaper than the new build I'm planning, but I did find a couple of Optane SSD's they were selling for $20 each. I bought two out of curiosity, one is 32gb of optane, and the other is 32gb optane and 1tb of NAND. Both are brand new and in the original packaging. For my home server build, I was planning to use a 500gb Samsung 980 pro that runs at PCIe 4 speeds as my boot drive and cache. I know that the optane drives run at PCIe 3x4 speeds, but they work a bit differently, I'm just not sure how they're different. My question is, would I be better off using one of the optane drives for my server over the Samsung, and how does optane storage differ from a standard PCIe NVME SSD.

[Needfuldoer]

The Optane chips basically work like a huge DRAM cache.

 

I hope you bought that 1 TB drive. Even if you just use it as bulk storage, $20 for a name brand 1 TB SSD is a damn steal.

[Fasauceome]

Optane works best when combined with a slow drive, like a super cheap SSD or a hard drive. Optane is intended to accelerate your system as a super fast cache

[Electronics Wizardy]

2 minutes ago, RandomlyEpic103 said:

other is 32gb optane and 1tb of NAND.

This can be very picky about the board they work in, normally only one have of the drive will work on most boards/adapters.

 

2 minutes ago, RandomlyEpic103 said:

know that the optane drives run at PCIe 3x4 speeds, but they work a bit differently, I'm just not sure how they're different.

There just anouther nvme drive, works just like your 980 pro, but a lot less storage space, and faster in some workloads. The one with nand as well is a weird drive, its really only works in the laptops it was made for

 

 

[Electronics Wizardy]

4 minutes ago, Needfuldoer said:

I hope you bought that 1 TB drive. Even if you just use it as bulk storage, $20 for a name brand 1 TB SSD is a damn steal.

Those aren't normal m.2 ssds. Its basically a 32gb optane drive and a 1024gb qlc ssd with no caching. These drives need a board with pcie bifurcation support on the m.2 slots to work correctly, and this was mostly laptops. If you have a non supported m.2 slot, only one have of the drive will work.

[RandomlyEpic103]

2 minutes ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

Those aren't normal m.2 ssds. Its basically a 32gb optane drive and a 1024gb qlc ssd with no caching. These drives need a board with pcie bifurcation support on the m.2 slots to work correctly, and this was mostly laptops. If you have a non supported m.2 slot, only one have of the drive will work.

 

5 minutes ago, Fasauceome said:

Optane works best when combined with a slow drive, like a super cheap SSD or a hard drive. Optane is intended to accelerate your system as a super fast cache

So if I wanted to run a NAS with (4) 16tb Seagate Exos drives, would I be better off running the optane or the Samsung, or both? Would I even be able to get a desktop motherboard that can run them properly?

[Electronics Wizardy]

2 minutes ago, RandomlyEpic103 said:

 

So if I wanted to run a NAS with (4) 16tb Seagate Exos drives, would I be better off running the optane or the Samsung, or both? Would I even be able to get a desktop motherboard that can run them properly?

What os are you running?

 

The 980pro probably si a better cache, but the optane can be good for something like a slog in ZFS. 

 

The optane 32gb drives also make good boot drives, reliable, cheap, and low power.

[RandomlyEpic103]

4 minutes ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

What os are you running?

 

The 980pro probably si a better cache, but the optane can be good for something like a slog in ZFS. 

 

The optane 32gb drives also make good boot drives, reliable, cheap, and low power.

I'm planning to use Truenas right now. This will be my first server build, so I'm pretty much learning as I go. I'm going to use it for Plex and storing my work files.

[Needfuldoer]

If it’s just bulk storage for a NAS, get SATA SSDs or even hard drives. 
 

The 32 gig Optane SSD would be a great boot drive. (I use a couple Intel SATA SSDs in a mirror for that.)

[Electronics Wizardy]

10 minutes ago, RandomlyEpic103 said:

I'm planning to use Truenas right now. This will be my first server build, so I'm pretty much learning as I go. I'm going to use it for Plex and storing my work files.

Id use the 32gb optane for boot then. You likely won't need a cache for home use of truenas, as the l2arc doesn't really help much for many home nas uses.

[RandomlyEpic103]

13 minutes ago, Needfuldoer said:

If it’s just bulk storage for a NAS, get SATA SSDs or even hard drives. 
 

The 32 gig Optane SSD would be a great boot drive. (I use a couple Intel SATA SSDs in a mirror for that.)

 

2 minutes ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

Id use the 32gb optane for boot then. You likely won't need a cache for home use of truenas, as the l2arc doesn't really help much for many home nas uses.

That's what I'll use then, thanks for the help.