intel optane Intel Optane - Why has no one asked the more important questions yet?

[TheSorcerer]

My new system I had just setup is running on the Kabylake 7700K alongside the Asus Rog Swift Z270E. It's ready for Optane. 

 

From what I read in the official Intel website, it can only run on a bootable SATA drive which has to have Windows 10 in it. The drives that I have in my rig are:

• 1 x Samsung 960 Evo NVME M.2 250GB
• 1 x Samsung 850 SSD 256GB
• 1 x Seagate 2TB 7200RPM (This is for storage) 
• 1 x WD Blue 1TB (Windows and games) 

I will be running Optane on the WD Blue HDD. And the reason for this is because I will be installing tonnes of games here and I want to run everything fast. The 2 Samsung SSDs simply do not cut it due to their limited available space. 

 

So the noob question is as follows:

 

I read the Asus manual. It said that in order to run Optane, I have to switch to the RAID controller from AHCI controller. And...  Due to the limitation of the Intel Chipset, all the drives will be in RAID mode. If I did not create any volumes, can the other 3 drives still be read in the system?

[tom_w141]

Wait why is windows not on an SSD?!...

[TheSorcerer]

It was.

 

But since I'm gonna build an Optane drive, Windows will have to be on that bootable HDD or it will not work. 

[Guest]

1 minute ago, tom_w141 said:

Wait why is windows not on an SSD?!...

Because Windows fast startup lel 

[agent_x007]

I say this : HDD + Optane <<< SSD native.
Also, you can use Optane on SATA SSD, BUT it won't make much difference with it.

[tom_w141]

Just now, TheSorcerer said:

It was.

 

But since I'm gonna build an Optane drive, Windows will have to be on that bootable HDD or it will not work. 

Optane is dog shit don't bother with it.

 

Put windows on the Nvme, put your main games on the 2.5" SSD, put games you play less often/have less load screens on the HDD. Optane is a garbage gimmick.

[TheSorcerer]

https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/memory-and-storage/intel-optane-memory/000024018.html

[TheSorcerer]

9 minutes ago, tom_w141 said:

Optane is dog shit don't bother with it.

 

Put windows on the Nvme, put your main games on the 2.5" SSD, put games you play less often/have less load screens on the HDD. Optane is a garbage gimmick.

It did say in their website faq that it would take several boot cycle before you can see significant results. 

[xentropa]

What do you want to know about?  I have quite a bit of info on it.

 

TBH, it is not worth it.  Honestly I don't really buy into Intel's claim that optane can be used as an effective HDD cache.  Optane is limited to 32 GB at most, and that is already running 200 ish dollars.  

 

Optane at best could help you with some low queue depth transfers and boot times if the OS is cached on it.  I think Windows 10 is already pretty much going to eat up half a 32 GB optane drive.  That doesn't give you much space for games.  Even with optane as a cache, it won't lift the transfer speed of any high queue depth transfers and is going to saturate at 100~200 mbps, meaning a game that takes 4 gigs of memory a minimum 40 second load time.  

 

If you really are that balling out of control, maybe you can have your OS installed on the optane + HDD combo.  Games, you might want to stick to your SSD.

 

Correction.  32GB optane is about 90 dollars.

[tom_w141]

4 minutes ago, TheSorcerer said:

It did say in their website faq that it would take several boot cycle before you can see significant results. 

You won't see any results even close to native SSD. It's basically a DIY SSHD...

[xentropa]

1 minute ago, tom_w141 said:

You won't see any results even close to native SSD. It's basically a DIY SSHD...

That is the best description I have ever seen.

[TheSorcerer]

11 minutes ago, tom_w141 said:

You won't see any results even close to native SSD. It's basically a DIY SSHD...

 

12 minutes ago, xentropa said:

What do you want to know about?  I have quite a bit of info on it.

 

TBH, it is not worth it.  Honestly I don't really buy into Intel's claim that optane can be used as an effective HDD cache.  Optane is limited to 32 GB at most, and that is already running 200 ish dollars.  

 

Optane at best could help you with some low queue depth transfers and boot times if the OS is cached on it.  I think Windows 10 is already pretty much going to eat up half a 32 GB optane drive.  That doesn't give you much space for games.  Even with optane as a cache, it won't lift the transfer speed of any high queue depth transfers and is going to saturate at 100~200 mbps, meaning a game that takes 4 gigs of memory a minimum 40 second load time.  

 

If you really are that balling out of control, maybe you can have your OS installed on the optane + HDD combo.  Games, you might want to stick to your SSD.

 

Correction.  32GB optane is about 90 dollars.

Well I was really vying for it. Having only 500 GB of SSD space for games is just not enough. I wanted more.

So if Optane is not worth it, would running 2 SATA SSDs on RAID0 be better? 

[tom_w141]

6 minutes ago, TheSorcerer said:

 

Well I was really vying for it. Having only 500 GB of SSD space for games is just not enough. I wanted more.

So if Optane is not worth it, would running 2 SATA SSDs on RAID0 be better? 

Have you bought any of this yet?

[xentropa]

9 minutes ago, TheSorcerer said:

 

Well I was really vying for it. Having only 500 GB of SSD space for games is just not enough. I wanted more.

So if Optane is not worth it, would running 2 SATA SSDs on RAID0 be better? 

2 SATA SSDs is much better than Optane and HDD imo.

 

Though I am not sure if RAID0 will boost performance THAT much.  It will give you the combined space though.

[TheSorcerer]

6 minutes ago, tom_w141 said:

Have you bought any of this yet?

Not the Optane nor another SSD. Just what I have at the moment. 

 

[tom_w141]

12 minutes ago, TheSorcerer said:

Not the Optane nor another SSD. Just what I have at the moment. 

 

So what do you have?

 

EDIT: Best Optane is $200 right? Get this instead of the additional SSD/HDD and Optane https://pcpartpicker.com/product/xVwqqs/ocz-internal-hard-drive-trn15025sat3960g

 

Space and speed issues solved.

[TheSorcerer]

26 minutes ago, tom_w141 said:

So what do you have?

 

EDIT: Best Optane is $200 right? Get this instead of the additional SSD/HDD and Optane https://pcpartpicker.com/product/xVwqqs/ocz-internal-hard-drive-trn15025sat3960g

 

Space and speed issues solved.

I think a 32GB Optane cost about $90. And anyway OCZs performance is not that great in the SSD world.

 

But thank you for the recommendation. 

[tom_w141]

19 minutes ago, TheSorcerer said:

I think a 32GB Optane cost about $90. And anyway OCZs performance is not that great in the SSD world.

 

But thank you for the recommendation. 

Its still going to beat optane