Optane cache for data drives

[porina]

https://www.anandtech.com/show/12607/intel-expands-8th-gen-core-core-i9-on-mobile-iris-plus-desktop-chipsets-and-vpro/5

 

This seems to have been missed amongst the CPU releases, but apparently Optane as cache is/will be updated to support cache on data drives. This I think is a more interesting use case on desktop. Personally I'm running over 2TB of SSD in my main system but it is almost full and I really don't want to add more. Optane cache for data drives might with HDs be a good enough middle ground, if I can figure out what is or isn't supported by it. Original Optane cache was supported in 200 series chipsets, but I'm not sure if that include X299. Detailed info from Intel is rather lacking at the moment.

 

Quote

With the new generation of products, Intel has expanded the capabilities of Optane Memory such that it can act as a cache for a non-OS drive.

Quote from article above, if accurate might suggest it needs 300 series, which would suck.

[TechyBen]

Any "cache" option can also be done with an SSD and software (or in the future hardware).

 

However, it's worth it if and only if the Optane is faster. So far, it generally is not for home/consumer use.

 

Once faster models are out, an Optane -> SSD -> HDD system makes sense. Either OS or cache on the Optane, fast access data on the SSD, and bulk/archive on the HDD. Watching movies or playing games? The "cache" system switches it across from the HDD (games at 50gb to 100gb!!! ) at a level or so a time to the Optane. Then any game you are playing, gets streamed to the Optane while in down time (windows desktop, in between level loads etc)...

 

Same could be done for any program etc.

 

So the question is, what data/software do you have on the 2TB of SSD? I currently run just 500gb ssd and 1tb hdd... HDD gets data, web cache (to keep life of SSDs up ) and older games that I don't need the SSD performance... or larger games and I manually swap between SSD and HDD when I start/stop playing over longer periods of time (where the change in load time would matter).

 

What would actually be faster with the Optane for you? Other than OS load time?

[porina]

2 minutes ago, TechyBen said:

So the question is, what data/software do you have on the 2TB of SSD?

Game installs. Of course, I don't use all of them, all the time. So the limited cache capacity could improve things of whatever I am using more frequently.

 

What 3rd party solutions are there, if I were to use a random SSD as cache instead? 

 

To partially answer one of my earlier questions, X299 is explicitly supported for Optane, but there is still ambiguity if they're putting the data cache side only for latest chipset.

https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/articles/000026040/memory-and-storage/intel-optane-memory.html

[TechyBen]

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=ssd+cache+software

 

First find on searching forums gives me: https://www.romexsoftware.com/en-us/primo-cache/index.html

 

Software implementations will be slower than hardware... but as the current Optane does not perform faster than SSDs in consumer environments... does it even matter?

[porina]

3 hours ago, TechyBen said:

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=ssd+cache+software

 

First find on searching forums gives me: https://www.romexsoftware.com/en-us/primo-cache/index.html

 

Software implementations will be slower than hardware... but as the current Optane does not perform faster than SSDs in consumer environments... does it even matter?

Haven't checked if it is still current, but lmgtfy or similar was against the community rules. Anyone can search, but the value is in commenting with experience.

 

Basically I have come to expect a certain performance with putting games on the cheapest SSDs, but even cheap SSDs are much more expensive than HDs. Rather than mess around with moving installs between high and low performance storage devices, it would be easier if I were able to set up an Optane (or SSD) cache to a large HD store.

[TechyBen]

Sorry, that was more me being silly as to the nature of finding any software online. Perhaps I should do a new website called "let me Google that for *me*".  Though asking which is the best is something Google cannot answer!  

 

 Yeah, I'd like to try it on a Linux install, as IIRC there are some distros/options to do it much more natively. But for Windows I have no experience.

 

I understand why Intels Optain is Hardware limited. It's trying to aim to make the cache transparent to the hardware, so it can work in the way CPU mem->Ram->Swap file currently does...

 

Actually, I'm amazed Steam cannot offer this kind of feature, even pulling from a local NAS!