ASUS Z370 with 970 EVO NVMe M.2 + Intel Optane 32GB

[waynolikebeer]

Hi All

I'm currently building a new PC for music production (DAW). Here's what I have currently-

Intel Core i7 8700K Hex Core LGA 1151-2 3.70GHz
Asus Prime Z370-A motherboard
G.Skill Ripjaws V 16GB (2x 8GB) DDR4 3200MHz
Samsung 970 EVO 500GB NVMe M.2 SSD
2 x Seagate Barracuda 2TB 2016 HDD's
1 x Motu 828mk3 Hybrid Audio Interface connected via PCie firewire card. (potentially upgrading to a Thunderbolt interface in the future)
1 x MSI GTX 580 (recycled from my old machine)

970 EVO is the system drive with Windows 10 Pro 64bit installed along with my programs.
1 x Seagate HDD is for reading and writing audio file.
1 x Seagate HDD is for my sample libraries - Its basically just reading with very minimal writing.

My motherboard has 2 x M.2 slots, I want to know if I can install an Intel Optane memory card into the second M.2 slot to work in conjunction with my Seagate HDD with my sample libraries to improve its load/read times.

Will this work?
Could it reduce the performance of the 970 EVO SSD system drive?
Would I be better off saving my money and buying a large capacity SATA SSD to replace my Sample libraries HDD with?

Your opinions would be appreciated.

 

[rocktalkrock]

1. Yes it would work. The Asus Prime Z370-A supports Optane memory.
Optane memory set up guide - http://dlcdnmkt.asus.com/microsite/Optane-Memory-SOP.pdf
2. No it will not reduce the performance of the 970 EVO SSD. Both M.2 slots have their own dedicated PCIe lanes o using one will not affect the other.
3. I would choose to buy a larger capacity SSD. If you bought a 1TB 970 EVO instead of 500GB, you would have an extra 500GB of fast storage space over the small 32GB of Optane memory. That said, the 32GB Intel Optane memory is much cheaper than replacing all your HDD's.

 

[waynolikebeer]

1. Yes it would work. The Asus Prime Z370-A supports Optane memory.
Optane memory set up guide - http://dlcdnmkt.asus.com/microsite/Optane-Memory-SOP.pdf
2. No it will not reduce the performance of the 970 EVO SSD. Both M.2 slots have their own dedicated PCIe lanes o using one will not affect the other.
3. I would choose to buy a larger capacity SSD. If you bought a 1TB 970 EVO instead of 500GB, you would have an extra 500GB of fast storage space over the small 32GB of Optane memory. That said, the 32GB Intel Optane memory is much cheaper than replacing all your HDD's.

Thanks for your advice and setup info. After doing a little more research I think I'll go with an SSD instead. But the price of Intel Optane is very tempting.

Cheers