Question Intel Optane as system drive?

[LJHCPA]

I have a system I started building in 2018, but lost interest when I had trouble bending the last two water cooling tubes. It sat for almost 4 years gathering dust. I finally took it to a local PC store and had them complete the tubing and asked them to install Windows 10 on the Intel Optane SSD 900P I had put in the #2 PCI-E slot. Here's what the system has:
Motherboard: Asus Rampage Extreme VI
CPU: Intel 7900X
RAM: 64 GB Corsair Vengeance RGB
Video: Asus Strix 1080 Ti X 2 in SLI
Drives: Intel Optane SSD 900P; Samsung 960 Pro M.2 X 2; WD Velociraptor 10K 1TB X 2; WD Velociraptor 10K 600 GB
Custom water cooling w/EK CPU block, alpha cool radiators w/ 3 Corsair RGB 140mm fans, Enermax water reservoir, Phantex water cooling blocks on the video cards
Power supply: EVGA 1300 G2

4 years ago this would have been top rung, but now it's only so-so (I guess)

My problem: I may have screwed up asking the PC store to install the OS on the Intel Optane. My understanding at the time was it was just like a normal SSD, only faster. Now it appears it is meant to be a boosted cache memory for most used apps. Is that correct? When I boot the system it tries about 3 times and fails, then I get a message about configuring the Optane memory and/or setting PCH storage to AHCI or RAID or vice versa, and prompted to press F1 to enter BIOS. Funny thing is even if I make no changes to the BIOS it will finally boot into windows like normal. It doesn't seem to make any difference whether I set the PCH storage to AHCI or RAID (I have the two WD 1 TB Raptors linked as RAID 0).

Do I need to reinstall the OS to another drive? I had a Windows 10 license I was going to use to activate the OS, but the PC store installed Windows 10/11 and it wouldn't accept my license key, so I downloaded Windows 11 Pro from the Windows store ($299) ouch! If I reinstall the OS on one of the Samsung 960 Pro SSD's using my old Windows 10 license key I should be able to access my Microsoft account and download Windows 11 Pro to update the Windows 10 installation. Is that correct?

If you've read through this so far, thanks for your patience. I've also got issues with the Corsair iCue app and some of my RGB LED's not working right, but that's a question for another time. I appreciate any help you can give me.
Thanks

 

[SkyNetRising]

Show screenshots from Disk Management,
Device Manager - disk drives and storage controllers sections expanded.
(upload to imgur.com and post link)

What is purpose of this build?
What is purpose of velociraptor drives?
1080 Ti X 2 in SLI ? What is purpose of that?

My understanding at the time was it was just like a normal SSD, only faster.

Yeah. Kindda. Depends on model.

Now it appears it is meant to be a boosted cache memory for most used apps. Is that correct?

Not for Optane 900P.
Those were stupid expensive. Modern NVME drives are faster and less expensive.
Optane drives have excellent endurance ratings though.

 

[Nighthawk117]

Now it appears it is meant to be a boosted cache memory for most used apps. Is that correct?

Usually yes, but the 900p is an SSD based off the same technology, so in your case no.

 

[LJHCPA]

Thanks for your replies. As I said, this system sat for about 4 years, so the research I had done at the time of purchase was not fresh in my mind. As to why I chose SLI? 4-5 years ago SLI was THE way to get max video performance. NVLink appears to be the ticket now--if you've got the $$$. Sure, there aren't many games today that support SLI, but there are some, and I'll be looking to get some of them. Why did I get Velociraptor drives? I'm old school, and when I saw that I could purchase 1TB raptors I jumped on it. The original raptor drives I had were capped at 150GB so I thought "...buy them while you can...". In a RAID 0 array those disks are not slow! Granted, not as fast as the 960 Pro's, but still good performers.

 

[SkyNetRising]

As I said, this system sat for about 4 years, so the research I had done at the time of purchase was not fresh in my mind.

And purpose for the system?
Just for games?

 

[LJHCPA]

And purpose for the system?
Just for games?

Yes mostly for games. Been playing older games and they all seem to run fine. Using a Dell 27" G-sync monitor and I haven't seen any stuttering or banding yet. Crysis, Modern Warfare, Gost Recon and Wildlands look super. Considering a 34" Alienware 3423 UW monitor.