Intel Optane vs SSD

[Potato825]

I can either get a 120gb SSD, or I could get a 16gb Intel Optane M.2 drive for the same price to speed up my 2TB HDD. They both cost $50 which do I get?

 

[Barty1884]

A 120GB SSD (ideally a little greater.....240GB if you can stretch to it.... usually around $70 or so).

Optane is a cache drive (essentially what an SSD was ~7 years ago). Considering you must be on a x2xx chipset, and a KabyLake CPU to run Optane.... it's a waste IMO.

Even a 'budget' SSD will outperform mechanical storage + cache drive.

If you can stretch to it, this would be a great option:
https://pcpartpicker.com/product/vwPzK8/pny-internal-hard-drive-ssd7cs1111240rb
$80 though.