[SOLVED] Is the Optane Memory worth it?

[99StefanRO]

I am planning a big upgrade this summer and I am looking forward to future proof my computer a lot. Main use is gaming, but of course, any speed gain for a low price is welcome. Optane has a really low price (in my opinion), for only 30-35 euros, is a 16 gb Optane memory worth it? It will be paired with 1 Tb HDD and a 120 SSD for now.

 

[Colif]

if ssd is boot drive, you may not see much of a difference using optane to speed up boot, the ssd is fast enough that it makes very little difference with ot without optane.

optane more useful when its paired with a hdd as like ssd before them, optane can be used as a cache drive to make the hdd appear faster than it actually is.


Optane needs to grow more and the price of bigger modules needs to shrink before it is really useful. 512gb of optane costs over $USD7800 currently. Once the prices drop it will replace ram, ssd and hdd... unless something even faster comes along.

 

[99StefanRO]

if ssd is boot drive, you may not see much of a difference using optane to speed up boot, the ssd is fast enough that it makes very little difference with ot without optane.

optane more useful when its paired with a hdd as like ssd before them, optane can be used as a cache drive to make the hdd appear faster than it actually is.


Optane needs to grow more and the price of bigger modules needs to shrink before it is really useful. 512gb of optane costs over $USD7800 currently. Once the prices drop it will replace ssd and hdd... unless something even faster comes along.

Oh that's expensive.. I am running most of my game on the HDD, will the 16 gb of optane actually save up a decent amount of loading times?

 

[Colif]

I am not sure you are able to tell the PC what you want stored in the memory. I think it is all done behind scenes and might speed up games, it depends how often you play them

System acceleration refers to the effect that Intel® Optane™ memory has on a computer. It enables faster task completion and reduces the wait time, compared to a computer with a hard disk drive alone.

• Responsiveness refers to how quickly the PC completes end user requests, such as:
  • Start or boot
  • Search and find files
  • Save large files
  • Launch applications
• Compared to the same PC with only a hard drive, yes, Intel® Optane™ memory makes the PC feel faster, more responsive, and accelerated.

https://www.intel.com.au/content/ww...8/memory-and-storage/intel-optane-memory.html

this is essentially what Intel Rapid Storage Technology used to do with really small SSD, before SSD became big enough to replace the hdd. Intel re using their old software with Optane. Its the same show again.

No where there talks about ssd, its all about speeding up hdd.

https://www.quora.com/Does-Intel-Op...-that-has-only-SSD-drives-and-no-spinning-HDD

Optane comes in different forms, there are optane ssd, as well as the ram, and recently there are now ssd built into the ram, so they blurring the lines. The Optane modules can be way bigger than current ram

 

[USAFRet]

I am planning a big upgrade this summer and I am looking forward to future proof my computer a lot. Main use is gaming, but of course, any speed gain for a low price is welcome. Optane has a really low price (in my opinion), for only 30-35 euros, is a 16 gb Optane memory worth it? It will be paired with 1 Tb HDD and a 120 SSD for now.

A better option would be a single 1TB SATA III SSD.
And probably cheaper than Optane+120GB SSD+1TB HDD.

1TB Crucial MX500 = £103
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Crucial-MX500-CT1000MX500SSD1-Internal-NAND/dp/B077SF8KMG

 

[Colif]

I still prefer 2 drives, just so that its easier to recover from windows breaking itself. If all data on 2nd drive, its far easier to get back to how it was before.

but if you can live with only 1 ssd, then it would be cheaper than both. 120gb ssd is too small now days, better to get a bigger one and it will last longer before you run out of space.

 

[USAFRet]

I still prefer 2 drives, just so that its easier to recover from windows breaking itself. If all data on 2nd drive, its far easier to get back to how it was before.

but if you can live with only 1 ssd, then it would be cheaper than both. 120gb ssd is too small now days, better to get a bigger one and it will last longer before you run out of space.

Oh I absolutely prefer multiple drives as well.

A 250GB for the OS and applications, and whatever for the games and other stuff.
Other people around here have the opposite viewpoint, and want a single drive for everything.

In either case, Optane+HDD is not nearly as good as SSD.

 

[Colif]

I watched video, optans + hdd isn't that far behind ssd loading into games. Its just optane + ssd makes no sense, and since its mostly used as a cache you have no control over what its used for. So pointless having all 3 in a PC until optane modules get bigger, then we can think about them as ram maybe?

 

[USAFRet]

I watched video, optans + hdd isn't that far behind ssd loading into games. Its just optane + ssd makes no sense, and since its mostly used as a cache you have no control over what its used for. So pointless having all 3 in a PC until optane modules get bigger, then we can think about them as ram maybe?

The Optane+HDD is only fast for that data which resides in the cache.
SSD is fast across the whole drive space.

At an equal (or near equal) price, SSD wins hands down. IMHO, of course.

 

[99StefanRO]

Alright.. so my conclusion is, after reading all your opinions, I should just buy a (at least) 512 gb SSD. Not that expensive, maybe I can up it to 1tb. Thanks everyone!