[SOLVED] Optane Enabled HDD Steam Library - Bad for frequently patched games?

[rygar]

Hi All,
A while back I installed an 8TB Seagate Exos HDD (ST8000NM0055 7200 RPM SATA 6Gb/s 512e 256MB Cache 3.5" Internal Enterprise Hard Drive) to use mainly as a Steam Library, as well as some storage. It's Optane Enabled using a 64Gb, M10 Series M.2 drive via PCIe 3.0 and is NOT my boot drive.

I have a 1TB Samsung 960Evo NVMe drive as my boot drive and a 1TB 970Evo Plus as a second NVMe drive for gaming.

I can feel the Optane working, especially during load times on games after 2 or 3 times loading - per usual. It's a definite improvement over the HDD itself.

What I've noticed though is that it takes an INORDINATE amount of time to Prealloacte and then Patch games via Steam. Some games seem to patch as quickly as they download on my 1Gb line, but others will sometimes take 20+ minutes to finish F'ing around.

Those same games, being patched on my NVMe drives are MUCH faster. I realize that Optane's BIGGEST advantage is reading the smallest of file sizes, where it BARELY beats the 970Evo Plus (512kb to ~2kb) and then the Evo is faster.... but this seems off to me.

The other thing I've noticed is it takes 36 hour or more to do a defrag using Defraggler lol.

Any clue if this is a bad setup for games, most of which receive regular patches, or updates? (Or am I just literally that used to faster SSDs and their newest cousins...???)

 

[rygar]

Not sure if its still viewable somehow, but in case your curious or it helps - here are the PC's current specs:

i7-7700k (IHS de-lidded & replaced w/ custom RockitCool 15% larger, all Copper IHS, with Conductonaught Liquid Metal)
All Cores at 5.0 Ghz at 1.36v - Corsair H100v2 240mm AIO with 4 Corsair MagLev Fans in Push/Pull.
-
MSI Gaming M5 z270 Mobo
32 GB G-Skill Ram at 3600Mhz
Corsair RM1000i PSU
-
Aorus 2080ti Waterforce Extreme w/ 240mm AIO and 4 MagLevs in Push/Pull
maxed at 61c (the highest it will get) it locks in at 2.1 GHz, and the Ram is o/c to 8000MHz.
65" LG C9OLED 4k TV w/ HMDI 2.1 for 120Hz at 4k w/ G-Sync. (Currently stuck at 60Hz until dat 3090 drops with HDMI 2.1! lol)
27" Asus ROG 4k 144hz 1ms Gaming Monitor
27" Asus ROG 2k 144hz 1ms Gaming Monitor
-
1TB Samsung 960Evo NVMe Boot Drive
1TB Samsung 970Evo Plus Gaming Drive
256GB Samsung 840 Pro SSD Storage Drive
8TB Seagate Exos 7200 RPM Enterprise HDD w/64GB Optane Acceleration

 

[USAFRet]

As you note, the Optane+HDD is barely faster (if at all), than the NVMe drives.
And that, only for frequently/recently accessed data.

Defraggler on the HDD has nothing to do with the Optane.

 

[rygar]

As you note, the Optane+HDD is barely faster (if at all), than the NVMe drives.
And that, only for frequently/recently accessed data.

Defraggler on the HDD has nothing to do with the Optane.

Many thanks, good sir! I wanted to hear it from someone smarter than me I assumed that was the case, but I am no Optane expert.

54.5 hours later and I'm down to 0% Fragmentation and 3.2gs left to defrag. It says 1 min left, but its probably going to be more like another 3 - 6 hours lol.

I wasn't sure if Defraggler was somehow causing the Optane to rethink what it decides is important to store, and somehow slowing down the overall process. It's been quite a while since I've had to defrag anything and when I did, a 1TB drive was huge lol (and that drive bricked 2 years ago lol.) I think I'm just experiencing impatience more than anything.

However, my solution for the slow patching via Steam is this - I went through my 160+ installed games from that library and set all but my most commonly played games to only update when I actually load them. I then set Origin's auto-update off. I have 80% of the 8GB drive filled and plan to leave the rest free, but its setup as a Jukebox... most of those games have never even been loaded once, so this seems the best option for my sanity.

TY for the confirmation. As always, very much appreciated!