Question Optane vs SSD boot times and app opening

[redtailboas]

Yes, I've Googled this and done some light research but not really seeing my question answered. I'm wondering how it compares with boot times and general opening of commonly used software (16GB).

TIA

 

[jimmysmitty]

I mean its going to depend on what you want to compare. There are two Optanes to look at (the add on for speeding up HDDs or the PCIe drives) and which type of SSD (SATA or NVMe).

If you are looking at the Optane add on its not even close. SATA SSDs are still faster overall with NVMe being vastly faster. If you are looking at the PCIe Optane drives then they would be comparable to most NVMe drives, although not the fastest in read/write, but they have much better consistency in their read/write and IOPS than most other NVMe drives.

From the reviews I have read Optan add on cards are pointless but in a workstation environment the Optane PCIe drives are probably the best. For normal consumers the best would be a NVMe drive like the Samsung 960.

 

[prophet51]

If your caching software is decent it should be faster than the fastest nvme drive for most things, I'd recommend primocache over using whatever intel does to cache. They're faster than any ssd for everything except sequential performance.

 

[redtailboas]

I mean its going to depend on what you want to compare. There are two Optanes to look at (the add on for speeding up HDDs or the PCIe drives) and which type of SSD (SATA or NVMe).

It's add-on Optane (16GB). The Laptop is Acer Swift 3 SF314-56G. It's got 16GB optane + 1TB HDD. I should have been more specific.

If your caching software is decent it should be faster than the fastest nvme drive for most things, I'd recommend primocache over using whatever intel does to cache. They're faster than any ssd for everything except sequential performance.

As an add-on as well? Or did you think I meant standalone Optane?

 

[prophet51]

It's add-on Optane (16GB). The Laptop is Acer Swift 3 SF314-56G. It's got 16GB optane + 1TB HDD. I should have been more specific.

As an add-on as well? Or did you think I meant standalone Optane?

I mean I'd would use primocache to cache the 1tb drive with the 16Gb module instead of the default intel software, primocache is much more effective.

Here's some benchmarks of Primocache using a 16Gb optane module to cache a 1Tb 7200rpm HD - http://www.romexsoftware.com/en-us/...0-18-02-PrimoCache-and-Optane-Memory-v1.2.pdf.

Having used an SSD to cache a 2 TB 7200rpm with primocache I know 16Gb of cache is big enough to get 80-90% hit rate for most cases.

 

[redtailboas]

Okay. Got it. Thank you. It arrives in 2 days, will do that straight off.

 

[jimmysmitty]

It's add-on Optane (16GB). The Laptop is Acer Swift 3 SF314-56G. It's got 16GB optane + 1TB HDD. I should have been more specific.

As an add-on as well? Or did you think I meant standalone Optane?

If thats how it is configured then it should be much faster than just a HDD.

 

[redtailboas]

Right,i see in the results linked above that the SSD alone beats Optane+HDD pretty significantly. Hmm... I have a 240GB SSD but it's SATA. Maybe will sell it and get nVME for boot and apps and use HDD as data (there's extra nVME slot). Or swap in the SATA SSD with the HDD and sell the HDD and get an nVME down the road if need the space.

 

[jimmysmitty]

The biggest thing is that it is a cache. Once the cache fills up though you will be at the mercy of the HDD. I have not used one yet but I assume some software is working in the background to keep the cache clear when not needed.

 

[redtailboas]

The biggest thing is that it is a cache. Once the cache fills up though you will be at the mercy of the HDD. I have not used one yet but I assume some software is working in the background to keep the cache clear when not needed.

Seems pretty significant difference. SSD alone 19 seconds, Optane+HDD 26 seconds. That right there is enough to make me shy away. I'm not ultra picky but doesn't make sense to me with that big a difference.

Probably will put in my 240 SATA SSD+Optane, sell the HDD and get another nVME drive down the road for the 2nd slot if need more storage.

 

[prophet51]

Will be night and day between using a standalone 7200rpm drive but yes a straight ssd install would be faster. That 10-20% you'll still need to read from a 7200rpm disk is what lets the ssd pull ahead.
Depending on your use case you might get a higher hitrate like 95%+, I needed 30G of cache to get that hitrate when I used a ssd to cache my 2 Tb hard disk.

 

[redtailboas]

Will be night and day between using a standalone 7200rpm drive but yes a straight ssd install would be faster.

Right. I should have been more clear. I meant HDD+Optane vs SSD.