[SOLVED] Thoughts on 2x SSD & 2x Intel Optane with StoreMI

[Mossen]

I've been tinkering around with a new build. Pretty much settled on 5900x whenever it's out.

Graphics is not very important for this build, so I'm thinking about x8 PCIe lanes for the GPU (Probably gonna be 3070, not sure yet.) and x16 for a Asus Hyper card, since I would prefer speed and responsiveness over graphics. (Expecting the 5900x to have 24 PCIe lanes.) (Also heard that 4 lanes are reserved for Chipset. (At least on 3900x so I expect the same for 5900x). Not sure what that's supposed to mean or how it affects the setup.)

I've been thinking about getting 2x 520 Firecuda 1TB paired with 2x Intel Optane with StoreMI, with the Optane as a faster cache. These four in the ASUS Hyper card with the Firecudas set up as the "Slow" storage and Optane as the fast.
I know this probably isn't the typical build, but I would love to hear if anyone has some thoughts on bottlenecks, StoreMI or anything else I might not have thought about.

Thank you

 

[kanewolf]

I've been tinkering around with a new build. Pretty much settled on 5900x whenever it's out.

Graphics is not very important for this build, so I'm thinking about x8 PCIe lanes for the GPU (Probably gonna be 3070, not sure yet.) and x16 for a Asus Hyper card, since I would prefer speed and responsiveness over graphics. (Expecting the 5900x to have 24 PCIe lanes.) (Also heard that 4 lanes are reserved for Chipset. (At least on 3900x so I expect the same for 5900x). Not sure what that's supposed to mean or how it affects the setup.)

I've been thinking about getting 2x 520 Firecuda 1TB paired with 2x Intel Optane with StoreMI, with the Optane as a faster cache. These four in the ASUS Hyper card with the Firecudas set up as the "Slow" storage and Optane as the fast.
I know this probably isn't the typical build, but I would love to hear if anyone has some thoughts on bottlenecks, StoreMI or anything else I might not have thought about.

Thank you

What is your storage use case? My guess is that you will get very little incremental benefit over a standard NVMe SSD.

 

[USAFRet]

My thoughts?
Not even a little bit.

But...what is this system to be used for?

 

[Mossen]

My thoughts?
Not even a little bit.

But...what is this system to be used for?

I'm not sure I'm going to need it, I just "want" it for some reason or want to try it, I really like a fast pc and want all tasks to be as close to instant as possible. (I've tried digging almost everywhere on the internet, and just exactly what I want to do, I can't find much if anything about.)
But do you know if it's gonna be bottlenecked in a any way, and if so what bottlenecks it? PCIe lanes are my biggest concern and whether it's chipset lanes or cpu lanes. I really don't know much in that area.
Are there any information about what I'm trying to do? I guess it's too niche?
I really hoped I had found some on YouTube testing it, but it's extremely scarce.

- Mossen

 

[USAFRet]

NVMe drives are already "as close to instant as possible ". Literally.
Optane on top of that brings zero speed benefit.

2x high speed NVMe drives (970 EVO Plus, or 980 if you have a relevant motherboard), one for the OS and applications and one for 'data'....that is literally as fast as you can get.
The StoreMi (fakeRAID) and Optane overhead may even make things slower.

You've not found anything on utube saying it is beneficial, because it is not.
If it were, you'd see all sorts of configs and tests showing thus.

 

[kanewolf]

I'm not sure I'm going to need it, I just "want" it for some reason or want to try it, I really like a fast pc and want all tasks to be as close to instant as possible. (I've tried digging almost everywhere on the internet, and just exactly what I want to do, I can't find much if anything about.)
But do you know if it's gonna be bottlenecked in a any way, and if so what bottlenecks it? PCIe lanes are my biggest concern and whether it's chipset lanes or cpu lanes. I really don't know much in that area.
Are there any information about what I'm trying to do? I guess it's too niche?
I really hoped I had found some on YouTube testing it, but it's extremely scarce.

- Mossen

All that complexity does is make it easier to break. If you love reinstalling things then go for it. If you want a system that just works, don't do it.

 

[Mossen]

So the lower latency won't change anything at all?

 

[USAFRet]

So the lower latency won't change anything at all?

And you have to contrast that with the interaction between the devices. Which is not instantaneous.

Years ago, in certain use cases, RAID 0 was a benefit with HDD. Faster access.
People automatically assumed (and still do) that benefit would apply to SSD. It did not.

Benchmarks are great. User facing experience, not so much.
Even worse, RAID 0 with NVMe drives. Sometimes, that is even slower, due to the overhead.

For your conceptual design, empirical testing would show yea or nay.
And not just bench numbers...actual user facing results.

With the advent of solid state drives, we're chasing diminishing benefit.
Even with SATA III SSD, the access time is near zero. Which is the main reason why SSD's are 'fast' in regular use.

 

[USAFRet]

So, if you feel froggy....do us a test.
1x NVMe drive, vs NVMe + StoreMi vs NVMe + Optane vs NVMe + Optane + StoreMi....

Benchmark numbers and actual user facing application numbers.

 

[Mossen]

Alright, thank you to both. I think I will stick to just one SSD then, Samsung 980, Firecuda 520 or something like that.
However, if I one day do choose to waste my money on SSD+Optane with StoreMI I will post the results.

Thank you