Intel Optane – Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger?

Final Thoughts

How Much Does it Cost?

Intel’s Optane drives are pretty affordable. You can pick up the 32GB model we used for just £64.99 in the UK or $57.96 in the US. However, it can be bought paired with a motherboard, such as with the Gigabyte Z370 HD3-Op which is $115 in the US (Optane sold seperate), or for £183.08 for both together in the UK.

Hardware Used

UK Links

• Gigabyte Z370 HD3-OP – https://amzn.to/2tQiLe8
• Intel i7 8700k – https://amzn.to/2tLQCVN
• Corsair Vengeance RGB 32GB 2666MHz – https://amzn.to/2IFh34G
• Gigabyte AORUS GTX 1080Ti Xtreme – https://amzn.to/2lHbKJ9
• WD Blue 250GB SATA SSD – https://amzn.to/2lIae9H
• WD Blue 250GB M.2 SATA SSD – https://amzn.to/2Kqjopl
• Intel OPTANE 32GB – https://amzn.to/2yOFKvU
• WD Blue 2TB Hard Drive – https://amzn.to/2lJCg4G
• Aerocool Project 7 850W PSU – https://amzn.to/2lG0H2L
• Cablemod White PSU Extensions – https://amzn.to/2yTNdd9

US Links

• Gigabyte Z370 HD3 – https://amzn.to/2IAcGrK
• Intel i7 8700k – https://amzn.to/2lGk2Ri
• Corsair Vengeance RGB 32GB 2666MHz – https://amzn.to/2KsyH0y
• Gigabyte AORUS GTX 1080Ti Xtreme – https://amzn.to/2KyWoBk
• WD Blue 250GB SATA SSD – https://amzn.to/2IAdtcc
• WD Blue 250GB M.2 SATA SSD – https://amzn.to/2IBZse6
• Intel OPTANE 32GB – https://amzn.to/2ICYpL3
• WD Blue 2TB Hard Drive – https://amzn.to/2Nbc4wj
• Cablemod White PSU Extensions – https://amzn.to/2KyWLfc

Price per GB

The SSD came in at just 25p per GB, which is pretty reasonable given the performance, form factor, and general technologies. Using an HDD is a lot cheaper, and at 2TB, the Western Digital Blue cost 3p per GB. Adding optane only saw that price increase to 5p per GB, which is a big increase in percentages, but still pretty affordable overall.

Overview

Intel Optane is a fascinating technology and one that many may easily overlook. For those running an SSD on their boot drive, you can still benefit from Optane. If you just want to give your secondary HDD a performance boost, Optane has much to offer. I can see the best setup being SSD for boot and Optane + HDD for you gaming storage being a huge cost saver.

I run a few systems with RAID HDD’s for games. This configuration gives me big capacity and faster performance, but at twice the price due to needing two drives for RAID. With Optane, I could buy a single larger capacity HDD, add in the Optane cache, and still get faster performance overall.

Storage With Benefits

There are a few advantages to using only an SSD. For example, SSDs are silent, and while modern HDDs are very quiet, they do still make mechanical noises. SSDs typically run cooler, and they come in smaller form factors such as 2.5″ and M.2. SSDs are best for delivering consistent read and write performance, even with larger files. So for heavy workflows, SSD may still be the way to go for you.

Optane isn’t without its perks though. You don’t have to replace your HDD to use it. Also, you don’t have to format your drive and wipe your files like you would when creating a RAID setup either. Even if your remove Optane, you can retain your data. It’s a more affordable way, especially in regards to the price per GB to get a significant performance boost on a budget. Optane is also very flexible, being able to install Optane alongside your SSDs, HDDs, as a boot drive cache, or for a secondary drive.

The Future of Optane

When Optane hit the market, it did so with little impact. The speeds weren’t much faster than SSD, but this has significantly improved. It was only recently that Intel unlocked the ability to mount Optane with a secondary hard drive, as before it was limited to your boot drive; I think Optanes value to peoples system just increased many times over. Intel is now pushing to create even faster drives, with lower latency, and in greatest capacities, I suspect all Intel fans will soon be installing Optane if they haven’t already.

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