Intel Optane as small SSD?

Tony habergham · 5 Apr 2020 at 14:37

Hello, and I hope a question from a noob is Ok here?

I'm just in the process of re-jigging my FM2+ PC to a Ryzen 5.

One of the roles of my machine is processing BOINC tasks, for which I've been using a cheap 30GB Sata 2 SSD. Having 3 M.2 slots available on the new machine, I was thinking of using one of those for a cheap, small M.2 PCIe drive for this instead.

Looking around, the small Intel optane sticks would seem to be ideal - fast, persistent storage; 16GB sticks available for under £10, and claims that repeated read-write cycles dont wear it as much as a standard SSD.

However, I keep coming up with references like this, online: 'Intel Optane memory is only compatible with certain motherboards, laptops or desktops that have 7th Generation processors or newer and Windows operating system'. Cant see why though - can anyone confirm it can be used on an AMD system in a normal M.2 slot, as a small SSD?

demonix · 6 Apr 2020 at 16:11

Those intel optane drives can't be used as storage as they are only used as a cache for another mechanical drive and also since it's an intel thing, it's only compatible with their processors and boards that support them.

spolsh · 7 Apr 2020 at 13:26

Hmmm ... not so sure , I've got a 16GB optane drive in a z370 (optane ready) board and it can be used as a small drive or as it's intended cache for a mechanical HDD. But, does it work because it's an intel board in the first place ? - A. Don't know ! and unfortunately don't have a spare m2 slot on an AMD board to check. Might be worth a punt if it's only a tenner though.

Armageus · 7 Apr 2020 at 14:25

I'm fairly sure they are just standard NVMe drives. As long as you don't install any specific Intel Optane related software, they should just show up as normal drives

Tony habergham · 7 Apr 2020 at 15:06

Thanks all. I cant see why they wouldn't be standard M.2 drives - I think all the warning is from when PCIe was far less common. And intel processor/software would be required to be able use them as cache for a larger drive.

Thought it was worth a punt, so got one on order for £8. I'll update if it works, when it eventually gets here.

Tony habergham · 23 May 2020 at 11:03

Update - Works fine as a stand-alone SSD. However, it cost me more like £12 in the end.

Also, from reading around, there is software available for Ryzen CPUs that let you set a fast PCIe SSD as cache for a larger, slower, drive; in the same way optane was originally meant to be used that's built-in to some Intel boards. Both have to be directly connected to motherboard controllers though.

Troezar · 26 May 2020 at 08:17

Tony habergham said:
Update - Works fine as a stand-alone SSD. However, it cost me more like £12 in the end.

Also, from reading around, there is software available for Ryzen CPUs that let you set a fast PCIe SSD as cache for a larger, slower, drive; in the same way optane was originally meant to be used that's built-in to some Intel boards. Both have to be directly connected to motherboard controllers though.

I have been curious to play around with one of these but never got around to it. I thought they wouldn't work on AMD systems but apparently they do. It's the low queue depth increase that send to be their real strength.

Apparently FuzeDrive will allow you to use an Optane drive and SSD together. Whether it would be any faster than an NVME is the question?