Optane "memory" worth it?

The WD Gold hadn't been around for many months

They had been around for years under the RE branding, of course they had been making small incremental changes over the years, you can consider the RE, Gold and Ultrastar all in the same group.

You can think about the RE/Gold/Ultrastars in a similar way to a Rolex Submariner, that watch has been made for over 65 years with small incremental changes. Well the RE/Gold/Ultrastars are exactly the same with small incremental improvements, the confusion comes as they have changed the name 3 times for marketing purposes, however just like a Rolex Submariner, the RE/Gold/Ultrastar they are all the same line, with small incremental improvements between each new release. It's the constant improvement that makes WD RE/Gold/Ultrastar drives probably the best 3.5" drives in the world.
 
Last edited:
Here's another test as I have disabled the Optane drive

My old 640gb WD black hdd (optane disabled)
Y6tJqN2.jpg



My old 640gb WD black hdd (optane enabled)
qQsEnHo.jpg
 
Here's another test as I have disabled the Optane drive
My old 640gb WD black hdd (optane disabled)
My old 640gb WD black hdd (optane enabled)

in the real world thought what dose all this mean? for you that use's the drive as a main drive you may get a performace boot on the data that on the modul, but what about the data thats not.

the cost of the modul and 4tb drive you could have got 4tb of SSD.... (just saying)
 
in the real world thought what dose all this mean? for you that use's the drive as a main drive you may get a performace boot on the data that on the modul, but what about the data thats not.

It takes 12-13secs (no optane) and 4-5secs(optane enabled) loading up a stage in DiRT Rally and like I have said before every file or game I access from the hdd once, gets stored onto the optane and will run from the optane in the future.

the cost of the modul and 4tb drive you could have got 4tb of SSD.... (just saying)

I wont have to upgrade or buy another optane again though, just change the hard drive when/if I need more space.
 
Last edited:
It takes 12-13secs (no optane) and 4-5secs(optane enabled) loading up a stage in DiRT Rally and like I have said before every file or game I access from the hdd once, gets stored onto the optane and will run from the optane in the future.

but it will also add files like filmes and so on as you use them, so over time files are removed from the optane drive to make room, watch a 8gb HD moves ever few days and the drive is will full of filems that are ready for fast use

in your case it may work well, but other using to to boost drives that are used ones a twice a week there is no benifit. drives that are used to dump/store rearly used files will not do load to the optane drive
 
but when you chance the HDD it will cost money. and i assume by this time SSD will be even cheaper.. so just add more, in the same why you will add HDD's

SSD drives are like 4times more exspsive then HDD's atm, so Im not expecting SSD and HDD prices tobe anywhere equal anytime soon. The hdd wont be going anywhere soon, but just keep getting larger in capacity.

but it will also add files like filmes and so on as you use them, so over time files are removed from the optane drive to make room, watch a 8gb HD moves ever few days and the drive is will full of filems that are ready for fast use

in your case it may work well, but other using to to boost drives that are used ones a twice a week there is no benifit. drives that are used to dump/store rearly used files will not do load to the optane drive

This is the main reason I upgraded from my 32gb optane because I wanted a larger capacity one, so my most used stuff won't get deleted from the optane when its full...

I only use that HDD for my games, downloads and temporary stuff, with the downloads and temporary stuff that near enough always gets moved or deleted. So the majority the optane will be caching is my games and Im guessing anything that gets deleted or moved from the HDD will also be remove from the optane.

Hopefully my idea will pay off, cross fingers and toes.
 
Last edited:
I have been able to install my new 4tb gold drive today and I have run benchies. The drive isnt as fast as your 2tb gold drive for some reason "JasonM" but still its not far off

tb gold
KENunl1.jpg


4tb gold with optane
yqmgpur.jpg


I timed how fast dirt rally loads up a track with the optane enabled and its bang on 3secs

Also Im quite impressed how my small case is dealing with the heat, keeping drives, cpu and gpu quite cool, as the cpu gets into the high 60's low 70's running burntest at max stress and the same for the gpu when gaming.. My gpu is sagging slightly as it has always done since day 1, even after I upgraded the motherboard it stll sagged.


zp94GsM.jpg


Idle temps
Lc9m83L.jpg


Who says you need a large case for cool temps:cool: I prefer a small minimalistic case rather then a large case, as eveything is heading in that direction, so why not pc's too.
 
Last edited:
As you can see the inside looks much smarter with the glass side on and the blue tinted white lights. Also the temps drop slightly more with it all closed up, better air flow through the case I guess.

h3HVyxC.jpg
 
Last edited:
Phil2008, pleased you got the WD Gold installed, what do you think of the noise of the drive. I think my 2TB Gold drives are very quite indeed. In my same case I have some Samsung Eco Green 1.5TB 5400RPM drives and the WD Gold are quieter then these.

Also that crystal disk mark speed with the Optane is amazing, I think more people should have setup's like this.
 
Phil2008, pleased you got the WD Gold installed, what do you think of the noise of the drive. I think my 2TB Gold drives are very quite indeed. In my same case I have some Samsung Eco Green 1.5TB 5400RPM drives and the WD Gold are quieter then these.

To be honest I cant hear the gold drive at all, all I can hear are my case fans even when I put them on low
 
To be honest I cant hear the gold drive at all, all I can hear are my case fans even when I put them on low

I have a Silverstone FT-02 and pritty much the same story here.

BTW I have the same board as you, however run a i7 8700 (non K). My VRM temps can get hot and that's with a small CPU under-volt, how do you find VRM temps?

Also I see your using a X-Fi XtreamMusic, I'm running an original Asus ST in the legacy PCI slot. I got this motherboard as it saved me changing sound cards.
 
BTW I have the same board as you, however run a i7 8700 (non K). My VRM temps can get hot and that's with a small CPU under-volt, how do you find VRM temps?

Also I see your using a X-Fi XtreamMusic, I'm running an original Asus ST in the legacy PCI slot. I got this motherboard as it saved me changing sound cards.

When I stress the cpu with burntest the vrm temps get into the low 70's but I haven't had anything crashing because of this, so Im not too wrorried about the temps.... I have been using the good old x-fi card for donkies years and its been great and still is great, but I fear that this board might be the last board that I'll be able to use it with.

Hey just noticed the new drive is clicking every 5 secs or so accept when it spins down.. people says this is normal but I dont think it is? It appears to run fine though with no errors?
Im disabling the optane on this drive and will do some testing on it tomorrow.
 
Last edited:
When I stress the cpu with burntest the vrm temps get into the low 70's but I haven't had anything crashing because of this, so Im not too wrorried about the temps.... I have been using the good old x-fi card for donkies years and its been great and still is great, but I fear that this board might be the last board that I'll be able to use it with.

Hey just noticed the new drive is clicking every 5 secs or so accept when it spins down.. people says this is normal but I dont think it is? It appears to run fine though with no errors?
Im disabling the optane on this drive and will do some testing on it tomorrow.

I'm actually hitting mid 75 on VRM temps, does your CPU cooler send air over the VRM's. I have an Arctic i30 and I don't think it sends air over VRM's well.

Re clicking on WD Gold, don't know anything about this, however can confirm my 2x 2TB Gold's don't do this.

Re your old X-Fi music xtream I had one of those cards, for the time they were the best cards, miles better than on-board, however when I upgraded to Asus ST there was a clear improvement in sound quality over the X-Fi. That said the music xtream was pritty good, so if your happy just keep running it. I think this will be last board with legacy PCI, so like you will have to replace my Asus ST at some point.
 
Im guessing you cant overclock your cpu with it being the non K version, so I am amazed your going over the 70c mark on your VRMs. All I have is my cpu cooler blowing the warn air from the cpu onto the VRMs and the rear case fan sucking the warm air out. Nothing fancy at all, Im even using the same cpu cooller from my i5 2500k cpu. Thats the main reason I haven't overclocked the cpu any higher then 4.9 as the high 60's is hot enough for the cpu.. When I stress my cpu I havent seen the VRMs go over 73c

I use both the X-fi the and onboard sound,, so I can listen to my music out of the x-fi and game using the onboard audio at the same time, so game and music audio then can be split on separate speakers

I have returned the gold drive back for a refund as the constant clicking was more annoying then anything else, so Im looking out for another bargin WD drive as all the new 4tb drives on major sites are over the £160 mark.
 
Last edited:
I have returned the gold drive back for a refund as the constant clicking was more annoying then anything else, so Im looking out for another bargin WD drive as all the new 4tb drives on major sites are over the £160 mark.

The dredded click of dead. You did right to send it back.

Why not get an WD elements and pull the hdd out of it. That's what I do and I have never had a problem. 4tb WD red drive for 65 was my last one
 
n air from the cpu onto the VRMs and the rear case fan sucking the warm air out. Nothing fancy at all, Im even using the same cpu cooller from my i5 2500k cpu. Thats the main reason I haven't overclocked the cpu any higher then 4.9 as the high 60's is hot enough for the cpu.. When I stress my cpu I havent seen the VRMs go over 73c

What Vcore is CPU-Z reporting with the CPU under load?
 
Back
Top Bottom