SAMSUNG 970 EVO M.2 2280 250GB PCIe vs. Intel Optane M.2 2280 16GB PCIe NVMe 3.0 x2 Memory Module

[KK]

I just bought a microcenter PC that came with a Intel Optane module slotted in the M.2 slot. Does this Optane module actually do anything useful, or would it be beneficial to take that out and put in one of those samsung NVMe SSD modules in its place? The PC has a 250GB Sata SSD in addition to a 1TB 7200 drive.

 

[UsandThem]

Yes, it should be worthwhile to leave it in. Anandtech had a review/article about it, and it's worth a read if you want to know what it does.

https://www.anandtech.com/show/1274...ry-m10-64gb-review-optane-caching-refreshed/9

 

[IntelUser2000]

@KK : The Optane modules can't cache NVMe drives. It can be cached with SATA SSDs and platter HDDs. If it has more than one NVMe slot, you can also use Optane Memory to cache secondary drives and use the NVMe SSD as the main.

The default configuration of the PC likely uses the 250GB SATA SSD as the main and use Optane Memory to cache the 1TB drive as a secondary.

 

[KK]

Yeah, we just booted it up today and it is cacheing the 1TB drive. Now since the operating system is on the 250 sata ssd, we won't see any performance with anything we may install on the ssd, only to what we may install on the 1TB drive. Looking at the article above I couldn't really tell if the speed I would see coming off the 1TB with the optane would be better than what I would see if I took that optane out and put a NVMe drive in it's place and loaded up the operating system on it. The motherboard only has one M.2 slot btw.