Intel Optane Memory for Clients: Where are the m.2 drives?

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i386

Well-Known Member
Mar 18, 2016
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Intel showed the optane 800 series @CES. They come in m.2 with a x2 pcie interface and capacities of 58gb or 118gb.
The ssds are "optimized for desktops", not sure if this means that they are "read optimized" like the other m.2 optane ssds.
 

MiniKnight

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Mar 30, 2012
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You only get 1-4 m.2 slots per system. Even 120GB is a waste when there are 280GB U.2 900p's.
 

mstone

Active Member
Mar 11, 2015
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if they're positioning them as cache devices then 120G is more than enough--most people, even people with TBs of spinning rust, don't have 120G of hot working set.
 

mstone

Active Member
Mar 11, 2015
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we do not want them positioned as cache drives. we want them to be positioned as boot disks and other disks.
Well, "we" isn't a profitable market segment. :)

Personally, I think that if intel can provide a solution that transparently front-ends spinning disks with a long-life cache in front that provides most of the benefits of SSD with the cost & capacity characteristics of traditional storage, they'll have a very attractive offering for the "prosumer" segment that is willing to pay a bit more for performance but doesn't really have the knowledge/inclination to manage a variety of storage pools. Yeah, you can already buy one disk to boot off, and another disk to store big things, but most people don't want to bother--if you give them the option to pay a few bucks to skip the hassle, a lot of people would be interested. It's not a compelling product for me, but I can see the benefits. It also lets them make some money and sell some useful products even with the apparently never-ending memory shortages.