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Intel-Optane-800P-Feature

Today, Intel is launching its first Optane SSDs for the mainstream consumer market later introducing higher-end solutions over the past few years. It'due south been nearly 3 years since Intel and Micron first announced 3D XPoint (pronounced "cantankerous indicate") memory, and the rollout to customers hasn't ready the world on fire, with the first Optane products aircraft out within the past 12 months.

Intel now has some small Optane cache drives (16GB and 32GB) for use in Kaby Lake and Coffee Lake systems with a 200-series (Kaby) or 300-serial (Coffee) motherboard, the server-oriented P4800X 750GB card, and the high-end 280GB and 480GB Optane SSD 900P series. Those drives are at present joined by the 800P family, an M.2 Optane solution intended to extend the bulldoze's strengths into lower price points and form factors.

Optane-Specs

Those of you lot who have kept track of Optane since Intel first appear the technology are probable enlightened that it brings some specific capabilities to the table. Beginning, it'south higher endurance than conventional NAND based SSDs (See on Amazon), with much higher ratings as far as estimated drive writes per 24-hour interval. Second, it offers advantages in responsiveness (latency), responsiveness under load (consistency), and throughput at low queue depths. The new 800P series doesn't offer a full PCIe 3.0 x4 connexion via One thousand.two, however — each bulldoze only uses an x2 connectedness, which means you can theoretically RAID them together on many motherboards, bold you have more than one M.2 slot.

For those of you wondering what Optane is, specifically, well, y'all're going to have to keep waiting. Intel even so isn't talking about the specifics of the technology. Honestly, we're increasingly of the opinion that 3D XPoint, aka Optane, is merely phase alter memory with a specific storage controller and some additional improvements from Micron to scale to higher densities.

The Register compiled a list of similarities between PCM and 3D XPoint based on Intel'south limited remarks as of 2022, but the similarities are enormous. If Optane isn't PCM, it's very closely related to information technology, and even relies on some of the same materials to role. 1 theory is Intel and Micron may take modified how PCM is typically switched, thereby giving them some breathing room to call it a new memory technology while still relying on many of the same principles.

But questions of how 3D XPoint memory works are secondary to how it performs, so let'due south shift our focus to that question.

Overall performance figures from Intel and other websites suggest that Optane is a game-changer in sure areas. It'south random read/write functioning and overall drive latency are caput-and-shoulders higher up whatsoever SSD in some cases. While we're all the same performing our ain analysis, Intel's benchmark numbers and the reported stats from websites like Tech Report, Hot Hardware, and our sister site PCMag dorsum up these claims.

Intel-Optane-Perf

Only this also makes sense: The structure of NAND makes information technology excellent for sequential transfers, but weaker in other ways, and Optane is specifically designed to take advantage of those differences. It as well has advantages in device longevity, endurance, and steady-country operation — different NAND, Optane drives don't suffer performance deposition over time.

The Price Conundrum

The new drives Intel is launching today are a 58GB drive for $129 and 118GB for $199. That works out to a per-GB accuse of $2.22 and $1.65, respectively, which is significantly higher than we would've expected. Intel's 900P series is $1.31 and $1.25 per GB for 280GB and 480GB drives. Its accelerator enshroud bulldoze with 32GB of Optane is likewise cheaper than the 58GB bulldoze in per-GB terms, at $ane.87 per GB rather than the $2.22 on the 58GB bulldoze.

This pricing makes information technology more than difficult to recommend Optane than nosotros similar. SSD prices are only better; yous can buy a 512GB Thousand.2 PCI-Express SSD for the same price as a 118GB Optane drive.

At that place's likewise the fact that Intel's capacities but aren't all that compelling. Even if the 58GB SSD was less expensive than a conventional SSD, 58GB just isn't enough storage for a modern system and 118GB isn't much improve. Intel points out that you can RAID two Optane 118GB drives together via M.two sockets, simply that comes out to 2x118GB at $200 each, or $400 for 236GB of storage. The Optane 900P is a unmarried PCIe drive with an x4 PCIe interface that's available in either a 2.5-inch bulldoze ($369) or a PCIe expansion card ($400). That makes it a ameliorate deal both in terms of price per GB and total capacity.

The flip side to this assay, however, is that SSDs suffered from many of these weaknesses when they first shipped. Nosotros'll accept to see if Optane follows a similar trajectory, simply in that location'southward proficient historical precedent for expensive storage solutions that improve on previous methods only aren't priced all that well. In the long run, Optane could evolve into the not-volatile storage medium of selection. For at present, information technology looks similar a targeted solution that could entreatment to buyers who don't demand much chapters, simply do need guaranteed reliability and steady performance.

At present read: How practice SSDs work? and PCMag's Best M.2 Solid-Country Drives of 2022