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Intel-Optane-800P-Feature

Today, Intel is launching its start Optane SSDs for the mainstream consumer market after introducing higher-end solutions over the past few years. It's been nigh three years since Intel and Micron first announced 3D XPoint (pronounced "cross point") memory, and the rollout to customers hasn't fix the earth 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 utilise in Kaby Lake and Java Lake systems with a 200-series (Kaby) or 300-series (Coffee) motherboard, the server-oriented P4800X 750GB card, and the high-stop 280GB and 480GB Optane SSD 900P series. Those drives are now joined by the 800P family, an Thou.two Optane solution intended to extend the bulldoze's strengths into lower price points and form factors.

Optane-Specs

Those of you who have kept rails of Optane since Intel first appear the applied science are likely aware that it brings some specific capabilities to the table. First, it's college endurance than conventional NAND based SSDs (See on Amazon), with much higher ratings as far every bit estimated drive writes per day. Second, it offers advantages in responsiveness (latency), responsiveness nether load (consistency), and throughput at low queue depths. The new 800P series doesn't offering a full PCIe iii.0 x4 connexion via M.ii, nonetheless — each bulldoze merely uses an x2 connection, which means yous can theoretically RAID them together on many motherboards, assuming you have more than one M.2 slot.

For those of y'all wondering what Optane is, specifically, well, y'all're going to have to keep waiting. Intel withal isn't talking virtually the specifics of the technology. Honestly, nosotros're increasingly of the stance that 3D XPoint, aka Optane, is simply phase modify memory with a specific storage controller and some boosted improvements from Micron to scale to higher densities.

The Register compiled a list of similarities between PCM and 3D XPoint based on Intel's limited remarks as of 2016, but the similarities are enormous. If Optane isn't PCM, it's very closely related to it, and even relies on some of the same materials to part. One theory is Intel and Micron may take modified how PCM is typically switched, thereby giving them some breathing room to call it a new retentiveness technology while still relying on many of the same principles.

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

Overall performance figures from Intel and other websites suggest that Optane is a game-changer in certain areas. It'southward random read/write operation and overall drive latency are head-and-shoulders to a higher place any 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 Written report, Hot Hardware, and our sister site PCMag back up these claims.

Intel-Optane-Perf

But this also makes sense: The structure of NAND makes it splendid for sequential transfers, simply weaker in other ways, and Optane is specifically designed to take advantage of those differences. It also has advantages in device longevity, endurance, and steady-country performance — dissimilar NAND, Optane drives don't suffer operation degradation over time.

The Cost Conundrum

The new drives Intel is launching today are a 58GB bulldoze for $129 and 118GB for $199. That works out to a per-GB charge of $2.22 and $i.65, respectively, which is significantly college than nosotros would've expected. Intel's 900P series is $1.31 and $1.25 per GB for 280GB and 480GB drives. Its accelerator cache drive with 32GB of Optane is too cheaper than the 58GB drive in per-GB terms, at $i.87 per GB rather than the $2.22 on the 58GB drive.

This pricing makes it more difficult to recommend Optane than nosotros similar. SSD prices are simply amend; y'all can buy a 512GB M.ii PCI-Express SSD for the same price as a 118GB Optane drive.

There's also the fact that Intel's capacities simply aren't all that compelling. Fifty-fifty if the 58GB SSD was less expensive than a conventional SSD, 58GB simply isn't enough storage for a modernistic system and 118GB isn't much improve. Intel points out that you tin RAID two Optane 118GB drives together via M.2 sockets, but 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'south available in either a two.5-inch drive ($369) or a PCIe expansion bill of fare ($400). That makes it a amend deal both in terms of toll per GB and total chapters.

The flip side to this assay, however, is that SSDs suffered from many of these weaknesses when they showtime shipped. We'll have to see if Optane follows a similar trajectory, simply there'south good historical precedent for expensive storage solutions that better on previous methods simply aren't priced all that well. In the long run, Optane could evolve into the non-volatile storage medium of selection. For at present, it looks like a targeted solution that could entreatment to buyers who don't demand much capacity, but do need guaranteed reliability and steady performance.

Now read: How do SSDs piece of work? and PCMag's Best Thousand.2 Solid-State Drives of 2018