Optane SSD as Boot drive - SQ Nirvana?

[botrytis]

Optane SSDs are not being produced any more by Intel. So, if you want one, buy now.

[Johnseye]

1 hour ago, botrytis said:

Optane SSDs are not being produced any more by Intel. So, if you want one, buy now.

 

What?  No more, as in forever?  Why?

[Johnseye]

Ok, this is for the consumer market only.

 

[Crom]

I picked up a 16MB optane drive to experiment with but I've had no joy getting it to work in a USB enclosure (it's much easier for me to plug the enclosure into a laptop and install an image from a laptop rather than install to PC and then install OS etc via USB). It could easily be because I'm using a Mac to plug the USB drive into or perhaps the Mac ports aren't able to supply enough current. However, the ports and the enclosures work perfectly with all sorts of other m2/nvme cards I've stuck in them.

 

The optane card itself works perfectly in the PC...

 

Anyway, I wondered whether I have bought the wrong Optane drive or whether anyone can recommend a USB-C enclosure that might work. 

This is the optane drive I've bought:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B06XSMTN31

 

The enclosures I've tried so far are:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B06XSMTN31
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07NNL8VGB
 

Thanks for any help you might offer!

Crom

[botrytis]

On 1/18/2021 at 1:19 PM, Johnseye said:

Ok, this is for the consumer market only.

 

But the point is, we are buying as consumers and the commercial optanes go to servers, etc. Price will go up.

[Mike Rubin]

I glanced through this lengthy thread, and have posted inquiries elsewhere about this, but it is worth a double check here, as you all have used Optane.

 

I have a NUC 10i7 that presently has a NVMe Samsung 970 EVO Pro devoted to HQPlayer Embedded OS.  I just flash that OS to the SSD as though the SSD were the USB stick that Signalyst recommends for the OS.

 

I want to be able to boot off an Intel NVMe Optane product rather than use it to cache a SATA drive as Intel apparently prefers for the NUC.  I can’t be certain from this thread whether the now discontinued M10 (which Intel never called an SSD, to my knowledge) and the 800p (which Intel did call an SSD) both can be used as a boot drive or whether only the latter can.

 

Neither of these devices are still in production, but both can be purchased from Chinese vendors on eBay.  Can I get by with the cheaper M10 as a boot drive or is it just usable as a memory stick, in which case the 800p is the way to go?

 

 I don’t need caching or other magic features. I just want to boot a Linux-based OS.

[stefano_mbp]

@Mike Rubin

hi Mike, as far as I can understand Optane is not supported on Linux OS

https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/articles/000056875/memory-and-storage/intel-optane-memory.html

[Mike Rubin]

59 minutes ago, stefano_mbp said:

@Mike Rubin

hi Mike, as far as I can understand Optane is not supported on Linux OS

https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/articles/000056875/memory-and-storage/intel-optane-memory.html

Thanks, Stefano. I understood that to be the case for drive caching and SATA drive acceleration, as that usage requires Windows drivers and the Intel Rapid Storage Technology software, but that isn’t my intended use.  
 

I have been told that it is possible to flash Optane SSD’s (like the 800p) with any OS.  What I was trying to figure out is whether I could get to the same place with the M10, which is not marketed as an SSD but might be usable as one.

 

This Intel web publication says that Linux can sometimes be installed on an 800p: https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/articles/000026415/memory-and-storage/client-ssds.html

 

If I am wrong about that, I can live in peace with my existing NVMe SSD.  😁

[brother love]

@Mike Rubin,

 

I currently boot 11gb minimal Ubuntu 20.04 OS w/ HQPlayer Desktop from a 16gb Intel Optane M.2 2280 PCIe SSD.

[lmitche]

4 hours ago, Mike Rubin said:

Thanks, Stefano. I understood that to be the case for drive caching and SATA drive acceleration, as that usage requires Windows drivers and the Intel Rapid Storage Technology software, but that isn’t my intended use.  
 

I have been told that it is possible to flash Optane SSD’s (like the 800p) with any OS.  What I was trying to figure out is whether I could get to the same place with the M10, which is not marketed as an SSD but might be usable as one.

 

This Intel web publication says that Linux can sometimes be installed on an 800p: https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/articles/000026415/memory-and-storage/client-ssds.html

 

If I am wrong about that, I can live in peace with my existing NVMe SSD.  😁

MIke,

 

Yes, the Optane runs perfectly as a boot drive with Linux just like any SSD.

[brother love]

FWIW, I got a new 16gb Optane from this company Jan 2021 on Amazon w/ free shpg (but no longer available there):

 

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Intel-MEMPEK1W016GA-16GB-M-2-80mm-PCIe-3-0-20nm-3D-Xpoint-Optane-Memory-NEW-/383645931277

 

 

[Mike Rubin]

Thanks, gents, for confirming that an Optane stick not marketed as an SSD can be used as one.  I just ordered a 32 gb M10 from an eBay seller in Los Angeles for about $45 delivered.  If it works at all, it frees up my much larger Samsung drive for more productive use elsewhere.  If it doesn't work as a boot drive, I have a spare SATA drive that might become a boot drive, with the M10 reverting to accelerator form.

 

I remain confused, though, about the difference between the Optane cards that can be used as SSD's but that Intel did not market as such, like the MEMPEK1W016GA and the M10, on the one hand, and, on the other, the cards marketed specifically as SSD's, like the 800p.  Is it just the difference in usable capacity and the inability of the SSD-specific cards to cache and accelerate SATA cards?

[lmitche]

3 hours ago, Mike Rubin said:

 Is it just the difference in usable capacity and the inability of the SSD-specific cards to cache and accelerate SATA cards?

 My music is stored on another SSD, so there has never been a need to use the Optane caching capability. I expect the only difference is size.

[seeteeyou]

Optane Raid 0 Array終於成功了
https://pctantao.com/297264039.html

 

Optane Raid0 作磁盤緩盤
https://www.chiphell.com/thread-2299063-1-1.html

 

Intel Quad RAID-0 Optane Memory 32GB Bootable Without VROC Key!
https://pcper.com/2017/10/intel-quad-raid-0-optane-memory-32gb-bootable-without-vroc-key/

 

Intel VROC Tested! - X299 VROC vs. Z270 RST, Quad Optane vs. Quad 960 PRO
https://pcper.com/2017/10/intel-vroc-tested-x299-vroc-vs-z270-rst-quad-optane-vs-quad-960-pro/

 

Here’s how 4x Intel Optane 905P SSD in RAID 0 performs with MSI XPANDER-AERO
https://thetechrevolutionist.com/2018/06/heres-how-4x-intel-optane-905p-ssd-in-raid-0-performs-with-msi-xpander-aero.html

 

My testing of optane memory 32 GB in RAID 0.

https://forums.tomshardware.com/threads/my-testing-of-optane-memory-32-gb-in-raid-0.3424282/#post-20853613

Quote

Now the question, what about speed & latency? Did it improve? The answer is a whole hearted yes. Both latency & speed though not everything improved. High que depth tests did not improve but neither did they lose much either. Latency & que depth one transfers improved dramatically as did sequential writes, things that are important to client computer usage. The thing that took a very slight hit was higher que depth transfers which are for the most part only applicable to servers & other proffessional uses, not client work loads.

 

Just wondering if there were anyone who tried it out yet?