Optane Memory as Music Storage or/versus USB Flash Drive

[sandston]

I just bought  an intel NUC to run Roon core. I added a 256 GB M.2 Transcend SSD for the OS drive. The computer came with a 32 GB Optane drive that I had to remove to add the SSD. I own a very small amount of music and was looking to perhaps put the music on a thumb drive. Something with super fast read speeds like the Corsair Flash Voyager GTX 128GB USB 3.1 Premium Flash Drive.

 

https://www.amazon.com/Corsair-Flash-Voyager-128GB-Premium/dp/B079NVJPKV/ref=sr_1_5?dchild=1&keywords=fastest+usb+2+flash+drive&qid=1592064906&s=electronics&sr=1-5

 

Then I ran across these USB 3.1 Gen 2 to M.2 NGFF SATA SSD Enclosure Adapter, External SATA Based M.2 Solid State Hard Drive Enclosure Reader for M.2 and thought perhaps I could use the Optane card for music storage in one of these storage cases. The info says these are compatible with intel optane memory. I really dont know what this can is used for aside from cache.

 

https://www.amazon.com/NVMe-PCIe-Gen2-Enclosure-PCI/dp/B07MLJ7FRD/ref=sr_1_19?dchild=1&keywords=optane%2Bmemory%2Bto%2Busb%2Badapter&qid=1592090580&s=electronics&sr=1-19&th=1

 

Why not as I already own it. Can Optane memory be used in this manner? Any thoughts on which option would give better sound quality. Neither is a particularly expensive solution but I'm curious if one would stand excel for sound quality. Or is there a better sounding solution like using the micro SD reader. Thanks in advanced to anyone who want to chime in.

[Account Closed]

I don't think it will work. Optane requires support at the BIOS level.

[bodiebill]

In my experience optane just works as storage media, even if the computer is not optane ready in the "Optane™ memory smart technology" sense.

[davide256]

On 6/13/2020 at 8:08 PM, sandston said:

I just bought  an intel NUC to run Roon core. I added a 256 GB M.2 Transcend SSD for the OS drive. The computer came with a 32 GB Optane drive that I had to remove to add the SSD. I own a very small amount of music and was looking to perhaps put the music on a thumb drive. Something with super fast read speeds like the Corsair Flash Voyager GTX 128GB USB 3.1 Premium Flash Drive.

 

https://www.amazon.com/Corsair-Flash-Voyager-128GB-Premium/dp/B079NVJPKV/ref=sr_1_5?dchild=1&keywords=fastest+usb+2+flash+drive&qid=1592064906&s=electronics&sr=1-5

 

Then I ran across these USB 3.1 Gen 2 to M.2 NGFF SATA SSD Enclosure Adapter, External SATA Based M.2 Solid State Hard Drive Enclosure Reader for M.2 and thought perhaps I could use the Optane card for music storage in one of these storage cases. The info says these are compatible with intel optane memory. I really dont know what this can is used for aside from cache.

 

https://www.amazon.com/NVMe-PCIe-Gen2-Enclosure-PCI/dp/B07MLJ7FRD/ref=sr_1_19?dchild=1&keywords=optane%2Bmemory%2Bto%2Busb%2Badapter&qid=1592090580&s=electronics&sr=1-19&th=1

 

Why not as I already own it. Can Optane memory be used in this manner? Any thoughts on which option would give better sound quality. Neither is a particularly expensive solution but I'm curious if one would stand excel for sound quality. Or is there a better sounding solution like using the micro SD reader. Thanks in advanced to anyone who want to chime in.

Help me to understand. Why did you remove the better Optane drive and replace it with an SSD for OS? Unless you are running Windows, your Roon OS should fit fine

on a 32gb Optane drive used as NUC OS drive. That's how I run my Euphony installation, with all music stored on NAS. At one point I used a Lexar tower for storage

with 2x512 GB SDXC USB3 attached, but I prefer the NAS for midrange tone color correctness.

[sandston]

I thought I read somewhere that Roon Rock was not able to run on an Optane drive or was not supported. You appear to be suggesting that I migrate the Rock software to the Optane Drive? I was actually considering loading Euphony onto the Optane drive to compare as it seems the AS community appears to agree that Euphony sounds a bit better than ROCK. Davide256 Would you agree?

[davide256]

8 hours ago, sandston said:

I thought I read somewhere that Roon Rock was not able to run on an Optane drive or was not supported. You appear to be suggesting that I migrate the Rock software to the Optane Drive? I was actually considering loading Euphony onto the Optane drive to compare as it seems the AS community appears to agree that Euphony sounds a bit better than ROCK. Davide256 Would you agree?

Haven't tried Rock but Ive seen similar comments  liking Euphony better. I believe you can also do an Optane  install with Audio-linux to run Roon core, its cheaper but more fiddly

to setup and maintain

Either way you could have a "diskless" system with OS on optane memory drive and music on USB3 attached SDXC/SSD  drives.