# Intel Optane Memory Module 32 GB or Samsung 960 EVO Series - 250GB



## NTM2003 (Sep 1, 2017)

so I am one of them people who still boots from a HDD see system specs, is it better for me to got with a intel optane memory or the Samsung 960 evo. I'm not smart enough to be setting up a boot drive when I HDD is already my boot drive but how ever in my mobo software system when I first turn on my pc, there's a way select boot drive from HDD or M.2 drive is it really that simple to set up or should I just get the intel thing and avoid the set up of a new SSD. I am also thinking of upgrading my 2 tb hdd to a much bigger 10tb hdd, money is not a problem.

sorry for putting it under the wrong thread


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## Sasqui (Sep 1, 2017)

I just got me self a 850 Evo and it's the best upgrade I've ever gotten.  What was I thinking???  lol

Samsung has software to transfer over your boot drive, and it worked flawlessly for me.  The problem starts when the amount used on your HDD boot exceeds the SSD size.  It has features to reconcile that, but it doesn't look like fun.

And yes, your motherboard should let you boot from anything that's connected, legacy or UEFI


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## TheoneandonlyMrK (Sep 1, 2017)

Due to the Op having a 2Tb drive but also thinking of upgrading id suggest you do both at the same time , get an ssd and the 10tb  HDD plus some sata cables.
And a usb stick to reinstall your os from scratch , it's the most efficient option.


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## Vario (Sep 1, 2017)

http://www.pcworld.com/article/3191...-want-intels-futuristic-cache-in-your-pc.html  There is a comparison of the Optane vs 960 here.

I'd get the 960 evo.


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## NTM2003 (Sep 1, 2017)

the 960 evo seems to be a easier set up on a M.2 drive then a normal SSD. I'm guessing.


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## TheoneandonlyMrK (Sep 1, 2017)

NTM2003 said:


> the 960 evo seems to be a easier set up on a M.2 drive then a normal SSD. I'm guessing.


They should be similar in nature.
You will be very happy with either after a hdd tbh.
Even the cheaper sata 3 are exponentially Better than hdds in use.


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## NTM2003 (Sep 1, 2017)

yea with games going 4k now who knows I'm trying to get ready for forza 7 and all these xbox one/ windows 10 games
I prob go with the 960 evo M.2 no extra wires or anything to deal with.


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## Vario (Sep 2, 2017)

NTM2003 said:


> yea with games going 4k now who knows I'm trying to get ready for forza 7 and all these xbox one/ windows 10 games
> I prob go with the 960 evo M.2 no extra wires or anything to deal with.


Agreed.  Might as well do the 960.  Optane is more of a poor man's ssd.


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## bonehead123 (Sep 3, 2017)

go evo or go home.... you only get whatcha pay for....

'nuff said 

Been there, done that, neva, eva, neva, going back to slow-assed spinners....


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## NTM2003 (Sep 4, 2017)

Going to order the 960 evo next week hope it’s easy to set up


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## EarthDog (Sep 4, 2017)

I think we answered that in your memory thread....get a real drive instead of the magic smoke of optane.


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## NTM2003 (Sep 4, 2017)

Yea I heard it was just a quick change in the bios to get it to boot to the 960 evo so hopefully it’s that simple


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## RejZoR (Sep 13, 2017)

Go with Optane. People just don't have a clue how underappreciated this tech is, especially for people who still need massive capacities (and considering you're looking at 10TB HDD, you do). Just make sure to take the large one (32GB).

You can also take a fast normal SSD in 128GB capacity and pair it with your HDD on a software layer using PrimoCache. I was using such hybrid setup before I went full SSD and it was pretty damn good and because it's software, also super configurable if you like to fiddle with things. Plus, it can accelerate whatever you like, any drive, any partition even. Something Optane doesn't allow you to do. Optane is faster, but large capacity normal SSD means it'll cache more stuff, making more of everything behave like it's being used from SSD. 32GB is sufficient, but I feel like it's not quite enough for my taste.


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## EarthDog (Sep 13, 2017)

Hes getting a 960 evo... its not nearly as fast. Perhaps with a sata ssd i cpuld agree, but not against a 960 evo.


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## RejZoR (Sep 13, 2017)

Point of SSD's is not throughput in MB/s, it's access time. For that, literally any SSD will do.


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## dorsetknob (Sep 13, 2017)

Optane  Tied to the motherboards that Support it ( now and maybe the Future ?)
SSD Universally used and migratable to ANY FUTURE UPGRADE


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## aDigitalPhantom (Sep 13, 2017)

Maybe I understand it wrong, but it's my understanding that Optane is tied to 7th gen CPUs not specific motherboards.

I've been debating getting a 32GB Optane and a 512GB or 1TB 960 EVO NVME, or just getting the NVME SSD and using the SATA SSD windows is on now for a cache drive.


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## dorsetknob (Sep 13, 2017)

you need a 7th gen Intel CPU and a board that supports Optane>>>>>>>>>>>>( looking forward in time  " will Current Optane be Compatible with later Release's of CPU'S and Motherboards) guessing time ???

edit
keep these limitations in mind. If you want Optane, then you’ll need to choose one of Intel’s seventh-generation Core processors, and you’ll need to leave the Pentium and Celeron options out of your equations.


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## aDigitalPhantom (Sep 13, 2017)

dorsetknob said:


> you need a 7th gen Intel CPU and a board that supports Optane>>>>>>>>>>>>( looking forward in time  " will Current Optane be Compatible with later Release's of CPU'S and Motherboards) guessing time ???



I should be good if I chose to buy it then. I recently bought a new Motherboard, and CPU. I recently upgraded my PC (8/22/17) to use an ASUS TUF X299 Mark 1, Intel i7-7820x, and 32GB DDR4 3200Mhz. I know the motherboard has 2 M.2 connectors. According to ASUS, and Intel both support it. I also toyed with the idea of trying to use two NVME SSDs in raid, but I doubt it would be worth it.


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## EarthDog (Sep 14, 2017)

RejZoR said:


> Point of SSD's is not throughput in MB/s, it's access time. For that, literally any SSD will do.


my point.. thanks.


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## RealNeil (Sep 14, 2017)

Jon Coulter used three Optane disks in RAID to make one, ultra-quick system disk. It was scary fast.

https://www.tweaktown.com/reviews/8234/intel-optane-raid-worlds-fastest-system-disk/index.html


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## GLD (Sep 14, 2017)

I would say go with a MLC NVMe drive. I just built my Mom a AM4 APU rig with a Plextor M.2 drive of such. It's the fastest rig I have ever experienced!


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## Athlon2K15 (Sep 14, 2017)

If you can split OS and Data, Optane for the OS. If you want just one drive Samsung is the only option.


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## StrayKAT (Sep 14, 2017)

RejZoR said:


> Go with Optane. People just don't have a clue how underappreciated this tech is, especially for people who still need massive capacities (and considering you're looking at 10TB HDD, you do). Just make sure to take the large one (32GB).
> 
> You can also take a fast normal SSD in 128GB capacity and pair it with your HDD on a software layer using PrimoCache. I was using such hybrid setup before I went full SSD and it was pretty damn good and because it's software, also super configurable if you like to fiddle with things. Plus, it can accelerate whatever you like, any drive, any partition even. Something Optane doesn't allow you to do. Optane is faster, but large capacity normal SSD means it'll cache more stuff, making more of everything behave like it's being used from SSD. 32GB is sufficient, but I feel like it's not quite enough for my taste.



Would it be redundant to have both optane and an SSD... paired with an HDD as well? I use the latter two atm (nvme ssd, but still have an open slot for optane).


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## RealNeil (Sep 14, 2017)

I want a pair of 1TB Optane speed drives to run in RAID.  (now!)


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## Athlon2K15 (Sep 14, 2017)

Optane is really only good for holding your OS because of capacity. You cant Cache a NVMe SSD with Optane only HDDs,so its really perfect for users with high TB HDDs


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## RejZoR (Sep 14, 2017)

Just shows you people REALLY don't understand hybrid storage systems or caching. At all. I wasn't talking about caching an SSD with Optane, I was talking that he goes either with dedicated Optane or he creates a hybrid storage himself using SSD and software designed for this purpose. Advantage of it being a much larger but tiny bit slower cache in SSD case and in Optane's case, simple and dedicated setup for this purpose. No one was even or ever talking about caching SSD with Optane. Why on earth would you even do that?


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## R0H1T (Sep 14, 2017)

RejZoR said:


> Just shows you people REALLY don't understand hybrid storage systems or caching. At all. I wasn't talking about caching an SSD with Optane, I was talking that he goes either with dedicated Optane or he creates a hybrid storage himself using SSD and software designed for this purpose. Advantage of it being a much larger but tiny bit slower cache in SSD case and in Optane's case, simple and dedicated setup for this purpose. No one was even or ever talking about *caching SSD with Optane*. Why on earth would you even do that?


Just for lulz


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## RejZoR (Sep 14, 2017)

Iirc, Linus tried that, also for the lulz since there is really no point in doing that...


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## StrayKAT (Sep 14, 2017)

RejZoR said:


> Just shows you people REALLY don't understand hybrid storage systems or caching. At all. I wasn't talking about caching an SSD with Optane, I was talking that he goes either with dedicated Optane or he creates a hybrid storage himself using SSD and software designed for this purpose. Advantage of it being a much larger but tiny bit slower cache in SSD case and in Optane's case, simple and dedicated setup for this purpose. No one was even or ever talking about caching SSD with Optane. Why on earth would you even do that?



I sure as hell don't understand it. lol. Guilty.

I never heard of primocache though. Thanks for mentioning it earlier.


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## RejZoR (Sep 14, 2017)

It used to be RAM caching tool, but they now also support SSD caching. It's cheap, has really good support and works really well. I just moved to full SSD later on, otherwise I'd still be using that as it really sped up things. It quite frankly didn't feel much different than full SSD does now. I was just annoyed by the HDD noise...


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## NTM2003 (Sep 16, 2017)

Update: I asked for the 960 pro m.2 for Xmas I know it’s a little far off but least I don’t have to pay for it. 512gb I’m sure that’s plenty of space for a boot drive. Will ssd also let your games play smoother? And Inatall windows updates faster?


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## EarthDog (Sep 17, 2017)

Good choice. 

Lol, it wont play games smoother. It has NOTHING to due with fps. Many games will load a bit faster though.

As far as windows installs... a bit faster, sure.


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## NTM2003 (Sep 17, 2017)

Yea this might be a little off topic but the only game I have a big problem with is forza horizon 3 tons of glitches and crashes a lot I tried everything reinstalling and disk clean up and optimized I thought a ssd will make it run smoother or something


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