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Intel Launches its Blazing-Fast Optane SSD 900P SSD

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Chino

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Intel today announced the launch of the Intel Optane SSD 900P Series, the first SSD for desktop PC and workstation users built on Intel Optane technology. Intel, in collaboration with Roberts Space Industries, announced the new SSD at CitizenCon, a Star Citizen community gathering in Frankfurt, Germany.

The Intel Optane SSD 900P Series delivers incredibly low latency and best-in-class random read and write performance at low queue depths - up to four times faster than competitive NAND-based SSDs - opening incredible new possibilities. With the new SSDs, users will unlock more potential from their platform. The Intel Optane SSD 900P Series is ideal for the most demanding storage workloads, including 3D rendering, complex simulations, fast game load times and more. Up to 22 times more endurance than other drives also gives the heaviest users peace of mind.


"The Intel Optane SSD 900P Series brings the workstation-class performance and industry-leading endurance of Intel Optane technology to a client SSD for the first time, and we know end users will find exciting ways to take advantage of the drive to do great things," said Bill Leszinske, Intel vice president, Non-Volatile Memory Solutions Group, and director of strategic planning, marketing and business development. "We are eager to see the possibilities unlocked by software developers, like Roberts Space Industries with Star Citizen, and the SSD to offer users new ways to use larger data sets and more complex workloads to do more."

During the event, Intel demonstrated the unique universe of Star Citizen on Intel Core i9 processor gaming systems equipped with the Intel Optane SSD 900P Series. The two companies also announced that an exclusive in-game ship, the Sabre Raven, will come with all Intel Optane SSD 900P Series purchases for a limited time.

"The Intel Optane SSD 900P Series is amazingly fast, easily the fastest drive I have ever used," said Chris Roberts, chairman and CEO at Cloud Imperium Games and Roberts Space Industries. "Our Star Engine developers have been working on technology to improve loading times using new techniques developed for Star Citizen and optimized for the Intel Optane SSD 900P Series, which is the fastest SSD we've tested. We continue to enhance Star Citizen so the performance benefits with Intel Optane drives will continue to grow, alongside Star Citizen, into the future."

CitizenCon will be livestreamed from Frankfurt starting at 6:00 a.m. PDT Oct. 27.

The Intel Optane SSD 900P Series is available through local online retail outlets worldwide, starting Oct. 27. For more details on Star Citizen and the Sabre Raven ship, visit Roberts Space Industries. An Intel white paper on evaluating the SSD is available. For more information on the Intel Optane SSD 900P Series and Intel Optane technology, visit Intel's solid state drives page.

View at TechPowerUp Main Site
 
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So... still priceless?

Also, links to Intel's page return 404.

Edit: Nevermind, it's about $500 for the 480GB drive. With stellar random reads at low queue depths and horrible power draw even at idle.
 
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So will this also require Z270/Z370 platform like the 16GB and 32GB Optane cache drives or will this work in any system with a PCI-E x4 or wider slot?

Im hoping it works on any system. Here's hoping benchmarks soon. The most impressive aspect is that Optane retains most of it's performance even at low queue depths unlike high end NAND SSD-s that require often unrealistic 32 or 64 QD to reach advertised speeds (that's why 960 PRO is hardly faster in day to day use compared to 850 PRO SATA SSD).
 
Tomorrow said:
So will this also require Z270/Z370 platform like the 16GB and 32GB Optane cache drives or will this work in any system with a PCI-E x4 or wider slot?

Im hoping it works on any system. Here's hoping benchmarks soon. The most impressive aspect is that Optane retains most of it's performance even at low queue depths unlike high end NAND SSD-s that require often unrealistic 32 or 64 QD to reach advertised speeds (that's why 960 PRO is hardly faster in day to day use compared to 850 PRO SATA SSD).
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Anandtech has benchmarks already ;)
 
Tomorrow said:
So will this also require Z270/Z370 platform like the 16GB and 32GB Optane cache drives or will this work in any system with a PCI-E x4 or wider slot?

Im hoping it works on any system. Here's hoping benchmarks soon. The most impressive aspect is that Optane retains most of it's performance even at low queue depths unlike high end NAND SSD-s that require often unrealistic 32 or 64 QD to reach advertised speeds (that's why 960 PRO is hardly faster in day to day use compared to 850 PRO SATA SSD).
Click to expand...

I'm going to take a wild guess and say it probably will work. It just seems to be an SSD. The smaller Optanes required new BIOS cache options for RST. This doesn't necessarily have anything to do with that.
 
Wait i just noticed Newegg lists 900P as PCI-E 4.0. Surely this can't be the new PCI-E 4.0 spec that was just released that allows for up to 64GB/s?
I think they mean PCI-E x4

Odd that PCI-E and 2,5" form factor have the same price. 2,5" should be cheaper.
 
Tomorrow said:
Wait i just noticed Newegg lists 900P as PCI-E 4.0. Surely this can't be the new PCI-E 4.0 spec that was just released that allows for up to 64GB/s?
I think they mean PCI-E x4

Odd that PCI-E and 2,5" form factor have the same price. 2,5" should be cheaper.
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Only the PCB is different, that won't influence the price much.
 
Tomorrow said:
So will this also require Z270/Z370 platform like the 16GB and 32GB Optane cache drives or will this work in any system with a PCI-E x4 or wider slot?

Im hoping it works on any system. Here's hoping benchmarks soon. The most impressive aspect is that Optane retains most of it's performance even at low queue depths unlike high end NAND SSD-s that require often unrealistic 32 or 64 QD to reach advertised speeds (that's why 960 PRO is hardly faster in day to day use compared to 850 PRO SATA SSD).
Click to expand...


You can use Optane like ANY other drive, on ANY system, ANY generation, ANY CPU/MOBO that supports NVMe protocol, including the M.2 variants.


I'm hoping new M.2 versions come out also that are x4 instead of x2! Then do this:

170927-165526.jpg
 
Tomorrow said:
Wait i just noticed Newegg lists 900P as PCI-E 4.0. Surely this can't be the new PCI-E 4.0 spec that was just released that allows for up to 64GB/s?
I think they mean PCI-E x4

Odd that PCI-E and 2,5" form factor have the same price. 2,5" should be cheaper.
Click to expand...
2.5" FF drive actually uses a U.2 connector and not Sata hence the same price as PCI-E drive.
 
CheapMeat said:
You can use Optane like ANY other drive, on ANY system, ANY generation, ANY CPU/MOBO that supports NVMe protocol.
Click to expand...

My computer didn't even recognize it as even a typical drive without adjusting RST settings in the Bios.. let alone actually enable it for cache (which you need the RST Windows app for).

I could have missed something though.
 
ServeTheHome did a bunch of tests on it and that's what they showed, even used it on Linux & Windows Server. I would personally never bother with the "special sauce" HDD cache they marketed for. You can do cache other ways. But aside from that, hell, Optane looks amazing for an OS, games & programs drive. I'd leave the V-NAND MLC/TLC NVMe for other duties like scratch drive for video editing or transfer depot (torrents, downloads, temp). For bulk storage either stick with HDDs or wait for upcoming QLC SATA NAND. I'm not the norm though. Windows Server 2016 has a tiered auto hierarchy with cache, performance & capacity. So going to have a mixed workstation.
 
CheapMeat said:
ServeTheHome did a bunch of tests on it and that's what they showed, even used it on Linux & Windows Server. I would personally never bother with the "special sauce" HDD cache they marketed for. You can do cache other ways. But aside from that, hell, Optane looks amazing for an OS, games & programs drive. I'd leave the V-NAND MLC/TLC NVMe for other duties like scratch drive for video editing or transfer depot (torrents, downloads, temp).
Click to expand...

I use it because I still need a lot of (HDD) space. Screw SSD sizes (or the prices for 1+ TB). But yeah, not for everyone. I tolerate a lot.. I just like faster boots and common app launches. In that sense, it feels like an SSD in limited situations.
 
StrayKAT said:
I use it because I still need a lot of (HDD) space. Screw SSD sizes (or the prices for 1+ TB). But yeah, not for everyone. I tolerate a lot.. I just like faster boots and common app launches. In that sense, it feels like an SSD in limited situations.
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Unfortunately Intel limited Optance cache drives in several ways wich limited it's usability for me. I would have love to have used it to accelerate data HDD.
1st they limited it to Z270. Well this i can sort of understand regarding RST and caching.
2nd they limited to caching only SATA drives.
3rd they limited it to caching only primary OS drive and not data drives.

Optane 900P should by the looks of it avoid all those problems. Granted it's not a cache but still. Also for me 280GB is enogh for OS and apps (i have games, data and video on all separate SSD-s with video on HDD due to size requirements). Currently using Samsung 850 PRO 128GB and there's constantly about ~60GB free on it (119GB usable after NTFS formatting).
 
Tomorrow said:
Unfortunately Intel limited Optance cache drives in several ways wich limited it's usability for me. I would have love to have used it to accelerate data HDD.
1st they limited it to Z270. Well this i can sort of understand regarding RST and caching.
2nd they limited to caching only SATA drives.
3rd they limited it to caching only primary OS drive and not data drives.

Optane 900P should by the looks of it avoid all those problems. Granted it's not a cache but still. Also for me 280GB is enogh for OS and apps (i have games, data and video on all separate SSD-s with video on HDD due to size requirements). Currently using Samsung 850 PRO 128GB and there's constantly about ~60GB free on it (119GB usable after NTFS formatting).
Click to expand...

I know what you mean. I've bitten the bullet a bit on this, but wouldn't expect others to. That 3rd point of yours especially sucks. Even while I use Optane, I would have preferred a main SSD drive.. and just use Optane for a games/media HDD.
 
Well, apparently it runs sooo friggin fast that they didnt have time to type the actual specs in the press release, just a bunch of hogwash about how fast it supposedly is......

Yea yea I know I can find the specs elsewhere, but geez, at least give us something to think about before we start thinking about it...
 
I wonder why Micron hasn't released any similar products. Or have they? Would be nice to see a cheaper Crucial version.
 
That would be waste of 80 euro if its only works for 10 years, lets hope this goes longer.
 
StrayKAT said:
I wonder why Micron hasn't released any similar products. Or have they? Would be nice to see a cheaper Crucial version.
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Probably because nobody knows what technology these use. We know it's "XPoint" and little else.
 
bug said:
Probably because nobody knows what technology these use. We know it's "XPoint" and little else.
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Xpoint was Co-Developed between Intel and Micron. Im 101% sure Micron will bring out their Xpoint basaed products at some point. Tho it won't be named Optane because that's Intel's trademark. However the underlaying technology is the same: Xpoint.
 
That's all I meant. Just said Optane to simplify the question.

It's taken long for even Intel to come out with products themselves.. but I would have thought Micron would be here too.
 
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Wow! The random performance of this drive at low queue depths is insane!

Samsung will have to respond fast with their Z-NAND solution and I'll be eager to see how it compares.
 
Tomorrow said:
Xpoint was Co-Developed between Intel and Micron. Im 101% sure Micron will bring out their Xpoint basaed products at some point. Tho it won't be named Optane because that's Intel's trademark. However the underlaying technology is the same: Xpoint.
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Micron's in called QuantX, but you're not seriously expecting for the inventors of the technology to compete with each other on price when no one else can build this. They probably didn't recoup the costs of retooling their fabs yet. And apparently these things are actually hard to make to the point the products we're seeing today are not even close to what this memory is supposed to be able to do (i.e. they glued together whatever they could before resolving all issues, just to get a product out the gates).
 
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