Intel Discontinues All Consumer Optane-Only SSD Products

[newtekie1]

I never like the "Optane as a consumer HDD cache" method. Intel-platform-only and by the time you added the cost of the Optane stick and HDD together, you could have just bought a bigger, better SSD that performed better than the Optane-accelerated HDD instead.

SSD caching of a HDD is definitely great to have. The cost of the Optane stick and HDD definitely is a lot cheaper than just a big SSD. I mean, show me an 8TB SSD that I can get for the same price as an 8TB HDD+Optane. Even at 2TB the HDD+Optane becomes cheaper.

My problem with Optane Caching is that it is really just a rebranding of their Rapid Storage technology that let you use any SSD as a cache for HDDs. Heck, you could just create a small partition on the OS SSD and use that partition as a cache for the HDD. It was really nice. I wish they would have continue to develop that instead of trying to use it as a tool to sell Optane SSD.

But now with programse like PrimoCache, using Intel's tech is pointless if you are looking for an SSD cache for your HDD.

 

[Makaveli]

If you need enterprise-class IOPS then Optane isn't going away, they're just not selling it to consumers anymore, and I think that is the right decision.

Agreed.

These drives were always prosumer / enterprise so i'm not surprised they are killing it on the consumer end. And yes there are some workloads where it will destroy NAND based flash drives, however most of those workloads are not in the consumer space.

 

[mohammed2006]

Agreed.

These drives were always prosumer / enterprise so i'm not surprised they are killing it on the consumer end. And yes there are some workloads where it will destroy NAND based flash drives, however most of those workloads are not in the consumer space.

I have 3 pc all optane and i can tell you for sure most people here didn’t test it thats why they say it is not worth it the optane make the pc much more responsive that going back to nand makes you feel your computer slower firfox and evey program open faster. It is like you use old phone when you use new one you dont feel it is faster but if you use it for long when you go back to your old phone you feel it is less responsive and slower

 

[Makaveli]

I have 3 pc all optane and i can tell you for sure most people here didn’t test it thats why they say it is not worth it the optane make the pc much more responsive that going back to nand makes you feel your computer slower firfox and evey program open faster. It is like you use old phone when you use new one you dont feel it is faster but if you use it for long when you go back to your old phone you feel it is less responsive and slower

I've used a machine with an optane drive so I know what you are talking about. However you cannot disregard price to performance ratio and the NAND drive being good enough for most consumers.

The Intel 900P 480GB you have in your system cost CAD $1,058.67 or USD $829.81 even someone like me that knows how good these drives are I would never spend that much on 480GB's of storage.

90% of people cannot tell the difference from Windows on a SSD to a m2 Pcie 3.0 or 4.0 drive.

From a business perspective it just doesn't make sense to spend the money producing them anymore for the consumer market. At the end of the day Intel has final say on it and it looks like the decision is already made.